SAN JUAN DE ALIMA

So, getting beached out yet?! Enough sunset photos already!!!!

Yup - so are we! Good news - this is the last beach stop for the next three weeks - or three weeks from last Wednesday which is when we ventured into and stayed the night in San Jan de Alima.

Where?!

I KNOW!

San Juan de Alima didn't show up ANYWHERE on my radar - not in Church's book, not on any other blogs I follow - no where.

So here's what happened.

Fairly early - actually 8:30 am - which is darn early for us to be on the road - we headed out of El Faro. The PLAN - to make it up into the highlands - it promised to be a lengthy travel day.

We'd only done about 37 kms when this beach appeared just like this - from around the corner. Darn the electrical lines ..... and dirty windshield.

And a little further - this .... Ok - this may go down as the worst picture to date on the blog. My apologies. I really wanted to add it because what we saw here was what caused us to turn off the highway to a place that we knew nothing about. (It is miles better than it was by the time picmonkey was done with it!)

San Juan de Alima. Since the village is so spread out along the highway we had time to hum and ha and then still time to slow down enough to make the last entry into the beach area. Famous last words from Derek 'I just want to check it out.'

Check it out we did and then we checked IN.

When we arrived at the end of this street we turned right - looked at all the hotels and restaurants until the paved road ended - turned around and then continued on past this street.

By this time we had decided to stay - even though it was early. Derek wasn't feeling that hot and I guess we were still having a bit of trouble with the idea of the 'last beach' for a while.

Now - where to stay? Who to approach? 

As luck would have it just down the way - with Derek having his window open - a man started talking to him - in English. Yaaaaaa for us.

Turns out we were talking to Gonzalez (which appears to be a last name - ???). Gonzalez wanted to know if we needed a hotel room - no said Derek but maybe you know where I can park for the night. Well, Gonzalez being the fine business man that he must be said - sure you can stay in our parking lot - for $150 pesos. Electric Derek asks - yes - wifi (dare to dream Derek) - yes!!!! And SHADE under a huge tree! -  Yup - we'll stay.

Gonzalez heading down to move a few hoses. Just LOOK at that SHADE!

You know the drill by now - say it with me ..... left .....

right .....

To the left again just to show the trees and hotels that line it - there ARE hotels there but most are set back further than this teal one.

Looking back to Gonzalez's place. Actually it's his mom and dad's place. Gonzalez and his wife own the bungalows and restaurant across the street.

 Derek was all set up and the animals were checking the place out by the time Cassia and I came back from the beach.

 The place across the street - it had a little store so we went in for popsicles.

Later Cassia and I went back down to where we had driven earlier to take some photos.

The little corner store. LOVE that every village or town has stores - never just one. And can they ever pack them with stuff.

For a place that looked like a ghost town, a few sort of swanky places. Although this one looked a whole lot better in the pictures then when we peaked around the corner into the parking lot.

Undoubtedly the most colourful place on the strip.

This one was pretty neat - too bad about my timing and the sun. This would have been the second option for a place to park because of the large parking lot - plus it had a nice pool.

Here's a better picture.

Most of the buildings were in very good condition.

Not sure - but pretty.

And back to the hotel. To those who may come this way and need a place to stop this is the place to look for - I'm sure that Gonalez would be happy to put you up. We never did get the wifi to work - and the telcel didn't work either - but we had a nice stay and a quiet night.

 A bit different of a sunset then we had been getting used to, but beautiful nonetheless.

Definitely the LAST beach post until the end of February - promise. 

Tomorrow night? Our trek back up into the highlands. Our destination was Villa Corona but we had one stop planned along the way. It didn't really turn out as planned - a few surprises and we ended up getting ourselves into a few sticky situations...... ahhhh road travel - somedays you just NEVER know what you'll get.

Teresa

TODAY'S INTERESTING LINK: Heyyyy look - I've found someone else that has been to San Juan de Alima - yup - Gonzalez was selling his hotel rooms for $250 pesos also - but they were on the second floor and didn't have the great pool!

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