San Blas a Laid Back Tropical Coastal Village

San Blas, Nayarit is approximately 100 miles north of Puerto Vallarta and about 150 miles south of Mazatlan. Yet, despite its relative proximity, San Blas is tourist worlds apart from those two highly visited and over-developed Pacific beach resort communities. Depending on one’s perspective, part of the charm of the small tropical port, beach, and fishing village of San Blas lies in an assortment of no’s.

There are no five-star hotels (high-rise or otherwise), condominiums, or time shares. There are no traffic lights, shopping malls, supermarkets, billboards, or chain stores. There are no ostentatious jet setters or jet setter wannabes pretentiously lounging, partying, or strolling about. There are no luxury cruise liners docked in its harbor full of hedonistic tourists who do not know or care to discover whether they are in Mexico or (is it?) Jamaica. There is no jet skiing or parasailing on its numerous beaches. There is no bustling upscale tourist ghetto segregated and isolated from the local inhabitants of the town; the foreign tourists, mostly frugal minded baby boomers reside spread throughout the town in bungalows, posadas, hotels, or RV parks. There are no retail establishments that accept US dollars and very little English is spoken by its merchants.

So, what does San Blas have to offer to Mexican and foreign tourists, mostly of the budget conscious persuasion? There is a wide range of hospitable and affordable accommodations. There are, mas o menos, 20 miles of sandy, mostly deserted beaches (except of course like most of Mexico’s beach communities for Easter week when the town is packed with primarily Mexican visitors); in town and primarily outside of town these beaches include El Rey, El Borrego, Las Islitas, Matanchen, Aticama, Miramar, Los Cocos, Santa Cruz, and Platanitos. There are inexpensive seafood restaurants on the beaches and in town featuring such local specialties as grilled smoked marlin, sarandeando cooked whole over mangrove wood, shrimp al gusto, shrimp “hamburgers,” fresh oysters, and various types of ceviche. There are stands serving such sweet delights as banana bread in many varieties including coconut and chocolate, corn bread, yuca bread, empanadas filled with banana, pineapple, or custard, and an array of coconut-based desserts. There is a traditional and lively main plaza which has numerous colorful artesan/souvenir stalls and is a minute away from the town’s outdoor and indoor municipal marketplace. On the only hill in town, the remains of a Spanish era fort provides a panoramic view of the village and environs below- that view is brilliantly enhanced if you are fortunate enough to be there during a “green flash” sunset.

While there you might want to take an amazing river ride/”jungle boat” viewing the surrounding mangroves and estuaries as you motor up to La Tovara National Park while seeing an abundance of exotic birds, amphibians, and reptiles. Or in the winter you may go humpback whale watching or most anytime go either fresh water or salt water fishing. Or you may go surfing, particularly from the end of April through the end of November. Or you may take delightful and truly ecologically-focused hikes in the nearby villages of Singayta or in the hillside coffee plantations of La Bajada. Or you may want to go to just offshore “Peso Island” and explore its ecosystems and from its long shell strewn beach where there may be hundreds of brown pelicans and assorted gulls along with many pairs of delightful American oyster catchers and view the ocean monolith, the “Virgin Rock.” Or you might want to visit the town’s picturesque fishing harbor which is a five minute walk from the plaza.

Or if you are like me, you might want to spend considerable time in San Blas for the opportunity to see up to 300 plus species of birds, migratory and endemic. This tropical village and its surrounding areas with a multitude of avian enticing and supporting habitats is famous for being a non-hyperbolic “birders paradise.” The last time that I was there (well really, the same as the first time also), I spent minimally 90% of the daylight hours enthralled in birdwatching activities in many of the above mentioned sites and additionally at such “birdy” places as the “Sewer Pond Trail," “Shrimp Pond Road,” and the recently accessible ejido owned shade coffee plantation in Tecuitata where 170 types of birds have been spotted.

Consequently, San Blas is not now nor perhaps never will be a Puerto Vallarta or a Mazatlan despite decades-old never actualized plans to develop this laid back, backwater village into an upscale part of the grand “Riviera Nayarit.” scheme. A major reason for this is a growth inhibiting "no" that San Blas has a plethora of- the degree to which depending on the season, the phase of the moon, the time of day, and the location. San Blas is infamous for the attacking and biting swarms of “no-see-ums” known locally as jejenes and otherwise known as sand fleas, sand flies, or midges. Armed proactively with insect repellant, I have been fortunate on both of my visits there to have never experienced their considerable voracious fury.

Yet, selfish as it may be as this impoverished town can certainly use an economic stimulus, I view these pests as a blessing. They have been instrumental in maintaining the simple, uncontrived, authentic, affordable, and charming nature of the place. Hence, I will enthusiastically be back in San Blas again next January, no-see-ums or not!