First Stop: Tour to San Sebastian del Oeste

 From December 2021

Towards the end of our Puerto Vallarta trip, I reluctantly gave Julia permission to book an excursion into the mountains.  In my mind, I was thinking of past sightseeing bus tours, where you get out, take a few photos in a crowd of tourists, and move back into the bus for the next stop.  

This excursion turned out much better than that, and I'm glad that I let Julia talk me into it.  Things started out well when Julia called the excursion company and asked if there were any spots left for the tour on the next day to San Sebastian del Oeste.  The guy said that there were exactly two unfilled spots left on the tour.  If we could get to the pickup spot at a nearby hotel early the next morning, he would let us come along for $50/each (reduced from $85/each).  

We had no idea what to expect from the tour, except that it was supposed to include a coffee plantation, a tequila tasting, and a self-guided tour at the mountain village of San Sebastian del Oeste.  We had an early morning espresso near the pickup spot and soon saw three other couples waiting to be picked up.  Our tour operators were late.  This is Mexico and to be expected.

 

Eventually, a tour bus arrived, and the driver urged us all on.  However, just before leaving, he discovered that we weren't the people he was supposed to pick up.  We all got back off.  I'm not sure where the driver  would have taken us if he hadn't discovered the mistake.

Ten minutes later, a smaller bus/large van arrived on the opposite side of the street with a driver and a guide.  This was our ride.  We stopped at several other hotels along the beach on the way out of town and picked up  a few other couples.  

Then, the driver took us several hours up into the mountains.   The guide talked to us informally along the way, pointing out areas of interest, including new developments in the jungle that might appeal to northerners looking for lower priced, new homes.  The developments were lovely but would be a very different experience than Puerto Vallarta.

Our first stop was at a roadside bakery. 

 

Here we learned how to make tortillas the traditional way.

 

It isn't as easy as you might think.  The trick is to get the raw form to the grill in one whole flat piece.  It's a hand-on process, including flipping the tortilla with your fingers on the hot griddle.  No liability waivers needed in this part of the world.

the tricky part

After our lesson, we had pastries and coffee made by the professionals.  

 Our next stop would be a coffee plantation.