After my typical morning ritual, I made a plan to meet Dave. We would meet at Manguita”s around 11am. It is the restaurant in the sticks, we hit after the “light house” hike. Then, continue up the river for the other waterfall hike. It is 4.9 miles from the beach, round trip. So, probably 3.5 miles from Manguitas. I had already eaten a big breakfast. So, I just had Modelo Especial. Dave had some kinda grilled shrimps. They smelled very fresh.

No, not a fat man, a big man. He must have been north of six-four, and at least 260 lbs. The horse he was on was not a big horse. I am intentionally ignorant about horses, but it looked like too much gringo, and not enough horse to me. We eventually came upon a fork. One side had a sign that said “water fall, and jungle garden” on it, with an arrow. We were confused, as we had just passed the jungle garden. As we were discussing it, a pare of hiker came back tracking from that trail. They told us it did not go anywhere. They directed us down the other side of the fork. We continued on as directed. Eventually we consulted my GPS, and realized we were way up stream of the spot I had marked. We over shot the water fall. We doubled back, and retraced our steps. We followed the sign that said “Water Fall”.

     Back up the trail, We made our way into the open air restaurant labeled Jungle Garden. It was beautiful place surrounded by a garden, in a fucking jungle.  We found a spot off to the side, and enjoyed a couple of Pacificos. We pared it with Guacamole, and tortilla chips. Once again, the chips were made from cut, and fried corn tortillas. The Guac was fancied up with black, and white sesame seeds.

There seems to be a lot of dogs wandering around Yelapa. They are typically very friendly, and well behaved. As we sipped our Cerveza, we were approached by a handsome pit bull. He was very friendly, with old dog energy. Dogs are typically very good judges of corrector. Likewise, they typically approach Dave first. As Dave pet the dog, I reached over and gave him some pets. I stopped, and enjoyed the scenery for a bit. I felt a paw hit me. The dog was looking at my like, “hey, you are not done.” Every time I stopped petting him he would paw at me. It was endearing.

     After getting fueled up for the hike. We made our way up a trail on the north side of the river. Eventually, we crossed the river to the main trail. On the main trail we started running into other hikers who were headed to the waterfall too. About half way to the waterfall there was a little restaurant called Jungle Garden. We met some folks coming out of there. After a short chat with them, we knew it was our duty to give this restaurant our business on our way back. At some point we said hello to a couple of gringos on horseback. One of the fellows was a very large man.

You know what? At the end of that trail was a fucking, beautiful waterfall. There were about 10 people there including us. It definitely was not crowded. We were swimming in the water, and enjoying the fall. After a while Dave looked at me and said, “This is great, and all. However there is no beer here.” That was the most logical thing he had said to me on this day. So, we prepared to depart.

At this stop we discussed the amount of guacamole we have consumed. We have not gone a day without it since being here. I made a goal. I shall eat guacamole every day while I am in Mexico!

     When we were on our way out of Manguitas earlier, we had spotted some good looking guacamole. We decided we had better stop there again. When we were on the way back home. So we could have more guac, and cervaza. Just before we made it back to town, as we passed a house, a couple of middle-school aged girls engaged us. The taller one spoke to Dave, while giggling her ass off. He understood something about a waterfall, and spoke some bad Spanish back to her. The shorter one asked me a question (I think) I smiled and nodded while not understanding a word. I noticed she was holding a cell phone, and giggling. I believe she was recording a video. Dave thinks they were having fun, fucking with the tourists. I am glad we could bring some joy to their lives. I hope her friends are amused at whatever I smiled and nodded to…. Finally, we made our way back to town.

     Back in town, we killed some time. (And beers) Then, decided we needed to check out a place called Tacos Y Mas. It is owned by a married couple. He is a white dude, who met a local Yelapa-chick while working in Alaska. The only thing better than the prices here was the fucking tacos! My meat tacos were 25 pesos each. Daves shrimps were 35. I killed (2) Al Pastor, and Dave got after some shrimps and a quesadilla. These Al Pastor became my #1 taco of the trip. Dave ordered us 2 more, so he could try one. At some point a Margarita sounded like a good idea too.

At some point in our evening, I got to partake in my other favorite activity, people watching. (Or is it being a creeper?) A table of 4x 20-somethings showed up. A blonde, a brunette, and two fellows. Typically, this is younger than my old ass likes to sexualize, but it was slim pickings on a small town, Monday night. My favorite was the brunette. She was taller than me, thin, but fit looking. I think what really intrigued me was her panty lines. We enjoyed eavesdropping on their conversation. The blonde spoke excellent Spanish (How would I know? Dave thought so though.) She would translate to English, for the English speakers. Both English, and Spanish were being spoken at the table. The blonde seemed well traveled. Dave informed me that most Gringos who come to stay in Yelapa are. Eventually, we settled our tab. Since we were out of beer at my casa. I was able to go to bed before midnight. Dave made friends with a kitty that followed him home.