Hey, Sparks....

[asi va]

or other Pacific coasters- would it be rushing things to drive from Cuyutlan back up to Vallarta in one day? My wife and I are going to meet up in PV in about two weeks and we decided to climb up into the mountains through San Sebastian del Oeste, Mascota y Talpa, then come out on the coast again at Manzanillo. The problem is that I loved the pics of the mangrove swamps on your links and I`d like to keep heading South to see them. But only if it doesn`t mean we`ll have to hurry. I`m figuring we`ll have about three days to get back and catch my flight home but my timeline for the mountains may be off. So, do you have any idea how long it takes to get back up by the hiway? Thank you.

[sparks]

No problem .... Melaque to Vallarta is just 3-3.5 hours, less than an hour from here to Manzanillo. I'd say you could do it in 5 hours pretty easily.

Caution tho ... I heard the boat guide I hired a few years ago at the Turtle Sanctuary was not there. Might have to check in town for boat tours

[asi va]

Great! I`m looking forward to a beautiful trip and I guess we`ll know soon enough about the mangrove swamp tours. I`ll let you know in a few weeks how that turns out. Thanks.

[asi va]

Boat tours are still available through the tortugario in Cuyutlan, but we didn`t see some of he stuff that shows up in Sparks`s pictures, so it may be shorter now (about 45 min). It was still a lot of fun and very reasonable at 40 Pesos per person. The guide told us before we left that we wouldn`t be seeing any crocodiles because they don`t show up in the daytime, but one croc didn`t get the word. I was pretty excited since it was the first one I`ve seen. The turtle sanctuary itself was well worth the visit too. It seemed to be the only clean spot in Cuyutlan. Skeeters from Armeria all the way up to B. de Navidad were enough to eat us alive and the temperature/humidity made feel like I was in a "tamalero"! All in all,the coast was nice, but I think I`ll leave the beaches to the beach folks and stick to the mountains from now on. At least during the summer.