Riviera Nayarit | Love at first sight in San Pancho

You probably know the Riviera Maya, but what about the Riviera Nayarit, on the Pacific coast? Increasingly popular, this seaside destination which stretches between San Blas and Nuevo Vallarta is among the most beautiful beaches in the country. It is also full of small bucolic villages. One of the most authentic? San Pancho.

Impossible not to fall for it. Think: small, colorful seaside village, alleys decorated with flags, several murals, a few restaurants, and just as many artisan galleries. The kind of village where children play in the street barefoot, among a handful of tourists, nothing more, most of them with a bohemian look, probably artists, surfers, yoga enthusiasts, or both.

Nature is lush, a cocoa tree here, a pistachio tree there, and community and cultural life is active. It has also been called the cultural capital of the region. It is here that Cirque du Soleil co-founder Gilles Ste-Croix founded a small circus school for children, Circo de los Niños, in 2011.

San Pancho is a village of 1200 inhabitants living, quite simply.

A surfers’ den, as we have said, the sunsets over the sea are also unique. People gather at the end of the day on the beach and outright applaud the magic hour. It gives you an idea of ​​the mind, quite peaceful, thank you. Here, we savor the present moment.

San Pancho, as insiders call it, or San Francisco on paper, looks a lot like the Sayulita of about fifteen years ago, they say. It must be said that the two villages are neighbors, 10 minutes away by car, or better, 1 hour 30 minutes walk along the beach. Once a well-kept secret, Sayulita, designated Pueblo Magico (magic village) by Mexico in 2015, has experienced a real explosion in recent years. A journalist from Lonely Planet compared the latter to a sort of “Disney for adults”. It’s harsh, but we can’t help but agree, seeing the hordes of tourists wandering around there, a giant margarita in their mouths. You should know that the area is quite festive in season (an open-air discotheque, say the evil tongues, which is less true during the summer, the off season). Quite the opposite of San Pancho, a real pocket village where calm reigns, ideal for recharging your batteries.

But let’s be clear, with its 2,800 inhabitants, Sayulita, despite its (too) insistent merchants and its crazy-priced jewelry stores, remains charming, although a tad less authentic than San Pancho, certainly.

Another interest: its beach, very popular with surfers. If you want to risk it, this is the ideal place to start. The waves are gentle, but just powerful enough, the sea is shallow, and above all very sandy. The schools abound, and the surf teachers are real regulars. Ours, a native of Sayulita, so to speak born on a board, was absolutely a former local champion!

Control growth

But let’s return to San Pancho – where the waves are more vigorous, note for interested adventurous surfers! –, which literally caught our eye this summer, with its discreet charm and vibrant community life. The question arises: how on earth did the village resist the tourist madness? Above all, until when?

One clue: “In San Pancho, we try to control growth,” says Jose Maria Uscanga, guide at Punta Mita Adventures, which offers various tourist tours on the coast, including a gourmet and cultural tour of San Pancho and Sayulita.

Indeed, the jungle is just a stone’s throw away, and you can feel it.

Speaking of a clean village, San Pancho has enjoyed for almost 20 years a community center called Entreamigos, very lively during our visit in the middle of July, which is certainly no stranger to its clean look and its unique dynamism. Among other achievements, volunteers there launched a recycling campaign to clean the streets. Result: recycling bins are everywhere here, even on the beach. It sounds banal, but believe us, it is part of a philosophy. There has obviously been an awareness, and on the spot, it makes a big difference!

Part of the costs of this trip were paid by the Mexican Tourist Office, which had no control over the content of this report.

Three addresses

Feel the pulse‘Between friends

Entreamigos is more than a community center, it is a real place of life, quite unique and active for such a small town, it should be noted. People come here for the library, the free workshops, the vegetarian restaurant or to visit the gallery. The center, which supports single mothers and offers scholarships, also has a plastic recycling and processing space. The adjacent children’s park was made entirely from recycled materials.

Visit the Entreamigos website (in English)

Treat yourself to something sweet at Mexicolate

Located directly opposite the community center, this small eco-responsible chocolate shop offers brownies, cookies and other cocoa-derived products. Here, Mexican beans are fermented, then roasted, before being peeled by hand, in the traditional way. If the chocolates are a bit bitter for our taste, don’t miss the frozen smoothie, surprising and refreshing as can be.

Grab a bite to eat at Su Pancha Madre

The terrace, a few corners from the main street, lined with a cocoa tree, located in the shade of a giant moringa (a shrub with a thousand properties, it is said), is worth the detour alone. They serve a magical juice, made from moringa leaves, but above all a sope, a traditional dish made from tortilla, beef and corn charcoal (huilacoche), here deconstructed, to the delight of our taste buds. Unique and creative.