Mismaloya, Mexico

Hiking in Mismaloya, Mexico, is definitely not an every day trek.

It is a far cry from hiking in these environs – a polar opposite of the arid, sandy trails you find in the Sonoran desert. Summer walks along trails in the jungle elicit a lot more sweat, even if you are hiking in the early morning.

All that green conjures up humidity along with its heat, resulting in some pretty soppy strolls. But the sights make it worthwhile.

Mismaloya is a small village south of Puerto Vallarta in the Jalisco state of Mexico. It is situated along the West Coast on a lovely cove surrounded by dense rain forests of palms, figs, rubber trees, bamboo and philodendrons.

There are numerous “canopy tours,” where visitors can enjoy the jungle via zip lines. You fly from tree to tree viewing the flora and fauna, as well as other views surrounding the area.

Our walks were tamer. We ran out of expendable time and didn’t do any tours. Since we didn’t get deep into the forests, we likely missed a lot of wildlife sightings. We did manage to see three iguanas – one little one and a bigger one. The third was riding around on a guy’s shoulder. The man made the beast available for photos for $50 pesos. We passed.

We were visited by numerous geckos that clicked and cheeped long into the night. We even had one little guy come in to the house. We figured he could eat the bugs.

Reports of huge flocks of parrots were greatly exaggerated: we saw two small green birds but couldn’t confirm their breed. We did see terns, pelicans and grackles. Surprisingly, we didn’t run into a single seagull, although Google searches turned up no indications of gulls in the Puerto Vallarta area.

In addition to the birds and the lizards, we encountered a wide variety of insects and creepy crawlers. Because it is so humid and jungly, the bugs are everywhere.

Every variety of butterfly imaginable gathered in the sunshine each morning. It was interesting to note that the numbers of butterflies was much greater in the sun than in the shade. We couldn’t figure out whether it was similar to what moths do with lights at night.

Spiders and snakes are pretty bountiful, too. We saw only one snake (a dead one), but spiders were all over the place. There were so many spiders and insects that even our 13-year-old who has a lifetime phobia of crawling things became blasé. (Could be her age.)

A strange occurrence was seeing a crab crawl under a rock in the mountains. We were far from the ocean, but according to the locals, crabs are all over the place – not just on the beach. Who knew?

Mismaloya is where Night of the Iguana was filmed. While there are reminders of things about the movie: a statue of director John Huston, a park dedicated to actor Richard Burton and signs directing you to the movie set, a movie made in 1963 doesn’t create much interest.

The late John Huston said in his book, An Open Book, “No one - other than an old man who passes there on an occasional trip - between Las Caletas and Vallarta seems to give a damn what happens to the place. He would like to see it torn down and given back to the iguanas. The old man is me of course.”

There aren’t many iguanas to be found anymore. When you talk to people who visited Puerto Vallarta and its surrounding areas many years ago, they will tell you of iguanas hanging out on door jambs and window sills. Now there are way too many people and not that many places for an iguana to hang out.

But there are lots of places for people to hang out, and whether you’re taking a sweaty hike or enjoying a tour in the jungle, it definitely gives you a different perspective of summer. And if all you get to do is see one sunset, your visit will be worth it even if you don’t leave the veranda.

This hike was featured September 2006.