El Rancho Capomo is in the town of Las Palmas, about 45 minutes outside of Puerto Vallarta. Turning off the main road, we travelled a dirt road for about 1/2 mile back into the jungle of the Sierra Madre Mountains, and arrived at a ranch right out of the movies!
A family owns and runs the ranch and they offer tours to tourists from Puerto Vallarta, Nuevo Vallarta, and other towns in the area. At the ranch the vacationers enjoy a breakfast before spending the day going horseback riding through the jungle to see waterfalls or riding ATVs over the mountainside, or streaking through the trees near the river on ziplines. After all that activity, the famished group is fed a delicious Mexican dinner before being returned to their hotels. What a day!
Now, you might wonder, just which activity did I participate in? Well...I walked down to the corral and looked at the horses. I watched the tourists return the ATVs to the ranch. I was fascinated by the more daring ones moving at lightning speed on the ziplines. And I took pictures of everything!
After all that activity (!), I sat in the outdoor restaurant, and visited with the family who owns the ranch, while sipping a Margarita, and listening to some Mexican music playing from a CD. There was a cool breeze blowing from the river through the trees so the weather was great.
The ranch is on the bank of a river, which was full of water due to the heavy rains. The water was surging and tumbling over the rocks, a beautiful sight. They tell me that during the dry season, there is very little water in the river but today, it was almost overflowing its banks.
On the ranch they grow bananas, have mango and lime trees, and dry their own totopos---nacho chips. If you have never eaten a tortilla chip dried in the sun instead of fried, you have missed a culinary delight!
The area was so pretty and I had a very unexpected but delightful day out in the country! Thanks, guys, for inviting me to go with you!
Lots of room to park the ATVs in front of the restaurant.
A typical Mexican restaurant.
The river was muddy due to the heavy rains. Can you see the people standing on the balcony looking at the river?
You can walk down the stairs and across the bridge to look upriver.
The corral with horses waiting.
These two guys have a nice place in the shade to wait.
Here come the ATVs!
Me and the old cowboy!
Such a pretty picture...the old wagon, a pile of bricks and the agave cactus.
After we left the ranch, we stopped for la comida---dinner---the main meal of the day---at the Restaurante Mariscos El Coleguita in the town of Ixtapa. They specialize in seafood and I ate shrimp and more shrimp!
The waiters pick up the food at the kitchen. I love the sign!
It was a big restaurant and was quite full at 4:00pm. We had to wait a few minutes for a table.
There were musicians to entertain us. Well, let's say that they thought they were musicians! A lot more practice was needed before they truly could entertain!
Pico de gallo on the left with a basket of tostadas and a cup of shrimp soup on the right were the appetizers. Limonada in the blue glass. My entree was a special platter with fried shrimp, grilled shrimp, fried fillet of fish, rice, beets and carrots, and a seafood soup. Of course, tortillas were in a basket on the table too. For dessert they brought fried plantains and kahlua and cream to top off the meal. Good eatin'...yum!
This was certainly a one of a kind day for me and I savored every minute of it.
Hasta luego.
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