San Pancho
Visitor finds happy medium in a formerly sleepy enclave making transition to a luxury resort
By Christine Delsol
June 10, 2007
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 Cancun. 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 tourist development agency was building infrastructure for its next project, on the coast about 15 minutes south of Sayulita. Veteran visitors were dismayed to learn that 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.
Descriptions of San Francisco, popularly known as San Pancho (just as we know revolutionary general Francisco 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.
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 Echeverrma. Echeverrma 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, Echeverrma 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.
FROM SAN DIEGO TRIBUNE
