Telapas, Mexico and It's Iguanas

Welcome to Telapas, Mexico! It's the quaint little town where we were dropped off after our snorkeling/kayaking adventure. We're sure that many cousins, brothers, aunts and uncles of the snorkeling boat operators live in this town. That's ok, because Telapas gave us a chance to see a beautiful waterfall and to appreciate the basic necessities of life that we take for granted. To get to the waterfall, we walked up some narrow, steep streets through the village. There are no cars in Telapas, just a few ponies to climb the hills. Rocko has no idea how spoiled he is.

 Most of the homes looked something like this:

One creative shop owner decorated his store with this mural of Winnie the Pooh:

 

Villagers made handicrafts to sell to the tourists:

Laundry facilities were primitive, to say the least.

The waterfall was well worth the little hike through town. It was beautiful, and I'm sure it is the only source of fresh water for Telapas.

After enjoying the waterfall, we made our way back through the town to the beach, where we got to sit in the "approved" area- a beach-side bar owned by a relative of the boat company. Here we were given the opportunity to purchase more handicrafts. Many opportunities.

We met a very friendly beach cat. He didn't try to sell us anything.

This man was wanting tourists to pay to have their pictures taken with his iguana. I'll admit, I turned the tables on him and asked to a picture of him holding his own iguana. Not looking too happy, is he?

This little girl was a ball of fire. She had a little puppy that she was putting under a plastic crate, then taking him out, putting him back in and jabbering the whole time. I was lucky to get her to stay still long enough to get this picture. I used one of the few Spanish words I know, "Sonrisa", which means "Smile". Thank you, Bell Photographers, for send me to so many multi-cultural West Valley City schools!

After a while, it was time to wander back to the dock and make our way back to Puerto Vallarta and the cruise ship. I was glad we all got a chance to see Telapas and the people (and iguanas) there.