Punta Mita

Punta Mita is on the northern-most point of Banderas Bay. The point itself is occupied by a huge gated residence/resort and golf course, where people are so rich they wouldn't even allow us to drive onto the property. They told us, however, we could make a reservation to drive onto the property TOMORROW.  Thanks, pal, but no thanks.

Everywhere you go in the resort areas, people try to get you to come into their restaurants or shops with more or less aggressive entreaties. There seems to be a code that allows you escape - yet be a little bit nice - if you break off eye contact, say "no, gracias," and keep walking. But slowing down, or looking at the person or the wares one fraction of a second too long will earn you even more energetic pitches and assurances of special deals and low prices, requiring you to be much more emphatic in refusal.

I say all that to show this picture of Punta Mita. The parking is arranged off a narrow entry and faces a long stretch of restaurant and shop entries. This means there's nowhere to hide as you look for a lane that will take you to the beach. Fortunately, we could honestly say we had just eaten and the hawkers seemed to accept this explanation as final.

This is the beach in Punta Mita proper. Not much to write home about, but interesting in that it was populated less by short term visitors like us and more by locals and aging gringo surfers. Of course, this is not the busiest time of year; we are told the influx of visitors happens later this month and through the early months of the year, for obvious reasons.