Mexico


kids how to master everything from computers and reading to creative carpentry and yoga.


From top: produce for sale in San Pancho market; surfer in Sayulita


SURFER CHIC So far, so independently-spirited. But what of the surfers? Where do they go to find a more stylish scene and a less fierce undertow (San Pancho’s is infamous)? Sayulita; a densely developing town, south along the bay. Here, hipster surf shops sit cheek-by-tatooed-jowl with art galleries, boutique jewellers specialising in intricate, acid-coloured beadwork, boho-chic beach threads, and homeware designed by transplanted Parisians and New Yorkers. If you want textiles with a Day of the Dead punk aesthetic, or modish litle handwoven tote bags in sun-bright Mexican colours that mirror the bunting that hangs over the town’s cobbled streets, Sayulita is the place to come. Here, you can channel your inner surfer even if you haven’t made use of the town’s legendarily long beach break. Nevertheless, for me, aſter barefoot San Pancho, Sayulita


is a bit overcrowded. An hour south of the city, along the string of boat-only access bays around Boca de Tomatlán, I find a more gentle evolution of what were once subsistence fishing villages. Casitas Maraika, a litle hamlet of mismatched, open-fronted houses set into the jungle-fringed cliffs centred around a beach ‘club’, is the very definition of barefoot boutique. From one of the discreetly strung beach hammocks, I watch


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54 ABTA Magazine | June 2017


hordes of daytrippers boat across the horizon for tequila fiesta fun on nearby Las Animas beach. Unless one of Maraika’s guest DJs has flown in from Mexico City, the only sound here is surf on sand. At night, the ocean-plunging red sunset is the backdrop to a refined Mexican-Asian menu, followed by some of the best nights’ sleep I’ve ever had, the pounding Pacific accompanying my dreams. It’s hard to drag myself onto Maraika’s litle boat back to the city, and not just because of the ocean’s defiant swell. But I’m determined to seek out some of Puerto Vallarta’s old school, Burton-and-Taylor romantic charms. They’re not necessarily to be found in Villa Premier, a newly


revamped beachfront couples resort in the centre of town. But this upscale all-inclusive is refreshingly, well, inclusive. The city’s Hollywood halcyon days may have largely been replaced by package tourism, but this includes a robust demographic of gay couples and groups holidaying from Canada and the US. From Cuban bars to dance-on-the-table hotspots such as Garbo, the city’s southern Romantic Zone is where Puerto Vallarta is most free-spirited. The south is where you’ll find generations of resident families congregating outside crumbling Spanish-style villas, stacked Jenga-like against the mountainside, and where cobbled streets ring with the cries of wandering tuberos (coconut wine vendors) and the grind of old tortillerias, furnishing locals with supersize stacks of tortillas. It’s a vision of the Pacific Mexico of yesteryear I happily take home with me — along with a big bag of tortillas.


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