Many people go to Puerto Vallarta to lay on the beach getting tanned or to party from sundown to sun up but never really get a chance to get off the resort and see the parts that aren’t well-manicured for the eyes of tourists. This post will hopefully encourage you to put your drink down for a bit and venture out into the lands of Mexico to explore parts that you may not have even considered as a part of your journey.
On a trip to Puerto Vallarta, I was looking for an experience doing something I had never done before as well as a tour that could offer great views but also help me learn something about what makes Puerto Vallarta tick other than resort life. This is why I usually always make it a point to venture out a bit off the resort or from the main cities in most of my travels because there are so many interesting areas of the world that allow you to get a glimpse into the day to day lives of people who you might not ever meet if you don’t have a sense of adventure.
We ended up finding Estigo Tours after scrolling through a few pages on TripAdvisor. The tour we chose was a combination of an ATV and a botanical gardens tour.
I will let you know that I had never been on an ATV before so I let my friend, who happens to be a woman, drive the ATV. I make it a point to indicate that she is a woman because I guess it’s pretty uncommon for women to be the drivers of vehicles in the downtown area. We got a few looks and even a few catcalls and whistles from the motorists passing by because it was like they had never seen a male passenger and female ATV driver. Maybe they’ve never seen my friend…
Don’t stroke her ego! She knows she’s cute…lol. Anyway, my friend and I are very comfortable with each other and I feel like women can do just about anything a man can, so I didn’t even give it a second thought when we chose who would drive.
It was also really nice to be able to just sit back and feel the breeze and watch local life as we whizzed in and out of the lanes of traffic without feeling the tunnel vision drivers normally get from not being able to take their eyes off the road.
We twisted and turned through the side streets of downtown Puerto Vallarta. It took us a little bit of time to get out of the area. This was mainly due to the fact that there was a reasonable amount of traffic since it’s a major city. We weren’t really allowed to go super fast on the ATVs for obvious liability reasons but this allowed our tour guide to stop periodically to take photos of us. It was nice to not feel obligated to take photos and just be able to enjoy the experience. Granted, it probably wasn’t super safe to periodically stop in traffic or take photos while he was driving but I guess our tour guide was willing to risk it all in order for us to have a unique experience.
As we made it our into what most people would call the suburbs, the landscape changed dramatically to where the jungle and lush greenery returned and gently surrounded the houses and stores outside the city. We saw chickens running loose, children playing in the streets, and people just hanging outside the small general stores drinking cola in glass bottles and just laughing about whatever they were listening to on the radio. Life seemed so simple and oddly I sensed a real feeling of community unlike what we sometimes see in the U.S. The drive also gave us stunning views of the Sierra Madre mountain range.
We stopped at points along the Pacific coastline to take more photos and do some shopping at local roadside markets offering fruits, vegetables, t-shirts, and lots of trinkets made by local artisans. It seemed like we had driven for a long time but eventually we reached our destination. We arrived at Vallarta Botanical Gardens. One other good thing about this tour was that we went to Puerto Vallarta in the off-season so no one else had booked the tour and it was just my friend and I. So we basically got a personal tour. The botanical gardens are really well kept and it’s truly amazing to look out into the jungle and see so much beautiful greenery. I can’t help but wonder how amazing it would be to live in the midst of all of it.
Our guide walked us around the botanical gardens and pointed out several plants that are native to Mexico and that have helped Mexicans develop industries to grow the wealth of the nation. We saw plants like cacao and vanilla bean and agave. We learned quite a bit about the process of making tequila and mezcal and how important agave is to the Mexican people from a historical standpoint. I loved to see the pride that our guide exhibited talking about his country.
Casually hiking through the lush forests 
Climbing the stairs to more of the gardens 
A moment to ponder and discuss our adventure around the botanical gardens
We took a walk through the rare orchid area of the gardens and then sat down to have a bite to eat. The view from the small restaurant was amazing. What was more amazing was getting to talk to our guide about subjects off of the “script” of the tour. I always love having talks about how life really is for the people of each country I visit. He talked about his family and how he works two jobs to feed his family.
Reflecting on what I wrote in my blog post Havana Tour Company – Afternoon Delight Tour, I see the similarities in countries, outside the U.S., where community and family seem to mean a lot more. This is especially true in areas where there may not be as many opportunities to be successful without the help of those in the community. So everyone helps each other to become a success so that the parts are as equal as the whole. It’s truly amazing to discover how people grow and I think it provides a greater sense of accomplishment when you can see how your whole community became better with the support of each other.
I’m not going to lie. I loved just about every aspect of this tour. I did not have to drive which was so amazing! There was a photographer that rode along with us who was actually our tour guide so I didn’t have to take too many photos. It was nice to be able to be electronic free and just hold on for dear life as we whizzed through the streets of downtown Puerto Vallarta. I also thoroughly enjoyed that we were able to see a lot of the smaller communities that were away from the city along the way. We got to see some of the areas that were building and expanding in growth. I also found a sense of peace seeing all of these areas surrounded by lush green forests and preserves.
I liked that we were able to just ask questions about daily life in Mexico and somewhat personal questions about our tour guide who was really honest about hardships in life but also the ambition to do much more to reach goals.
If you’re ever in Puerto Vallarta I highly recommend that you try one of the tours put on by Estigo Tours. By the way, they have amazing reviews on TripAdvisor and Yelp and it’s well worth the money! Lastly, I’ll say that after completing this excursion I was extremely happy that my friend and I chose to do something where we had no preconceived notions or reservations about. I was really happy that we were able to share an experience together that we will both definitely remember long into old age and since we got a free ZIP file of about 100+ photos, we’ll have those keepsakes to remember our trip by.
Let me know if you have any questions and please leave a comment on what you love most about Mexico if you’ve visited before. Have a great day!
