PLAYA TENACATITA

Imagine an ideal tropical paradise: free camping on a long curve of clean white sand, right next to a lovely little coral-bottomed cove, with all the beer you can drink and all the fresh seafood you can eat. That describes Tenacatita, a place that old Mexican Pacific hands refer to with a sigh: Tenacatitaaahhh . . .

  Folks usually begin to arrive sometime in November; by Christmas some years there’s room only for walk-ins. Which anyone who can walk can do: Carry in your tent and set it up in one of the many RV-inaccessible spots.

  Tenacatita visitors enjoy three distinct beaches: the main one, Playa Tenacatita; the little one, Playa Mora; and Playa la Boca, a breezy, palm-bordered sand ribbon stretching just over three km north to the boca (mouth) of the Río Purificación.

  Playa Tenacatita’s strand of fine white sand curves from the north end of Punta Tenacatita along a long, tall packed dune to Punta Hermanos, a total of about two miles. The dune is where most visitors—nearly all Americans and Canadians—park their RVs. The water is clear with gentle waves, fine for swimming and sailboarding. Being so calm, it’s easy to launch a boat for fishing—common catches are huachinango (red snapper) and cabrilla (sea bass)—especially at the very calm north end.

  The sheltered north cove is where a village of palapas has grown to service the winter camping population. One of the veteran establishments is El Puercillo, run by longtimer José Bautista. He and several other neighbors take groups out in his launches ($80 total/half-day, bring your own beer) for offshore fishing trips and excursions.

PLAYAS MORA AND LA BOLA

Jewel of jewels Playa Mora is accessible by a steep, but short, uphill dirt road running north from Playa Tenacatita past the palapas. Playa Mora itself is salt-and-pepper black sand dotted with white coral, washed by water sometimes as smooth as glass. Just 50 feet from the beach the reef begins. Corals, like heads of cauliflower, some brown, some green, and some dead white, swarm with fish: iridescent blue, yellow-striped, yellow-tailed, some silvery, and others brown as rocks. (Be careful. Moray eels like to hide in rock crannies, and they bite. Don’t stick your hand anywhere you can’t see.)

  If you get to Playa Mora by December you may be early enough to snag one of the roughly dozen car-accessible camping spots. If not, plenty of tent camping spaces accessible on foot exist; also, a few abandoned palapa-thatched huts are usually waiting to be resurrected.

  North-side Playa la Boca (fronting the palm grove by the ingress road) is the overflow campground for Tenacatita. It’s not as popular because of its rough surf and steep beach. Its isolation and vigorous surf, however, make Playa la Boca the best for driftwood, beachcombing, shells, and surf-fishing.

WILDLIFE-WATCHING

Tenacatita’s hinterland is a spreading, wildlife-rich mangrove marsh. From a landing behind the Tenacatita dune, you can float a boat, rubber raft, or canoe for a wildlife-watching excursion. Local guides also furnish boats and lead trips from the same spot. Take your hat, binoculars, camera, telephoto lens, and plenty of repellent.

TENACATITA BUGS

That same marshland is the source for swarms of mosquitoes and jejenes, “no-see-um” biting gnats, especially around sunset. At that time, no sane person at Tenacatita should be outdoors without having slathered on some good repellent.