Last Updated on September 1, 2018
Riviera Nayarit, Mexico, Tepic, Santiago and Mexcaltitan:
The Riviera Nayarit region is one of the newest and most modern beach destinations in Mexico, yet its main attractions still encompass diverse vegetation, rivers, lagoons and mountains. Activities include birdwatching, sports fishing, diving, golf, surfing as well as just enjoying the food and the sun. So having only two days to tour the area was never going to be enough to do more than just get a feel for the region. But a few areas were chosen of special interest and we were eager to start.
So we headed out, North from Nuevo Vallarta on the route mex200 to Tepic.
The Mexican roads are really well maintained and pretty much empty. We could have travelled faster if we hadn’t kept asking to stop for pictures, however, the lush greenery really had to be seen to be believed.
The route takes you through the winding mountains of the area and is really the only way to get between the towns in the valleys. Along each bend in the road, there are prayer points, ranging from a small stone statue of Jesus or the Virgin Mary, through to massive stone arches framing the sacred point. All are well maintained, all are lit with burning candles.
Tepic is the capital and largest city in the Mexican state of Riviera Nayarit and is located in the central part of the state at about 3000ft above sea level. This altitude makes it a rich area for agriculture, and major crops include sugar cane, citrus fruits and tobacco. As a major town, it also has large processing factories for these crops, and the roads fill up with trucks overloaded with raw sugar cane heading for processing. This area supplies the majority of its sugar to the Mexican Coca-Cola factory.
The town is bustling, even on a Sunday, with people going in and out of the main Church, or just chatting and playing in the town square. Everything is pristine, the pavements swept clean by shopkeepers whose stores open directly onto them. Not being a tourist town, we were viewed as just extra customers for the bar or iced smoothie store and left completely unhassled. It felt great to just roam about like a local.
Leaving Tepic, we head North again and pass through Santiago de Compostela. Compostela is the name of both a municipality and the town within that municipality that serves as the seat. This name was given in honour of Santiago de Compostela of Galicia Spain. The word Compostela is from the Latin ‘campus stellae’, meaning ‘field of stars’. A purely agricultural town in the middle of flat plains, major crops are tobacco, corn, beans, coffee, sorghum and mangoes.
Driving along we pass through fields of fresh growing tobacco, interspersed with hanging drying lines. The aroma of fresh tobacco is everywhere.
Passing through the town we continue to head North East along a very long straight road, with freshwater marsh either side, on our way to Isla Mexcaltitan via the small wharf Batanga. The Isla Mexcaltitan is a further 15 minutes boat ride out through the freshwater mangroves.
The Isla Mexcaltitan, known throughout Mexico as just Mexcaltitan is a small man-made island-city off the coast of Santiago Ixcuintla region of Riviera Nayarit. Legend has it that it was the Aztlan of the Aztecs, their home city and birthplace, from where they set out on their pilgrimage in 1091 that led them to found Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City)
The streets crisscross the circular Island, and the houses sit up high, with lowered paths acting as streets. At high water times of the year, or with severe storms, the street floods and are travelled by boat. We were lucky that there had been no flooding in a while, so everything was clean and people were moving about normally.
In the middle of the island sits the main Church, town hall and the museum Museo El Origen on the smallest plaza you could ever find.
The museum is small, and information only in Mexican, but our guide explained the artefacts on show. He explained the beliefs of the time, and how the artefacts discovered showed how the Aztlan had developed here before dispatching of groups of them in pilgrimage to find a new home city. The legend states that they would find a new home when they ‘saw the eagle eating a snake’. This symbol is found throughout the region and on excavations from the island.
Although it is clearly a tourist destination, it is still a living town, with people earning a living from fishing, agriculture and, of course, tourism. There is even a small school, although the population is dwindling.
Just across from the Isla Mexcaltitan is Restaurant Kika, looking more like a shack than a top dining venue, located on its own little island. It specializes in shrimp and the freshwater fish of the area and can prepare dishes to a quality that will astound you and are hard to beat. Its speciality is Pescado Zarandeado (marinated snapper smoked with the regional lemon mangrove coals), shrimp tortillas, meatballs and pate. You can watch it all being made fresh in front of you, or sit back with a cold beer and enjoy the calmness of the island view.
We catch a boat back and enjoy the tranquillity of the location and the wide open water bordered by mangroves. As with many areas of the Riviera Nayarit, this is a prime bird watching location, and thousands of little beaks and eyes follow our boat moving slowly upriver back to the wharf.
It has been a full day, but worth every second. It is only our second day in Mexico, and already our expectations have been blown away, and the feeling of closeness to nature and a calming pace of life is starting to permeate our souls.
As the sun goes down, we head south to San Blas and our Hotel for the night.
You Mexico trip looks amazing. You travel the way we like too – we will definitely try the Restaurant Kika when we go next month!
Looks fabulous, always wanted to go and I will one day x
How cool does this sound! Unfortunately I’m heading to the really touristy Mexico which is a real shame as I’m sure the undiscovered areas are incredibly interesting
This looks like a lovely region to explore. We have been through Mexico a few times but mostly on the coast side. Each town is unique in its own way, and the people where very friendly. Looking forward to reading about your trip.
I love the colorful Mexican buildings and their ability to integrate so much of their heritage in them.
Mexico is my favourite country. The food, the people, the culture. I just can’t get enough. Thanks.
Looks like a great place to have a road trip in Mexico, something which I don’t normally read/hear about when one talks about the country. Love all the pix, especially the little girl in yellow!
In my week there, I never heard a car horn once. It would be a perfect road trip, and you could probably camp on many of the beaches without ever seeing anyone. The roads are great but the have random speed bumps to slow you down through villages, so be warned.
It’s so cool that Tepic isn’t really a tourist town, so you were able to walk around like a local! I imagine that you were able to have such a unique experience there. I absolutely love your photos, particularly the last one on this page– the landscapes here are stunning! Great post; I really enjoyed reading about your experience in these towns!
I took over 1800 pictures on my 7 day tour (and 3 days of that I was in a conference!) Some of the landscape pics are simply amazing, and yes, that last one is one of my favourites. It is a photographers paradise there, and really hard to select just a few to keep the post loading quickly.
What a pretty little town. It’s always great to find less touristy places as it makes you feel like you get to see another side to the country.
I love Mexico. It’s one of the only countries that I been to more than a dozen times. I stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel in this area I think but sadly we spent most of the time on site. This makes me want to explore more.
So great that you were able to find non-touristy towns to explore and admire in Mexico! Such an underexplored area.
The tourist board there obviously wants to build it up but i think it will stay a secret paradise for a good bit longer.
Looks like you found some wonderful off-the-beaten-track areas of Mexico. Great story and it sounds like an even better time.
The thing is, it wasn’t even off the track stuff. Its just that not many tourists go there. So you met real people, ate real food, and never heard another English voice.
Great to know there are such nice roads throughout Mexico! This was a really interesting post. Loved the background info on the word Compostela…thanks for sharing!
The quality of the roads, and the lush green vegetation were two of the big surprises I had on my visit
Riviera Nayarit seems like the complete destination with lots of activities. I would not mind doing some sport fishing, diving and golf.
They have lots of good sports, including hiking, mountaineering, shooting, archery etc. And some great companies, like Vallarta Adventures so there isnt even a queue or delay in booking.
Mexico looks really beautiful and it doesn’t deserve all the bad press about it all the time. I must go in future. I think I would like it.
Simon told me that this part of Mexico is really safe and outstandingly beautiful. Well worth a visit I think
It is very safe there. They have full time Tourism Police to make sure all shops, bars, street sellers etc are honest and present a good face for Mexico. You may not want to walk late at night in Mexico City, but everywhere in the Riviera Nayarit region felt safe – I took so good nightime pics when I was all alone.