One: there is no road
You arrive by boat or on foot over a mountain. Once you are here, you are here — there is no popping out. The last shop is an hour away by water.
This is the single biggest filter. People who find it romantic have a wonderful week. People who find it claustrophobic should book somewhere with a parking lot.
Two: nothing is sold here
No shop, no bar, no restaurant, no vendors on the sand. There are no ATMs and no card machines at Los Chonchos or in Chimo, so everything on the ground is cash, in pesos.
You provision in Puerto Vallarta and cook in your own kitchen, or you arrange for food to come over from Chimo by boat, or a cook comes to you.
Three: there are no emergency services
No clinic, no hospital, no pharmacy, no doctor. The nearest are in Puerto Vallarta — an hour by boat, then thirty minutes by road.
Bring any medication you take. There are first aid kits on the property, so you do not need to pack one. Travel insurance is worth having for somewhere this far from a road, and we recommend it plainly.
Four: nobody cleans during your stay
Your bungalow is prepared before you arrive and not cleaned again while you are in it. One or two people work on the property from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday — they meet the boats and help with arrival, departure and anything you need.
If what you want is a room serviced daily and a phone that reaches a front desk, this is not that.
Five: the bungalows have no walls on the ocean side
Open-sided under palm thatch, with mosquito nets over the beds and the surf in the room all night. Hummingbirds come through. Iguanas sleep on the deck.
There is no air conditioning, and nothing that plugs in and makes heat will run on the solar system.
The honest test
Read the five questions below. If you answered yes to all of them, you will have the week people write to us about afterwards. If you hesitated on two or more, say so in an email before you book rather than after.
- Am I happy not to leave for several days at a time?
- Am I happy to cook most of what I eat?
- Am I comfortable being hours from medical help?
- Can I live without daily housekeeping and a front desk?
- Does sleeping in an open-sided house sound good rather than alarming?
