Estado de Nayarit Favorite Tips by karenincalifornia

Best time to go - January

Favorite thing: I love going to Mexico in January....

Everywhere else in the US, other than southern California and Florida are too cold. Mexico is perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. This year, our two children finally had winter break at the same time. First week of January, we said, we are out of here, out of the cold wet winter in San Francisco Bay Area. We headed to San Pancho Mexico, and savored the warm sun by the pool. Heavenly!

Fondest memory: Warm in January!!!!

El Presidente used to live here

Favorite thing: As you stroll through the town or along the beach, you'll note some very interesting architecture. We thought this Moorish style residential palace was one of the more interesting buildings on the beach. San Pancho is an interesting mix of buildings. It has some extreme poverty, but it also has some remnants of wealth. Former Mexican President Luis Echeverria decided to make San Pancho his home and brought several public works projects to San Pancho. His dream was to make San Pancho a completely self sufficient community with a huge beachfront palace for himself - by helping himself to the Mexican people's tax dollars in the national coffers. Echeverria was controversial and is claimed to have been responsible for killing student protestors in 1971.

Not that that last fact has anything to do with my travels, but in case my tip starting painting Echeverria as a kind of a good guy in favor of bettering the community, I wanted to point out that he actually has some pretty serious baggage.

No two are alike

Favorite thing: The sunsets are breathtaking in San Pancho. It's the combination of the vast ocean views, the sun setting over the Pacific and the clouds that would roll in during the late afternoon that created such unique sunsets every evening.

We took pictures of the sunsets each night we were in San Pancho. Now, looking through them, it is hard to believe these were all taken from the same location. Each sunset is not like the other.