Yelapa and the Rise of Raicilla Jaimy Lee - Roads and Kingdoms
go to original December 1, 2015

The first time I tasted raicilla I chased it with Mexican Pepsi at a small cafe overlooking the Rio del Tuito in Yelapa, an isolated beach town on Mexico’s Western coast. Raicilla, a type of mezcal by definition, is smoky and it warms your throat like a whiskey. It’s strong enough that the server at the Restaurant el Manguito pantomimed pushing a cart, to characterize what this village moonshine would do to two American tourists. We drank it anyway. An hour later my friend and I were on the road, looking for a waterfall called the Upper Cascadas and a home that sold the spirit.

Raicilla (pronounced rye-see-ya) is made using agave grown in the Mexican state of Jalisco, which is home to Yelapa, Puerto Vallarta, and Guadalajara. It’s part of the culture of Yelapa, which, despite its proximity to Puerto Vallarta’s downtown Starbucks and Señor Frog’s, still feels like a village. There are no cars or even roads wide enough for cars. The people ride motorbikes and at night it’s so quiet you can hear the clicks of burro hooves on the cobblestones.

A speedboat takes you from the crowded Pier de los Muertos in Puerto Vallarta to Yelapa’s shore in about an hour. The boat makes three stops: one at each of the town’s two docks and a third that requires a jump into the ankle-deep water at the beach.

There isn’t much to do in Yelapa. There aren’t swimming pools, all-inclusive hotels, or Aztec ruins. There’s a village with a dozen restaurants, a tortilleria, a small cemetery high in the hills, and two waterfalls, both of which you can reach by foot in half a day. You can hire a boat to take you out for an afternoon or you can spend the day at the beach swimming, playing with one of the local friendly dogs that sleeps on the sand, or waiting for Yelapa’s pie ladies, a pair of women who sell individual foil-wrapped slices of queso pie, chocolate coconut pie, and, strangely enough, lemon meringue.

The village’s utility poles are covered with printouts advertizing English movie nights and set times for bands made up of American expats. Some travelers come for yoga or to take ayahuasca. Others come to drink raicilla....

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