The summer heat is here and we've been looking for some ways to get some relief other than just depending on air conditioning or fans. A couple families we know recently posted some photos of a spot only a short drive from here that looked perfect to find some relief. So, with some other hot and sticky friends and at least one person pretending to know where the hell we might be going, we set off to find what we hoped would be a cool oasis away from the heat of the coast for an afternoon.
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| Fortunately, this is a shot from the end of the day. Storm was coming. |
About 30 minutes out of Sayulita we made a turn off the main road, through a wall of lush vegetation, took a right at a fork in the road on a single lane jeep road and out into the fields we went. No signs, no markers, no indication that what we were looking for was at the foot of these mountains. A place you had to be told was there and directions on how to get to it since it does not exist on any map or guide. A local's spot. We kept driving down the dusty road for a while along side beautiful fields of pineapples and grassy open space. Eventually, large shade trees started to fill in and we could see that the terrain was about to start up into the foothills and here is where we found our oasis for the day.
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| Our oasis. |
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| Ashley, Amy and Michele. |
After exploring upstream a ways to be sure we were not missing anything higher up, we settled down in an area that had a natural pool. Lots of rocks to sit on and mostly in the shade. The stream is fed directly from the mountains so it was cool and refreshing. The humidity was much less here so it felt much cooler. Slowly, the locals started to arrive and planted themselves in various parts of the stream to enjoy the day as well. Everyone happy to be cool and comfortable for a couple hours. Very odd to be wet and not be sandy and salty from the ocean. The kids brought their boogie boards to float around on and spent a good amount of time piling rocks up to make the natural pools fill just a bit higher.
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| Trace and Alex floating the stream. |
At one point during the day Ashley turned to me and remarked that Dillon would have loved this. He certainly would have and may have never left. We miss our "good boy Dillon" and if we had known of this place earlier it would have been a regular place to visit so he could have just sat and enjoyed being cool and be by the water for a few hours. A storm started to brew late in the afternoon so we called it a day and headed back to Sayulita only 30-40 minutes away. Such a great spot to beat the heat and not one complaint from the chicos. We'll be back.
