Our first big trip on the ATV was to Playa Larga, about 12km from Playa La Ropa where we are staying. We took the scenic route along the Escénica Riscalillo, which is a long windy road that runs along the Pacific Ocean. It’s a well paved road, that is mostly empty of vehicles, so the perfect road for an ATV. As we hit the peak of this road, we could see Playa Larga in the distance. We could also see the Pacific Ocean on one side, mountains on the other. I’m not sure why this isn’t a more popular road. It’s mostly empty of anything except overgrown sidewalks.
We did have about 3km of driving along the highway, which was a little interesting as our ATV tops out at 65km/h. As we approached Playa Larga we passed the horse riding place we went to last year. This was just the second time we had ever been to Playa Larga.
The road that runs in front of Playa Larga is about a half-mile long, lined with beach restaurants and a handful of small hotels. There is one small market / clothing store / pharmacy. As we drove up and down the road we passed bored waiter after bored waiter, each sitting on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant in which he worked. As we approached each waiter would lift his head and jump up in an attempt to direct us to his little beach bar. “Hey, we have plenty of room here. Look, I’m holding the menu!” I assumed they each were yelling over the sound of our ATV.
The beach itself is long and wide and sandy, the perfect place to set up shop for the day. The entire beach is almost 2 miles long. The Pacific Ocean waves break hard, so the water isn’t the best for going out further than your knees. There was one busload of tourists there at the same time as us, but they seemed to enjoy the shade of a nearby beach bar. We shared the rest of the beach with less than a dozen people.
After an hour of getting beat up in the waves and tossing a frisbee, we found the nearest beach bar to hide from the sun. It appears that most of the beach bars also have small swimming pools for guests.Seemed like a pretty cool idea to us. Not sure why none of the beach bars on Playa La Ropa and Playa La Madera do this. Only one 8 or 9 year old kid splashed in the pool while we were there, and probably was happy to have his own private pool / bathroom. We were excited to see that beers here are only 20 pesos each, compared to the 25 to 35 pesos at the beach bars closer to town. And micheladas were only 5 pesos more!
As we ordered our second micheladas we saw the horses on the beach and three or four people jump on for a beach ride.I wondered as I drank my michelada who would stay out here for a full week.There isn’t much to do, but sit on the beach or ride horses. But I guess if you really like doing nothing on the beach and riding horses, then this is the perfect beach for that!
We went back to this beach on New Year’s Day and it was a happening place. There is still plenty of room to spread out, but the beach bars and beach bar pools were packed. The parking lot was full, and there was a makeshift pickup truck/taxi that was taking people from the bus stop on the highway to the beach 5 minutes away. It was cool to see how different it was from a few weeks earlier.
