After our long travel day from Grenada to Puerto Vallarta, we took the local bus to the sleepy little village of San Pancho. As the bus pulled into town, the rain started to pour and it didn’t stop for three days! Unfortunately, those were the only three days that we had to look for an apartment before a long string of family visitors started to arrive. So what were our first impressions of San Pancho? That it’s a rainy, bleak little town with no available apartments ?
Luckily, after 3 full days of searching, the sun started to shine and we finally found the perfect apartment for our stay. Our 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 level flat is exactly what we were hoping for. Our neighbours are Mexican, there are roosters cooing every morning, and banana trees shade our second floor deck.
Check out the GoatLife TV Episode of our San Pancho apartment Fiasco!
We pertained to San Pancho based on the recommendation of our pals Dan and Casey over at ACruisingCouple.com and because of a couple of articles on the website Bridges and Balloons and we’re happy that we took their advice. This small town of just 2,000 people has a stunning beach with good waves for surfing, friendly locals and a fascinating community of expats and travellers, there are numerous things to do in San Pancho. but despite the town’s obvious charm, it wasn’t exactly what we were expecting.
When Dan and Casey came here at the beginning of 2014, San Pancho was a very different place. even though they came in January during the peak season, they tell stories of a “relatively unknown” town that felt very Mexican. While San Pancho has retained some of its Mexican charm, it has been slightly diluted by a recent influx of tourism and foreign funded infrastructure.
Today, the main road is lined with European-style restaurants (albeit amazing ones like Maria’s), western cafes and foreign-owned vacation properties. live music is still played at the restaurants and it’s amazing, but it’s usually French, American or Italian tunes that we hear. San Pancho is lovely and it has definitely grown on us, but we don’t really feel Mexico here like we did in say… San Cristobal, but the authentic feel of the town heightens as we venture away from the main drag.
Climbing the hills on either side of this tiny little town exposes quiet, tree-lined roads that seem to be cut right out of the jungle. glamorous expat housing still dominates the hillsides, but in between the opulent mansions there are stunning little Mexican homes, casas and casitas with children playing and roosters cooing.
This is where we feel most at home and at the same time, the furthest from it. We feel like we’re travelling and that we’re in a new and exotic place, but for some reason we don’t feel that same feeling on the main street.
Even though western restaurants, music and vacation rentals in San Pancho take away from its purity, there are still some very fascinating things going on here. sometimes cowboys are seen trotting their horses down the road or along the beach, groups of old men congregate in the park to chat about their week and fishermen, mattress salesmen and water trucks drive up and down the street bellowing the quality of their goods through a altoparlante. now that feels like Mexico and we love it!
Take a walk around San Pancho with us in the GoatLife TV Episode Below:
Between here, Puerto Vallarta and nearby Sayulita town, we feel like San Pancho definitely has the best beach. The waves can sometimes make swimming a challenge, but overall the golden sand, clear water and lack of hawkers on the beach really makes San Pancho a kicking back place to chill out.
Also, the sunsets here are astonishing. people slowly saunter towards the beach at around 6:00 pm like flies attracted to a light. all of us set up our blankets or chairs on the sand and wait for the light show to begin.
Shortly after the sun kisses the sea each night, we’re treated with a dazzling array of prismatic yellows, blues and reds typically painted like brushstrokes on the late afternoon sky. You really can’t beat the sunsets in San Pancho and I’ve got to say, for some reason they’re even nicer than those in the Caribbean.
If the atmospheric art gallery wasn’t enough entertainment, dozens of baby sea turtles are released on the sand each night to start their dangerous life in the ocean. It’s fun to watch these tiny little creatures instinctively run towards the crashing waves before being swept away by the aggressive tides.
One thing that hasn’t changed since Dan and Casey’s check out is the expat and traveL Community qui. Ho intenzione di rubare le parole di Casey perché non riesco a pensare a un modo migliore per dirlo, ma San Pancho ha un gruppo di persone molto dinamico, interessante e di talento.
Abbiamo incontrato imprenditori indipendenti più unici e indipendenti qui nelle ultime settimane, di quanto abbiamo fatto in tutti i nostri viaggi. Nomadi digitali, musicisti, insegnanti, artisti, fornai, sarte, gioiellieri, mughe e blogger sembrano tutti essere attratti da questa piccola città carismatica. Adoriamo incontrare persone qui e conoscere il loro interessante stile di vita. In realtà abbiamo intenzione di intervistare un paio dei nostri preferiti qui su Gotr nelle prossime settimane.
Per riassumere finora …
Finora abbiamo scoperto molti pro e molti contro a San Pancho. Penso che entrambi immaginano una città molto messicana con un’enorme varietà di cibi regionali da assaggiare, musica locale che suonava ovunque, strade sonnolenti silenziose e persone messicane superavano completamente gli stranieri.
☞ Leggi di più sui viaggi del Messico qui:
Cose da fare a Puerto Vallarta – 20 cose fantastiche che non vorrai perderti!
Cose da fare in Playa del Carmen – un elenco della top 21
Cose da fare a La Paz, in Messico – un elenco della top 21
Cose da fare a Cabo San Lucas – un elenco della top 21
Cose da fare a Guanajuato – un elenco della top 10
Zaino in spalla in Messico – 8 motivi per viaggiare qui ora
I posti migliori da controllare in Messico
MANZANILLO COLIMA – L’ultima guida ai viaggi
Quello che abbiamo realizzato nell’ultimo mese è che questa città è stata scoperta da molti. Ci sono espatriati e turisti ovunque, la musica inglese viene suonata prevalentemente, ci sono solo una manciata di ristoranti alimentari messicani (la maggior parte dei quali servono solo tacos e altri snack) e le strade sono molto impegnate con auto e camion e veicoli da costruzione. Le cose stanno cambiando qui a San Pancho …
Sul lato positivo delle cose, abbiamo incontrato alcune persone incredibili (sia straniere che locali) e amiamo i tramonti e la spiaggia tranquilla qui. Ci piace molto anche il nostro appartamento e i piccoli ristoranti a conduzione familiare che abbiamo trovato. Inoltre, abbiamo iniziato le lezioni di spagnolo e Dariece ha iniziato Pilates. Entrambi abbiamo un po ‘di routine ora!
Alla fine, anche se entrambi desideriamo che San Pancho avesse un’atmosfera più vivace, autentica, perché abbiamo un sacco di membri della famiglia che vengono a controllarci (che probabilmente preferiscono avere dei comfort occidentali in Le loro vacanze), sembrerebbe che questa città fosse il posto perfetto per noi da scegliere.
Ti piace questo articolo? Fissalo!
Saremo qui per circa 2 mesi in totale e abbiamo già fatto cose davvero sorprendenti! Resta sintonizzato per conoscere le nostre avventure dentro e intorno a questa città della West Coast.
Disclaimer: Goats on the Road è un partner Amazon e anche un affiliato per altri rivenditori. Ciò significa che guadagniamo commissioni se fai clic sui collegamenti sul nostro blog e acquisti da quei rivenditori.