VERANA - heaven is in yelapa, mexico

I've travelled to a lot of countries, mostly with family. Only recently in my life have I been travelling with friends, which is a different experience altogether. This last January, I took a 5 day vacation, starting in Puerto Vallarta for 2 nights at a bed & breakfast inn, Casa Sin Tiempo that worked in conjunction with the place we stayed in for last 3 nights - VERANA. Our first 2 nights were wonderful. We ate wonderful food, my favorite being a little Spanish Tapas restaurant around the corner from the B&B that was the size of my bedroom.


It's called Esquina de los Caprichos and the owners there apparently have a cow fetish. Sonia, who runs Casa Sin Tiempo was the one that directed us to it. We took a cooking lesson with her too which was fun. Our last day there, we were running around, getting some last minute shopping in when another couple arrived. They chilled on the veranda...ALL DAY. We saw them in the morning there, we left, came back, and they were STILL there. We found out that they had done 3 days in Verana, and had come to Puerta Vallarta for their last 2 days. We were boggled by their spaciness until we arrived at Verana.

We took a 30 minute boat ride from PV to Yelapa where we saw 3 whales along the way. The guy driving the boat would be able to see in still water where they would be coming up...it was incredible. We arrived and they hauled our bags up by mules while we made our own hike up the stairs. That took about 15 or 20 minutes uphill, which was pretty rough, but they had fresh lemonade waiting for us when we got up there. This place has maybe 22 people max at full capacity. There are about 9 houses on the property and each one is different and has its own style.


We had chosen the Palapa, a palm thatched roof and walls that only came up about 3 ft.. It was a rustic bungalow with an outdoor shower and two beautiful beds.



You prepay for all the meals, which made things so wonderfully easy. All I ever carried with me was a camera. Lunch was served near the pool. And dinner? Oyy...enough said.



The menu was VERY fresh and they had a nice variety of flavors, none of which were too heavy. Breakfast was served near the bar...scrumptious.

This is the perfect place to absolutely nothing. The highlight of our stay was the Starlight Soak. It started with a couples massage, followed by dinner, and the final was a hot water bath with coconut milk and aromatherapy oils.


They pointed out to us the massage table so that we could exchange massages, a floor bed where we could "lay" and look at the stars, and a personal pool that was heated to 98.7 degrees...the clincher, we had it ALL NIGHT LONG. I thought we had won the lottery.
I can't say enough about this place. It was unbelievably beautiful and the service was unsurpassed. The owner was a production designer and it shows. I <3 this place!


One more note, we did venture into the town of Yelapa for an afternoon. I know some people have said that they enjoyed their trek there, but I have to say that all we found was flat diet cokes, donkey dung, and they sell shrimp at the laundry...