Stairway to Heaven....

 I'd checked the area to see if there were any geocaches hidden anywhere nearby.  It's been 10 years since we found the last one in this area, and by "this are", the one we found was down at Bucerias.  We were staying at San Blas at the time and took a day trip mostly to go geocaching, but also to check out RV parks and other facilities in this area.

So...  I'd seen there was a geocache down at Sayulita, and another up at Guayabitos.  I thought we'd head down to Sayulita today and grab that one...  except this is their Tianguis day (farmer's market/bazaar) and neither Bill nor I care to go shoulder to shoulder with the crowd.  My shopping (or maybe I should say, lack of) habits are preferably to order on-line, or to hit the groceries very early in the morning.  Okay...  back to this Stairway...

I saw that the "Stairway to Heaven" is about 10 miles up the road.  We took the Collectiva (sort of like a shuttle service/taxi... only they cram as many people in the van as they can) to get there.  I'd checked out the coordinates (and had Bill double check my calculations) so we'd know where to get out.  We did walk up to the Galvan office to see if Memo was there,.....  hoped he'd go with us...  but, nope...  not today.  Anyway....  we caught our ride...  and got off where we thought we should.  

Walked a few hundred yards down the road...  with GPS in hand...  and saw this...

Okay.....  we're in the right place!  

Up the dirt road we walked...  came to the entrance...  with this sign...

There sure a lot of things that we can't do here....  but I have on conservative clothes, we aren't going to drink or do drugs...  or smoke...  or run...  and I promise I won't kiss Bill here (even though he does have on a shirt)...  but I kind of ignored the sign below that says no cameras or videos.

As we entered the gate, and headed up the 250 or so steps....

the man working on the donation box asked Bill to take off his hat.

I'd read some previous blogs and one guy posted that the attendant gave him a piece of wire so his girlfriend could "tie" her pareo (sarong) together so it didn't show her bathing suit.

Neither of us have a problem showing respect for local customs, so...  off came Bill's hat for our trek up to the cross.

I'll show you the cross soon, but our goal was the cache...

Here's Bill (hatless) uncovering it from the pile of rocks...

And....

WoooHoooo!  This is what we came for.

Signed the log and recorded it when we got back.

This marks our 2,344 find.  Always brings a smile!

 But of course, while here, we paid our respects to the purpose of this area....

The shrine...  overlooking the bay...

And overlooking the towns along the coast...

Then it was the 250 or so steps back down to the street...

More views of the sea...

And another view of the town and sea....

And finally back to the main street....

As we walked through the town, back to Highway 200 to catch transportation back to Lo de Marcos, we realized how "touristy" this town is.  Fancy hotels, lots of  restaurants and all kinds of shopping areas.  While fun to see once, It just wasn't our idea of a place for us.

We didn't catch a Collectivo back, but settled on a taxi...  cost about double of a collectivo, but still better than standing along a busy highway waiting for something to come along.

And...  just because I thought it was interesting....

Look at the "cargo" this pickup truck is hauling somewhere.... 

Totally crammed with beach toys!

I wondered where he was going... or maybe I should have wondered where he was coming from.  ....  and why were these beach toys already inflated?

Heck, I don't know.  It's just one of the wonderful things about living in Mexico this winter!

That's All For Today!