Melaque, San Paricio and Villa Obrigon are the neighbourhoods that make up what people call Melaque.
Melaque is about 200 km south of Puerto Vallarta and it still maintains a very quaint and not too touristy quality about it. There are no name brand restaurants and ATV’s, golf carts, horses, motorcycles, bicycles and of course some cars are the main mode of transportation.
The beach is long and wide with beautiful white sand but the shore is mostly steep and unfortunately not very swimmer friendly. You can swim but wave timing is of the essence when entering the water however the western end of the beach is much calmer but the sand isn’t quite as nice due to the proximity of the El Pedregal River that flows into the bay.
Where we were staying, the crashing waves that are created by the steep shoreline literally sounded like bombs going off to the point that our windows occasionally rattled and it went on 24 hours a day however we did get used to it. What was hard to get used to was the dogs barking all night long.
Packs of stray dogs would bark and bark and bark in some sort of competition to see who could bark the most and loudest. It was incessant and then just as they had barked themselves to death or sleep, the fucking roosters would start. I guess they were waiting for their turn. And it wasn’t at sunrise. No. It would be 3:00 or 4:00 am! I don’t know but maybe roosters can’t tell the difference between the moon and the sun. I thought they only did their cocadoodle dooing when the sun came up. So much for what we learned in school.
There is small expat community and a lot of older and greying snowbirds who call this place home for 4-6 months a year and the music scene reflects this to an almost comical level but I sincerely mean this in a good way.
I don’t know how many times we heard the song “Tennessee Whisky” and so many other oldies but goodies, played by old hippies and their guitars and others with their karaoke boxes singing the latest tunes, from 1968. They played at local venues, tip can front and centre and were usually the warm up acts for the more established local and area bands that would start early in the evening.
We spent a total of about 9 weeks in Melaque with a short 10 day jaunt to Puerto Vallarta in between.
Our first destination was La Paloma Oceanfront Retreat located in San Patricio. We spent our first four weeks and last week there after returning from PV. It has 14 very nice units of varying sizes, a great pool, excellent continental breakfast included and all located right on the beach. A great place and we will definitely stay there again.
La Paloma was right beside a very popular bar for the 65+ year old crowd and this is where we had no choice but to listen to, over and over again, the greatest hits from the sixties with a little seventies thrown in. It is named “The Albatross” and they served good food, cold beer and reasonably priced tequila and the place would be packed by 4:30 with the a sea of grey haired retirees dancing and having the time of their lives. It was funny but great at the same time and we hope we will have the same zest for life when we hit the golden 70’s, which unfortunately isn’t too far away!
Our second stop for three weeks was Sueno del Sol in Villa Obregon. A beautiful newly renovated/built hotel.
This place was a little more expensive but the rooms on offer were very nice and we were able to snag a large one bedroom with fully equipped kitchen on the ground floor. We could walk out of our unit right beside the pool, and steps from the outdoor mini kitchenette and barbecue. The pool was fantastic and again, we were right on the beach. The owner, Gord Erickson is a Canadian from British Columbia and he turned an old rundown abandoned hotel into a really beautiful place.
Both locations were excellent however La Paloma was a shorter walk to the main townsite but only by about 10 minutes.
The food everywhere was very good and affordable and served by locally owned small restaurants.
Malaque is a great place, semi-undeveloped, and a great original town in Mexico.