Sayulita

The town's name was given by Lauro González Guerra in honour of his home town of Sayula in Jalisco; Sayulita is its diminutive, and Sayula comes from a Nahuatl word meaning a place where flies abound. The first settlers came to work on coconut-palm ranches, part of a hacienda that extracted oil from the nuts of the cohune palm. During the coconut-oil boom many workers died of lung disease from breathing the dust thrown up when the coconuts were split. The hacienda also became an important cattle estate.

In 1936 the livestock was sold and the land handed over to the workers, forming the Sayulita ejido, a communal farm. Coconut production fell sharply in the 1940s, and farming and fishing became the main ways of making a living, with snapper, grouper, shrimp, oysters and lobster among the catch.

Change came with the road. The highway from Las Varas to Puerto Vallarta, built in 1965, opened the coast to visitors, and surfers had already begun to find the beach in the 1960s. A development programme later paved the streets and built squares, a market and pavements. Once a beach of surfers and backpackers, Sayulita has become a busy stop on the Riviera Nayarit, the name given to the Nayarit coast from San Blas south to the Bay of Banderas.

Surfing shapes the town's identity. The main beach has a gentle, sandy-bottomed break where beginners learn, and a rockier, more demanding section for experienced surfers, and surf shops and schools line the streets behind the sand. Yoga studios, surf shops and beach bars give the centre an informal air.

The Huichol, or Wixárika, are a visible presence. These Indigenous people of the Sierra Madre in Nayarit and Jalisco sell their beadwork and yarn crafts in the plaza every day, a reminder of the mountain cultures inland.

Local traditions are told with humour. Playa de los Muertos, the beach reached through the town cemetery, carries a legend that the dead rise at night and walk down to the water to enjoy the warm sea, so visitors are told not to stay on the beach after sunset. Small boats take visitors out to fish or, from about November to January, to watch whales.

Sayulita is a small town, a locality of the municipality of Bahía de Banderas in Nayarit, and its population swells with visitors in winter. Tourism is now the main business, from guesthouses and rented villas to restaurants, surf lessons, tours and craft stalls; thousands of visitors pass through each year on the way to and from Puerto Vallarta.

Fishing continues on a smaller scale than before, with dorado, tuna, sierra, marlin, sailfish and roosterfish among the fish landed or caught by sport anglers.

Growth has brought problems. Prices have risen to levels unusual for a town of its size, and the water and sewage systems have struggled to keep up, with sewage at times reaching the swimming areas. The winter season, when the town is full, and the quieter, wetter summer set the rhythm of the year. Buses leave the town's terminal for Puerto Vallarta every 10 to 15 minutes, and beyond the last streets the jungle-covered hills, home to armadillos, coatis, iguanas and deer, begin almost at once.

Sayulita eats from the sea. Fish tacos, spicy tuna tostadas and other seafood dishes are the staples of its restaurants, from palm-thatched palapas on the sand to small places in the centre, and dorado, snapper and tuna are among the local catch. Nayarit's coastal classic is pescado zarandeado, a whole fish split open and grilled over wood.

Street-side taco stands are the cheapest and most popular way to eat, with meat as well as fish tacos, and the town has forty or more restaurants for its size, ranging from traditional Mexican cooking to pizza and international menus aimed at visitors.

To drink, beach bars below the plaza serve margaritas and cold beer, and Mexico's tequilas can be sampled too. Beer bought in the shops around the square comes in returnable bottles, with a deposit paid back when they are brought back. Raicilla, the agave spirit of the Jalisco coast to the south, and tequila from the highlands inland are both easy to find.