February 14, 2026 Breakfast - Ham and cheese on bolillo spread with pineapple preserves Lunch - Ham, cheese, and d avocado on multigrain bread. Lunch Ham and cheese Sandwich on Caracoral beach. Dinner at San Pastor Restaurant on plaza in Sayulita

February 14, 2026 Breakfast - Ham and cheese on bolillo spread with pineapple preserves Lunch - Ham, cheese, and d avocado on multigrain bread. Lunch Ham and cheese Sandwich on Caracoral beach. Dinner at San Pastor Restaurant on plaza in Sayulita

We woke up and took showers and dressed and I buttered and toasted a bolillo and added a slice of ham and a slice of provolone cheese for breakfast.

Then we took the ham and cheese over to the big house and I made ham, cheese, and avocado sandwiches on the multigrain bread for lunch. Around 10:00 we drove toward Punta Mita and went to the end of the old cemetery road along the ridge and parked in the little hotel’s parking lot where there were already lots of cars parked.

We walked through the walkway to the beach and discovered hundreds of people and a small concession stand. We have been coming to caracoral beach for 25 years and years ago we were the only folks on the 1 1/2 mile expanse out to the headland. The hillside was dotted with new homes and there was a large lounging area with dozens of divan chairs at the north end of the Four Seasons property.

After we passed the new bathing area and most of the houses it seemed to be the original Caracoral, a word contraction for carratera coral or Coral Highway, due to the fact that there is a coral reef near the beach that rolls chunks of coral and seashells into the beach during storms that accumulate in ridges at the high water line. This was a bad day for seashells. Suzette found the best gastropod, a Robertsi cowrie broken in half by the wave action and pounding against coral and rocks. I found a small California limpet common to this area.

After an hour we had reached the rocks where pelicans, cormorants and gulls sit watching for fish where there was a rock in the shade under a mangrove tree. We ate lunch of the ham, cheese, and avocado sandwich and blueberries with beer. Then we looked a bit longer and turned back and walked back to the beach front concession stand. Suzette went to the car to fetch my wallet and I watched the young man cleaning needle fish. 

I observed a large pile of what appeared to be oysters and asked him how much they were and he said, “Dos ciento cincuenta pesos por una docena”. I said I will take a dozen, so I began picking 12 of the ugly rock incased oysters, trying to discern which were largest. He then washed them in sea water and knocked the end off with a thin machete and stuck the knife edge into the opening he had made to open the shells. This low tech method worked well if you did not care how battered the shell looked, because the animals were fresh and mostly whole and for $14.57 per dozen for native oysters that had been taken from the rocks this morning, it was a very special experience. 

When Suzette returned we were each given a plastic platter with six oysters and three wedges of lime. We sat inside the stand at a plastic Pepsi table and squeezed lime juice on the oysters and let them stand for a few minutes to cook a little of their briny rawness out of them. They were delicious. The last time we ate raw native oysters was at Castropol, on the estuary that separates Asturias from Galicia.

These oysters had a similar spread hand shape with five nods and a short shell similar to the Castropol ones.

After we finished we returned to Villa Bali and rested until 5:30 wth no ill effects from the oysters.

We showered and dressed and around 6:30 TR drove us to town in the Polaris and we found a parking spot 1/2 block from the plaza. We took a table on the street at the corner bar named Stoners. Next door was a small restaurant named San Pastor with a taco cart in front on the street next to our table.

Soon a heavily tattooed waiter came to take our beer order of locally brewed beer. Three of us chose Sayulita Lager and Linda ordered the IPA.

Then we chose tacos. We ordered a total of 7 pastor and two carne asado tacos for 24 pesos each for a total of $12.57.

I don’t know the cost of the beers but they were more expensive.

After dinner TR’s guitar playing friend, Pablo, came by and sang three songs, Besa me Mucho, Volver, and La Paloma. TR mentioned that strolling musicians singing traditional songs was a dying tradition.

Then Linda walked down the street and bought two creme caramels fo dessert. We could not eat them all and took some home for a later meal.

We walked to the west end of the plaza where the Sayulita sign and a Valentines display was set up . Mexico celebrates Love and Friendship on February 14. I took a picture of Suzette and Linda.

We drove back to Villa Bali and said goodnight.

Bon Appetit