Travel Blog

Puerto Vallarta is a really fantastic place to visit. We spent 2 months there one year and thoroughly enjoyed the culture and the many things to do there. One of the stories that we like to tell is about our ride to a small fishing village out into Banderas bay. We had to take a Water Taxi in Pureto Vallarta to get there. The water taxis run every 30 minutes from the downtown pier to several locations. Including Yelapa which is where we wanted to go. There apparently were no roads so a water taxi is the only way to get from Pureto Vallarta  to Yelapa.

Water Taxi in Pureto Vallarta

You catch the Water Taxi in Pureto Vallarta downtown at one of the small wharf’s along the beach. This particular one is popular for water taxis, fishing boats , fishing. Also for divers who like to dive off the peer and swim to shore. On this particular day the waves are rolling in at about 3 to 4 feet in height. Which is not too bad unless you are getting on a water taxi!.

If you can picture a concrete wharf going out into the water about a 100 feet. At the far end it is approximately 15 feet above the water level. There is a set of concrete stairs that descend into the water. Which the Water Taxi in Pureto Vallarta boats pull up to, to load and unload passengers. Of course these boats ride up and down as the waves crash on shore. They are rising and falling at least 3 to 4 feet for each wave.

Getting onto the Water Taxi in Pureto Vallarta

Now picture trying to get on a boat with two outboard motors , open from stem to stern, with benches for the passengers. There is no gang plank to  walk on. Basically you must time your steps so that you step from the concrete steps that go into the water and step onto the bow of the boat when it reaches it’s highest point. This can be tricky since you only have a few seconds to accomplish this without getting wet. Or having one leg on the boat and the other on the steps and being spread eagled!

The men did not seem to have a problem, however the women were very nervous and more than one had to be forcibly pulled onto the boat as it was beginning to descend into the trough of the wave. Lots of yelling and screaming by some not so brave soles.

Water Taxi in Pureto Vallarta On Banderas Bay

Once we are on the Water Taxi in Pureto Vallarta there are no life jackets in evidence and there is nothing to hold onto other than the sides of the boat. If you are in the middle of the bench, you have to reach down beside you to grab the bench and hold on! The swells were pretty high that day and this boat was just fast enough that it did not quite clear the top  of one swell before it hit the next one, so there was this constant thumping as you hit the next swell. We spent a wild 60 minutes traveling to Yelapa with ocean spray flying past us and the dolphins racing along side. We also saw hump back whales who were feeding in the area.  What an experience.

Now once we got to Yelapa, we had to disembark the same way, except this time we had to climb a ladder . So you grab the ladder when the boat was at it’s high point and jump on the highest rung you can. You had to climb fast before the boat was raised up on the next wave. No one got hurt, but it was a mad scramble up the ladder.

Cold Beer and Seafood

Well we got to Yelapa, we headed to the beach and grabbed a set of chairs under an umbrella and were served some of the coldest beer we have had in a long time. Was it ever good and a nice way to relax. Since Yelapa is a fishing village, the fishermen came around with the latest catch of the day and after we chose our fish, they cooked it for us right on the beach. Fresh fish, rice and salad along with cold beer. What a treat.

All in all it was definitely worth the trip to Yelapa and taking the water taxis’s are the most exciting way to get there. There are local cruises you can take, however from reports we have heard, this was far more enjoyable. There is also water rafting in Mexico

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