In early January we traveled down to Mexico to escape the Portland Winter gloom. Last year we went to Tulum, but this year we wanted a more spontaneous and adventurous trip. We had heard incredible things about Sayulita, which is just north of Puerto Vallarta. Barrett went down before me and fished for a few days and I met him there. We spent the first night on a friends boat they had been fishing on, eating fresh tuna they had caught the day before. Being married to a fisherman means I’m spoiled with amazing seafood, that is often free, and I am not complaining! It also means boats!

The second day we got to take the boat over to Yelapa which is a little town east of Puerto Vallarta that you can only access by boat. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend visiting! We had breakfast on the beach, hung out with iguanas and (I) chased roosters around. I want to go back and spend a night there, because I know we didn’t see everything and it was so peaceful and gorgeous.

We then took a cab up to Sayulita to check into our Airbnb. We were super confused at first because someone had told us Sayulita and PV were in different time zones and our phones kept changing back and forth. Turns out they aren’t, and we ended up getting there way too early. Fun fact: they used to be in two different time zones, but changed it a few years ago because tourists in Sayulita kept missing their flights out of PV.  Now you know.

We met two of our friends there and we spent the rest of our trip exploring (eating our way around) Sayulita, which is full of amazing restaurants! Everyone is super laid back and the town is pretty small so you can get everywhere by foot. Our airbnb was magical and I highly recommend it. It made us feel like Kings! We ate our weight in handmade churros everyday and Barrett even taught himself to surf. One day we drove north to San Pancho, another adorable town, to lay on the beach and swim without being bombarded by beach vendors. They are ruthless on the beach in Sayulita! Determined to see a sunset over the ocean, we hiked through the jungle to a secret beach someone had told us about. It was worth every single second of the hot, humid and hilly walk to have the most stunning, boulder strewn beach all to ourselves! We even managed to sneak in a little portrait session with some new friends on this incredible pink and turquoise staircase. As usual I took more photos on my phone, but I’m happy I made the effort to take some with my real camera. I’ll let the colorful images tell the rest of the story!

If you’re looking to host a destination wedding in Sayulita, I would love to be your photographer. Send me a message or fill out my contact form and let’s make it happen!