With swimming pens set up in the ocean, Delphinus Riviera Maya (Hwy. 307 Km. 282, toll-free Mex. tel. 800/335-3461, toll-free U.S./Canada tel. 888/526-2230, www.delphinus.com.mx, US$159–499), between Playa del Carmen and Paamul, is about as good as it gets for performing dolphins. For visitors, it’s one of the most rewarding dolphin interaction programs in the region.

San Marcos is a unique lake town in that it harbors a strangely esoteric vibe, aided by its prominence as Guatemala’s New Age center. It’s about a three-hour walk from Santa Cruz La Laguna and two hours from San Pedro La Laguna. Most visitors arrive at a boat dock beside Posada Schumann, though boats stop first at the main dock a few hundred meters east. A road runs beside the lodge into town, which together with a parallel street 100 meters west, form the main pedestrian arteries into town.

Lívingston has some acceptable beaches nearby, though the ones adjacent to town are generally not the cleanest and have had some security issues in the past. Locals insist the group perpetrating past robberies has been caught.

Playa Quehueche

The nicest beach close to town is Playa Quehueche, about two kilometers northwest along Bahía de Amatique. There are a couple of comfortable hotels here, allowing you the opportunity to stay right on the beach. Both have nice wooden docks for swimming in the placid Caribbean waters. Playa Quehueche becomes Playa Bariques as you get closer to town. A standout among the beaches bordering Lívingston is Playa Capitanía, on the town’s southeast fringes.

Back along the Río Dulce, another kilometer or so upstream, is a spot where warm sulfurous waters bubble from the base of a cliff, providing a pleasant place to swim. Shortly thereafter, the river widens into a lake known as El Golfete.

The lake is home to a dwindling population of manatees protected on its northern shore by the Chocón Machacas Biotope (7 a.m.–4 p.m. daily, $5). The large, slow-moving aquatic mammals (also known as sea cows) are extremely elusive creatures and fewer than 100 are thought to inhabit these waters. The walruslike animals are threatened throughout their range by long reproductive cycles (they reach sexual maturity late in life) and collisions with motorboats.

Also known as the Quetzal Biotope ($3.50, 7 a.m.–4 p.m. daily), this 1,044-hectare protected area is one of several biotopes administered by University of San Carlos’s Center for Conservation Studies (CECON) and is conveniently situated along Highway CA-14 at Km. 160.5, about an hour from Cobán. Though quetzal birds are easier to spot in the Sierra de Las Minas Biosphere Reserve, the elusive creatures are said to frequent the yard of some local eating establishments (Biotopín Restaurant and Ranchitos del Quetzal), where they like to feast on the fruits of the aguacatillo tree.

About two kilometers north of town are the “painted caves” of B’omb’il Pek ($5.50–8, including equipment rental and guided tour). A community-run guide service (8 a.m.–3:30 p.m. daily) can be found right beside the highway. You can pay your entrance fee here and grab a flashlight and helmet. Inner tubes are also available for rent ($3) for inner tubing on the cool waters of the Río San Simón, another fun nearby activity.

The trip to B’omb’il Pek begins with a 40-minute hike through forest and cornfields. A steep wooden staircase leads you down into the sinkhole. Inside the cave, there are ceramics, and the caves are still used for Mayan religious ceremonies. There is a second, much smaller chamber where there are some faded cave paintings of two monkeys and a jaguar.

For the most intimate view of Puerto Vallarta, stay in a comfortable hotel within close walking distance of the colorful old-town sights, cafés, restaurants, and shops. If you opt to stay in the north-end Hotel Zone or the Marina, you can easily hail a taxi ($5–8) or hop a local bus to go where the action is. If it’s your thing, be sure to reserve seats ahead for a Fiesta Mexicana show.

Besides its many artificially constructed attractions, Puerto Vallarta and its surrounding regions offer a host of natural marvels. For lovers of the great outdoors, here are a few that are especially notable.

Generations ago, when Puerto Vallarta was a small, isolated town, there was only one beach, Playa los Muertos, the strand of yellow sand that stretches for a mile south of the Río Cuale. Old-timers still remember the Sundays and holidays when it seemed as if half the families in Puerto Vallarta would come here to play in the surf and sand.

This is still largely true, although now droves of winter-season North American vacationers and residents have joined them. Fortunately, Playa los Muertos is now much cleaner than during the polluted 1980s. The fish are coming back, as evidenced by the flocks of diving pelicans and the crowd of folks who drop lines every day from the New Pier (foot of Francisca Rodriguez).

If you ride all the way to Playa Mismaloya, you will not be disappointed, despite the oversized Hotel Jolla de Mismaloya crowding the beach. Follow the dirt road just past the hotel to the intimate little curve of sand and lagoon where the cool, clear Mismaloya stream meets the sea. A rainbow of fishing lanchas (boats) lie beached around the lagoon’s edges, in front of a line of beachside palapa restaurants.

Continue a few hundred yards past the palapas to the ruins of the Night of the Iguana movie set. Besides being built for the actual filming, the rooms behind those now-crumbling stucco walls served as lodging, dining, and working quarters for the dozens of crew members who camped here for those eight busy months in 1963.