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Published: April 8th 2008
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Continuing our journey, we drove south through the resort town of Puerto Vallarta. Along the coast to the south we saw some signs for a waterfall and turned left following the signs. We stopped in a small town for a free tequila tasting and a tour on the process of how tequila is made. The tour guide said his boss wasn't there and offered us the house tequila for half price out the back door. We purchased a few bottles and continued toward the waterfalls. The falls ended up being on the set where they filmed the movie predator, deep in the lush jungle. The restaurant there had a few props from the movie where you could take a picture with a Predator manikin. The waterfall was refreshing and had a natural slide and a rope swing into a cool pool of water. Some of the little kids were very impressed when I did a back flip off the swing and kept asking me to do another. After an hour or so enjoying the water, we were back on the road, driving south.
PLAYA TECUAN
Arriving at a deserted beach just after sun set, we could see the crashing
waves illuminated by phosphorescence and knew we had made a good choice. After driving several miles off the highway on a dilapidated, paved road, we got out of the car and surveyed our surroundings. The moon had not yet risen and countless stars speckled the night sky. The thundering roar echoed from the large waves smashing near the shore. It appeared that we were alone on this large stretch of beautiful beach. Freshly made corn tortillas, queso fresco combined with the leftovers of last nights beans and rice proved to be one of the best meals I'd eaten in a long time, enhanced by our amazing surroundings, I savored every bite. After dinner we gathered some drift wood to make a bonfire, grabbed our skim boards and headed to the water. Skim boarding in the bioalumenescent waves in by far one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Like surfing through the stars, leaving behind a glowing comet tail in our wake. The sand sparkled around our feet when we ran and drops of water twinkled as they dripped from our brows. A magical sense of wonder filled my body as i played in the dazzling surf, only to
look up and see the vast Milky Way strewn across the sky. We took breaks and stood by the bonfire, talking about stars and the universe, gazing at the heavens above. We did this for hours until the moon finally rose, starting as a red speck peaking over the mountains. We decided to call it a night on our epic skim boarding session and walked back to the fire. We had burned through most of our wood so I set off to gather some more. When I turned around, arms full of drift wood, I saw Andy surrounded by several men clad in camo carrying AK-47s. A swift shot of panic surged through my system. Being my best option, I walked over toward the fire to asses the situation. They appeared to be military men who wanted to know what we were doing on the beach and where we were from. We told them we were from California and were on vacation to surf and camp. They wanted to inspect the contents of the truck and after a few minutes staring at the vast clutter, nodded their heads and were off.
We woke up the next morning to find
ourselves in a beach front ghost town. A few dilapidated, run down houses and a large abandoned resort occupied a small portion of a long stretch of sandy beach. After some breakfast, chess, reading and skimboarding, we decided to go check out the hotel. From afar, the hotel looks like it's in pretty good condition, only a few tiles are missing from part of the roof, but upon closer inspection it was trashed. Rubble and broken glass covered the tiled floor. Parts of the walls were smashed to rip out pipes and electrical wires. All the windows and doors were gone. A wood walkway to a wing of the resort had collapsed because someone had burned the columns and support beams. As we cautiously walked though the 66 room resort, we started to notice bats flying about, disturbed by our presence. From one dark closet we literally saw hundreds of bats fly out, some of them running into us. One bat knocked the sunglasses off my head. We started calling the resort the bat castle due to the numerous amounts of bats flying around in broad day light. We found an ancient looking, tin tecate can and combined with the
size of some of the trees growing through cracks in the concrete, estimated that the property had been abandoned 30-40 years ago. Hypotheses began to run through our heads to why this large resort in such a beautiful area had been abandoned. The stone work and architecture were very aesthetically pleasing and despite alot of rubble laying around and holes in the walls, the structures were in pretty good shape. The foundation, main support beams and roof appeared to be pretty solid. There was a huge restaurant area that had a 270 degree view of the beach and ocean and would be great for throwing parties. In an overgrown courtyard we found a tangerine tree where we ate what we could and pocketed what we could carry. In the industrial refrigerator room we found the master bat cave and judging by the thick layer of bat guano piled on the floor we concurred that thousands of bats lived there. We didn't have the guts to step inside this bat cave, bats are pretty creepy. The more we walked around, the more we liked the place and started fantasizing about buying the property if it was cheap enough. We could spend
a few years fixing it up and throwing wild parties with our friends. We looked but couldn't find any for sale signs. It was sort of like walking through the secret garden with bats flying about and rubble everywhere and was an awesome experience. One day I hope I am a partial owner of the bat castle on this stretch of beautiful deserted beach. We agreed if we ever renovated the resort, we would leave the most inland wing of 26 rooms for the bats, who would hopefully keep the mosquitoes in check.
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