Islas Marietas
The following day 26th December, we went to view the Islas Marietas, but by the time we arrived, mum was feeling a little under the weather. We found somewhere to stay the night with the plan to return the next morning and get an early charter to the island before the hoards arrived. Having arranged it with the boat company the difference for a private charter versus a regular sail with a boat of 40 on a boat, it seemed like nothing and plus being a private charter we could request to sail whenever we liked.
We dipped into Sayulita looking for a hostel/hotel. Mum was not feeling so great and the vibe of Sayulita basically a party town, the two didn’t mix and we had to evacuate immediately as mum wasn’t having any of it. Down the road in the next town San Francisco/Pancho we found a totally opposite vibe, very mellow quiet scenic location. After a few enquiries we were left in doubt where we were going to be sleeping that night, began to think we’d sleep in the car, but after returning to the same place we went to at the beginning we we received totally differently, I guess the difference was a Mexican asking versus a pale skin Brit asking; Rosa got a far better reception.
We went to the beach for sunset and I went for a dip; mum still not feeling great she sat it out. That night there was a gig going on about 3 blocks away but the music was so loud it felt like the performance was at the foot of my bed, I wont argue, it was great music, but wasn’t quite what I wanted as I was sleeping… in my hostel. I had a terrible night’s sleep.
The following morning at dawn we dragged ourselves down to the launching area to head down to the islands. We made a good choice getting there first thing and got to make the most of it before anyone else arrived, the water was warm like bath water, and the sea-life was amazingly colourful and abundant, and just as we were leaving the hoards started arriving.
Much to our disappointment, upon returning to the mainland we were greeted with an unreasonable demand for money that wasn’t what we had agreed at the quote (Mexicans for you) it was in fact double what we had been quoted, not only had they doubled the quote but they had also blocked out car in so we couldn’t leave, knowing they had us. Frankly, this left a very foul taste in our mouths for such a nice time we had now we had to contend with utter hostility and threatening conduct. I fail to understand Mexican culture of doing this, as it’s not the first time I’ve been treated this way since being here, a man’s word is worth nothing here. An hour or two later I managed to get the guy to budge at 50% more than he had quoted us as the day was wasting away and I was frankly sick of hanging around, remember I hadn’t slept well the night before.
Our drive to Tequila we found ourselves stopping at an archaeological area to check out the ruins.
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