San Sebastian

While walking down a street in Puerto Vallarta, I saw a poster for a festival called Arsterra to be held in San Sebastian. There was very little detail on the poster other than the date.
We’d been thinking of going there anyway, so we thought what the heck, let’s go! Our friend Debbie, who lives at the Suites Marbella agreed to come along, and so did Susan, a neighbor from Bucerias. Susan’s friend Robin from San Miguel came along, too.
The road to San Sebastian is pretty good for the most part. A bridge is being built over a river and that part is still ongoing. There is a detour, well not really a detour; we heard it was the original road. But now the traffic is limited to one direction at a time. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes for our turn to go. The road at that point is very narrow and is right on the hillside at times. The backseat passengers did a great job of not screaming too much!
The road into San Sebastian from that main road is pretty bumpy and dusty. From the Domino’s pizza on highway 200, it took about an hour and a half to get to San Sebastian.
The festival appeared to be more of an art show really so we looked around some. There was supposed to be some demonstrations and entertainment but they would be later in the day.
We all commented on how clear the air is there. And it was very nice and cool. We ate at a restaurant on the square. It was on the porch of one of the buildings. After we ate we just wandered around some of the streets.
As I was looking at a poster, I heard someone say, “Don’t touch that poster!” It was a woman named Geri that I had met at Casa Tranquila. She and her teenage daughter Alejandra were in San Sebastian getting away from the crowds in PV.
We told Geri we were thinking of driving to the mountaintop called Cerro La Bufa. She offered to go with us. In her VW bug and our Mazda Tribute, off we went up the mountain.
Our first stop was a little village called Real de Alto. There is a very huge, old church there. We visited the church, which was having Mass at that time. Alejandra told us the stories that go with that church. First was the story of the priest and the burro that brought the statue of the Virgin to the church. This church is way the heck up the mountain; it must have been quite a trip for them. Well, just as they got to the church with the Virgin, the burro died. They buried the burro in front of the church and soon a huge rosebush sprung up there. It is a massive rose bush!
The second bit of lore involved a thief who was robbing many churches in the area. He would enter the churches and take anything of value he could find. He robbed the Real de Alto church and took the communion cups, candlesticks and other things. But the gold crown remained on the statue of the Virgin. Everyone wondered why the crown didn’t get stolen as well. When the thief was finally caught, the police asked him why he didn’t steal the crown. He replied that he tried to take it, but every time he reached for it, it floated in the air just out of reach!
After the church visit, we went on to Cerro La Bufa. It is the highest point in the area, about 8,000 feet. On a clear day you can see all the way to the ocean. Only Harold and I were brave enough to join Alejandra on the hike to the top. It was about 2 km, I would guess. Not bad hiking at all. The view from the top was incredible! I wore my Crocs and was concerned my footing wouldn’t be good. Well, I wouldn’t recommend Crocs for strenuous hiking, but they were fine for this adventure.
After enjoying the crisp, cool air of La Bufa it was back down the mountain to San Sebastian. The road up to Real de Alto and La Bufa is mostly dirt and rocks. The car got very dusty! We were really glad our car has high clearance and good suspension. The scaredy-cat back seat passengers weren’t too white knuckled by the time we got back to San Sebastian. We walked around the square a little more, had an ice cram and decided to head back to the big city.
We had just gotten back to the main road when we heard a strange sound coming from the front of the car. We stopped and sure enough it was a flat tire. Harold looked and could see there was a small hole in the tire. I walked over to a nearby truck and asked the driver where we might find a tire shop. Keep in mind this was about 4 on a Saturday afternoon. He directed me about a couple blocks back down the road. I found the tire shop, such as it was, but nobody was there. I walked across the street to where some people were waiting for the bus. A guy helped me ask at a woodworking shop about the tire guy. They directed me down a side street. When I got there, a woman told me the tire repair guy was gone. I said he wasn’t at the shop, she said that wasn’t his shop it was another guy. So I walked back to the main road. The guy from the bus stop waved me over and said the tire shop man had returned.
I talked to the tire man, who had no way to go get our tire, and when I asked for a jack he told me ask the guy at a place nearer to our car. That guy, who sells gasoline from his house, found a jack much better than the wimpy little one we have, and helped us change the tire to the little spare. We gave him something for his time, of course, and drove over to the tire shop.
The tire repair guy was able to fix our flat tire (yay!) and then put it on the car, put air in our spare since it was low, and we got everything back in the car. His charge for the repair was 30 pesos. We had asked ahead of time just to keep from having one of those unpleasant surprises when the job was done. Under the circumstances, we would have not been surprised if the price was 5 or more times what it was!
The whole tire thing didn’t take all that long and we were very relieved that the flat happened so close to the tire shop. I would have been suspicious that the repair guy had put nails in the road or something, but he was too laid back for that have to been the case. I was glad to have Robin along as she speaks Spanish very well and she was able to talk more to the tire guy after we got to the shop. If anyone is interested, the Spanish word for a jack for the car is “un gato.”
The return trip was uneventful after that. We are now considering where to go on our next adventure. Any suggestions?
There are lots more San Sebastian and other pictures on my Webshots at http://community.webshots.com/album/549334263NXAjNE