On our last trip to Puerto Vallarta, I decided that I wanted to do a whole bunch of things that we had never done before. We decided to look into mountain bike excursions. The most common "bike excursion" was cruising along the Malécon on an e-bike with stops at the various street vendors. That is probably a fine way to spend a leisurely afternoon, but not too enticing for our teenager / twenty-somethings. Plus, I wanted something that would create some good stories. We also looked at some legit mountain biking trails. But, for all my big talk, I was not sure if I was going to be in good enough shape to make that fun. Then, we found Jorullo Paradise.
Jorullo Paradise is a resort high up in the mountains about 1-1.5 hours from Puerto Vallarta. So, it is a bit of a trek. But, it was a nice break in August to get up into the mountains where it is cooler. It appears to cater to local Mexican families rather than the typical gringo / cruise ship clientele. I suspect that most people go up there and stay the night because it is a lot of driving for the short amount of time that we spent there. They also have natural hot springs if that is your jam. We, of course, were there to zip line on a bike.
The Zip Line consists of a regular bike with the tires removed that is held onto the top cable but runs on the bottom cable. Then, they hook your harness onto the top cable. You bike across the valley to a platform on the other side. When you reach the other side, they turn you around and you bike back. Two people can go at a time.
The platform on each side is at the same height but your weight makes it so you go "down hill" to the midpoint and then slightly "uphill" to get to the platform on the other side. You generally coast down but need to peddle to get back up to the other side.
You can take pictures with your own camera, but we did not have anything to strap a camera to our wrists, so we did not take pictures while biking across. Plus, it was nice to just enjoy the view of the valley while biking. Although I was connected to the cable, biking across a cable felt just sketchy enough to get the adrenaline going.
It is a lot of traveling for a short bike ride back and forth on the Zip Line. (You have to pay extra to go again.) So, you need to go with the mindset that part of the fun is the drive up into the jungle through the ranchitos. We had a driver from Jorullo Paradise pick us up and he was happy to stop along the way for pictures.
We didn't soak in any of the hot springs; however, we really enjoyed the tortillas at the restaurant. They harvest their own corn on the property and make the tortillas fresh by hand and cook them on a wood-fired stove top. They were the best tortillas that I have had in Puerto Vallarta. If I could put them with Pepe's al pastor tacos, I would be in heaven....
My takeaways:
Treat the drive up the mountain as part of the adventure. Enjoy the view of the ranchitos. Otherwise, it will seem like too much driving for a short excursion.
Let's be honest, this is an instagram moment. If you took your camera out with you, the pictures would be even more incredible, but then you will be distracted by taking the pictures. (Plus, I kind of wanted to make sure I stayed focused on what I was doing.) But, there was also a part of me that wanted to take a picture of the surreal image of my wife and kids while I was next to them. If I were to do it again, I would probably pay extra to go twice. Then, I would go once with no camera and then once where I would take a picture as we went across.
DO NOT go home without trying the homemade corn tortillas.