destination mexic0

DESTINATION MEXIC0
Staying ahead of the crowd on the Nayarit coast
Keep heading north of Puerto Vallarta to find tranquil towns
Christine Delsol, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Villa as “Pancho”), sound much like the earlier reports
from Sayulita: a small, clean village surrounded by jungle
and mountains that wears its traditions on its sleeve. But it
also has watercolor sunsets, a sea turtle nesting ground and
possibly the best surfing on Mexico’s west coast. So we took
the exit north of Sayulita on Highway 200 and bumped into
town in the dark of night.
(02-04) 04:00 PST San Francisco, Mexico -- By the time I
got to Sayulita, on the Pacific coast north of Puerto Vallarta,
it was almost too late. San Pancho was the new Sayulita,
and Lo de Marco, a few miles farther north, stood ready to
become the next San Pancho.
Confused yet? It’s all part of the effort by Margaritaville
seekers to stay one step ahead of the new mega-resort rising
on the beach in the state of Nayarit, which Mexico intends to
transform into the next Cancún. As hotels rise and bulldozers
rumble across the dunes, barefoot travelers whose taste runs
more to fish tacos and hammocks are migrating to villages
farther and farther up the coast.
To achieve Margaritaville status, a place must be relaxing
but in some way stimulating; unspoiled yet equipped with
good restaurants and comfortable digs; within reach of the
city’s boutiques, supermarkets, clubs and ATMs, but at a
safe remove from the northward march of gated resorts and
luxury villas.
By all accounts, Sayulita possesses the requisite qualities.
It has built up a fanatic following, as evidenced by the
cries of alarm provoked by last year’s announcement that
the Mexican government tourist development agency was
building infrastructure for its next project, on the coast about
15 minutes south of Sayulita (see sidebar, Page G8). Veteran
visitors were dismayed to learn the golf courses and lavish
hotels they’d been trying to avoid were following them along
the coast.
By the time my sister, Diane, and I arrived last fall, U.S.level prices in Sayulita were crowding out the bargains.
Condos and villas boasting infinity pools and New York loft
decor were stacking up in the hills on the edge of town. It
was still picturesque and mostly authentic, and it still had
gnarly surf breaks -- only now it had more lodging choices,
more shopping, more English-speaking locals. Comfort had
overtaken discovery.
A model village
Top: The sparkling beach of San Pancho, stretches to the headland
where former president of Mexico Luis Echeverría built his estate.
Middle: Orange blossoms brighten the Punta Mita-Sayulita road.
Descriptions of San Francisco, popularly known as San
Pancho (just as we know revolutionary general Francisco
page 1 of 4
Bottom: San Pancho’s cobblestoned main street, Tercer Mundo.
Chronicle photos, 2006, by Christine Delsol
Despite the old-fashioned cobblestone that rattled our teeth,
San Pancho has been a town only since the 1970s, when
the fishing settlement consisting of maybe four extended
families captured the fancy of then president Luis Echeverría.
Echeverría swooped in by helicopter once a week or so to
drink coffee and eat homemade tortillas with fishermen and
farmers, eventually building a beachfront palace on the edge
of today’s town.
The president began creating a self-sufficient model village.
Workers lured by promises of land and a home laid the
cobblestone, plumbing and electrical systems. They built
houses, a church and plaza, schools and a hospital. They
planted orchards and built factories to process the fruit.
Instead of garnering accolades for his efforts, Echeverría
ended up fleeing Mexico to avoid prosecution for the killings
of student demonstrators in 1968 and 1971. San Pancho
had to take command of its own fate, subsisting on mango
processing until North American tourists and expatriates
started arriving in the mid-1990s.
At the turn of the millennium San Pancho’s only hotel was the
Costa Azul, an “adventure resort,” started by a surfer in 1991,
which offers guided kayaking, biking, surfing, snorkeling and
horseback trips on the beach and in the jungle. Today, rental
bungalows proliferate, and one of Pacific Mexico’s top-rated
bed and breakfasts commands a hillside perch at the jungle’s
doorstep, just beyond the Costa Azul.
Languid pleasures
Hotel Cielo Rojo, where we stayed, is a happy combination
of comfort and economy. Recently renovated after acquiring
new owners, it sports spare yet artful design with gleaming
white walls, terra cotta floors, generous wooden shelves
and painted bathroom tiles. A quirky collection of antique
fixtures and artwork includes a headless, life-size padre at the
patio doorway. Rooms are not air conditioned, but the ceiling
fans acquitted themselves well during late October days that
refused to surrender the mugginess of summer.
We fell into a languid routine: breakfast in the palm-shaded
courtyard; a walk around town to stock up on water, snacks
and sundries; then lunch under a palapa at Las Palmas, where
the main street’s cobblestones disappear into sand.
Lunch pretty much finished off the day, invariably turning
into hours of gossip and philosophy with other travelers and
locals, broken up by dips in the ocean or walks to the end
of the long, uncrowded, white-sand beach. For intermission,
the lemon-yellow Vallarta Adventures jungle buggies rolled
up in mid-afternoon, disgorging an unpredictable assortment
of jeep safari passengers to storm the bathrooms, tank up on
beer and splash in the waves.
For a small pueblo, San Pancho has a wealth of fine restaurants.
La Ola Rica, started several years ago by two local women,
opened for the season on our last night in town. Diane ate the
justly famous carne asada and I had chicken flavored with
lime, in the midst of a celebratory fervor usually seen only
on New Year’s Eve.
Top: La Ola Rica’s annual opening at the beginning of November
marks the semiofficial start of San Pancho’s tourist season.
Bottom: A view of the second bedroom in a guest suite at
Hotel Cielo Rojo in San Pancho, about 45 minutes north
of Puerto Vallarta.
Chronicle photos, 2006, by Christine Delsol
None of our full-service dinners was more satisfying than
the fare at the taco stand that sprung up each night on our
street corner. The slender, serious-looking young man who
welcomed us to “Tacos Miguelito” filled soft tortillas with
succulent pork shaved from a spit and strips of beef from a
grill the size of a foosball table. The burst of flavor made our
eyes roll back, and the tab on our most gluttonous visit came
to less than $3 each, including soda.
From restful to raucous
The routine left plenty of room for improvisation, which
page 2 of 4
allowed us to scout a
Margaritaville-in-waiting
as well as sample Nayarit’s
exclusive side.
as Palmas, on the beach at the end
of San Pancho’s main street, is a
palapa restaurant where guests
are welcome to linger all day if
they like.
Edson, our solicitous young
waiter at Las Palmas, was
one of the few Mexicans
we met in town whose
English was better than my
Spanish. He had lived in
Guadalajara, Seattle, New
Mexico and, more recently,
Los Cabos before returning
to San Pancho to get away
from “too many people,
too many cars, too much
stress.”
Chronicle photo, 2006,
by Christine Delsol
Edson persuaded us to
explore Lo de Marco,
touting its creamy white beach, pretty town plaza and dearth
of tourists. Venturing another highway exit north, we walked
a pristine beach even longer than San Pancho’s, waded in the
surf and gathered coconuts shed by a line of palms that separate
private homes and rental bungalows from the sand. At the plaza
end of the beach, children body surfed under parents’ watchful
eyes. We didn’t see a gringo all morning, and though there were
fewer restaurants than in San Pancho, we easily found a palapa
and took up residence.
We also felt duty-bound to spend an evening in Puerto Vallarta.
Despite the persistent myth that San Pancho is 30 minutes from
the city, it took us closer to an hour to drive each way. Still,
we were early enough to sneak in without dinner reservations
at Trio, an enduring downtown favorite with a Mediterraneaninfluenced menu and strolling musicians. Dinner was as fabulous
as the setting, and it was the first time I’ve had an artichoke (as
an appetizer with cheese, red pepper and arugula) in Mexico.
After dinner, we joined the throngs of families, couples,
musicians, street performers, artists and thrill-seekers lining up
to ride a carnival bungee swing on the malecón, or seafront.
Across the traffic-choked boulevard, hawkers flung pitches
at us from the doorways of shops open late. An illuminated
elephant figure topped one tall building; bars and discos opened
their jungle and spaceport themes to the street, looking like the
dark rides at Disneyland. The whole scene, in fact, felt as surreal
as Downtown Disney.
It was loads of fun -- and it sucked the Margaritaville right out
of us. Jouncing down our cobblestoned main street was relaxing
by comparison.
Living the luxe life
To wallow in luxury -- the air-conditioned, swim-up bar kind
of luxury -- we spent our last two nights in San Pancho at Casa
Obelisco. Built in 1999 by two U.S. couples in Mediterranean
villa style, it sits on a hillside north of the Costa Azul resort.
It has a footpath to the beach and lies a few steps from the
jungle.
Opulence was addictive. One day, we donned skirts and
drove to Punta Mita, the peninsula at the northern tip of the
Bay of Banderas, between Puerto Vallarta and Sayulita. Sign
after sign hawking existing and planned luxury developments
interrupted the verdant, rolling landscape. I wondered why
the alarm went out only after the federal tourism agency
announced its intentions, considering that Punta Mita, which
dwarfs Litibú, has been taking shape right next door since
the late 1990s.
So far, Punta Mita’s queen bee is the Four Seasons (with
Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course; rooms from $545
per night), the only hotel among multimillion-dollar private
villas and condominiums. The St. Regis will join the party
as early as this December, followed by La Solana Resort, a
Four Seasons sibling. A second Nicklaus golf course is under
construction.
Slightly stupefied by the groomed perfection around us, we
almost missed the plain brown gate simply marked “Punta
Mita.” After we asked the gatekeepers to make us lunch
reservations at the Four Seasons, the gate opened to allow us
to drive through more green and blue splendor to the hotel’s
portico.
The two valets allowed us a few minutes to gawk at the
lobby’s dizzying view of palapa umbrellas, flowering vines
and endless blue water, then installed us in an electric cart
for a narrated drive down to the open-air restaurant. We
shared an appetizer, a salad and a grilled vegetable pizza and
considered it $54 well spent. After all, the surroundings were
sublime, the restroom provided linen towels and we’d been
Very Important People for a couple of hours.
We asked if we could walk, rather than ride, back uphill. As
the cart sped away, our escort accompanied us up the path,
gently steering us away from the pool and lounge area we
were desperate to see. He sounded genuinely apologetic when
he explained the hotel’s commitment to guests’ privacy.
Locals appeared less distressed than visitors by development
plans. Merchants hold out hope of increased business. Bill
Kirkwood, one of Casa Obelisco’s owners, said he thought
Litibú might even benefit the more modest lodgings in the area.
page 3 of 4
“People who visit places like Four Seasons and Litibú will
eventually want to get out of the manicured environment and
explore,” he said. “They want to find out about places like
San Pancho.”
On our last day in town, a new sign materialized on the beach
at Las Palmas, reading “Surf boards for rent.” An arrow
pointed to two surfboards planted upright in the sand. When
Edson came to take our orders, he admitted to being the
entrepreneur.
“We don’t have anyone giving lessons in San Pancho,”
he said, “but people should know they don’t have to go to
Sayulita to surf.”
It was another step on San Pancho’s road to becoming the
next Sayulita. I thought of the half-finished houses between
the Se Vende (“For sale”) signs nailed to trees in the jungle,
and the private golf course and villas going up across from
the Costa Azul on Echeverría’s old estate.
Lo de Marco was looking better and better for the next
trip. And from there, the reconnaissance run to Rincón de
Guayabitos is only a 10-minute drive north.
If you go
All locations are in Mexico’s Nayarit state. Prices are in U.S.
dollars unless noted.
Getting there
San Francisco, known as San Pancho, is 25 miles, or about 45
minutes, north of Puerto Vallarta’s airport on coastal Highway
200. Taxis from the airport cost about $50 to $80.
Where to eat
Taco stands tend to be good. Restaurants we tried included:
La Ola Rica, Tercer Mundo, San Francisco. Entrees, 80-185
pesos (about $7.25-$17 US).
Mar Plata, Tercer Mundo, San Francisco. New restaurant
with a Belgian chef. Entrees, $16-$22.
Las Palmas, Tercer Mundo at the beach, San Francisco.
Lunch for two, 130 pesos ($11.80).
Trio Restaurant Bar Cafe, Guerrero No. 264, Puerto Vallarta.
Entrees, 160-295 pesos ($14.50-$27).
For more information
Sayulita Life, (541) 359-1945 (U.S. number), www.
sayulitalife.com.
Moon Handbooks Puerto Vallarta, by Bruce Whipperman, has
more detail on Nayarit’s coastal villages than most guides.
The online guide www.sanpancho.com is in “under
construction” limbo but was helpful in its previous
incarnation.
To comment, e-mail Deputy Travel Editor Christine Delsol at
[email protected].
This article appeared on page G - 1 of the San Francisco
Chronicle
Where to stay
Hotel Cielo Rojo, 6 Calle Asia, San Francisco. 011-52311-258-4155, www.hotelcielorojo.com. $60-$80 a night;
suites $85-$115. Restaurant on site in season.
Casa Obelisco, Calle Palmas, San Francisco. (415) 233-4252
or 011-52-311-258-4315, www.casaobelisco.com. $200$275 a night, depending on season; includes taxes. Closed
July 1-Sept. 30.
Costa Azul, Amapas y Los Palmas, San Francisco. U.S. tollfree number (800) 365-7613, www.costaazul.com. $108$140, depending on season; villas $200-$350. All-inclusive
plans and special packages available.
Bungalows and villas: A Google search will turn up more
than you’ll have time to sift through.
page 4 of 4
Even though tourists have started to discover the town, life in San
Pancho hasn’t changed a great deal since it was it was created
by President Luis Echeverria in 1975, who was enamored of the
fishing village that consisted then of only four extended families.
Chronicle photos, 2006, by Christine Delsol