History and culture. Sublime seaside views and interesting animal life. Exquisite cuisine and a luxurious resort home to the pool of your dreams. Were it not for the intense late-September heat and what at times was a challenge to find enough safe drinkable water to put me at ease — I come from a land where I typically can have all that I desire — I may have tried to find a way to stay in Nayarit , Mexico, after the conclusion of my visit. Nayarit is a state on the country’s west coast. The more touristy part of it — where you’ll find resorts including the one where I spent one rather glorious day and two very comfortable nights, Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit — is a stone’s throw from the popular destination city Puerto Vallarta, in the state of Jalisco. Nayarit also is home to nine “Pueblo Magicos” — “magical” towns and villages designated by the government as best exemplifying “aspects of culture, history, tradition, art, food, nature and more” — the most of any state in the nation. On this trip of drastic contrasts, I visited three of them: Jala , Sayulita and San Blas . (A fourth, Compostela , originally was on my group’s itinerary, but like a couple of other stops, it was scrapped due to logistics. Oh well — it’s easy to keep going with the flow when you’re that close to the Pacific Ocean.) If you’re looking for action in Nayarit, look no further than its relatively hopping capital, Tepic . After a day of flying, that saw me leave my Northeast Ohio home at 3 a.m. and land at the Tepic International Airport three flights and many hours later, I wasn’t looking for a lot of excitement. I was more than content to check into our hotel, the PlayCity Casino -neighboring Fiesta Inn Tepic , before going to a relaxing dinner. On the way to dinner, our group was driven around the busy city. We saw lots of nightlife, a surprising number of pizza joints and even fire jugglers. We were told it was “very safe,” but you’ll want to do your own research on that, of course. (Taking Nayarit as a whole, the U.S. Department of State recommends the use of increased caution due to crime but does not include Nayarit among the states to which it advises avoiding altogether .) Given how little of Tepic I experienced, I’m not truly qualified to say Loma 42 is a must-visit … but I’m comfortable saying it all the same. The food of chef Jesús Vázquez — who also has a location in Bahia, north of Puerto Vallarta — was creative and delicious. As would become a fairly common experience on this trip, our table was served a collection of items that, thanks to the language barrier, we couldn’t identify but enjoyed. (I must admit those four years of high school Spanish didn’t exactly produce long-term results.) We sampled so much terrific food, including two inventive pizzas, each diner having a fairly strong opinion as to which one was better. When I saw on the menu a twist on pad Thai, one of my favorite dishes, I asked if we could try that, and that tasty and complex bit of Thai-Mexican fusion did not disappoint. Recharged the next morning, I first took in an oceanside slice of San Blas, which lies west of Tepic and about 100 miles north of Puerto Vallarta. Were it the weekend, not a Tuesday morning, this quiet port area — an ideal place to snap some pics — would be bustling, we were assured, and it’s not hard to envision that. It already was hot enough that I yearned to jump in the water. Next came the most spellbinding of my Nayarit experiences: the nearby La Tovara National Park , part of the Marismas Nacionales Biosphere Reserve , a network of coastal lagoons, mangrove forests, swamps and mangroves. Referred to by our hosts simply as “the mangroves,” La Tovara teems with vegetation and species of all kinds, including about 75 types of birds. Disappointingly, the man guiding a lengthy and leisurely boat tour didn’t speak much English, so we relied on intermittent translations from our hosts representing the state. Still, the senses had so much to soak in that the experience was endlessly fascinating all the same. That longer of two available boat tours costs 300 pesos — about $15 — and if you’re pinching pesos, skip the optional stop at what was described as a zoo and a sanctuary for rescue animals, where we saw lots of alligators and some very chatty caged birds. It’s only 20 more pesos, however, and, if nothing else, it’s a chance to stretch your legs before finishing the boat trip. My new iPhone’s camera got a real workout at the park, and I was happy to have a case with a wrist strap, as I was taking numerous shots off the side of the boat. It wasn’t Plan A, apparently, but we lunched at Tunabreak Restaurant , at a table right on the sand a 30-second trek to the beckoning water. I enjoyed a coco loco, a cocktail served in a hollowed-out coconut with a straw. It was described as a multi-spirit affair, like a Long Island iced tea, but the sweet drink didn’t seem all that strong. And, yep, we were served more wonderful food items with Spanish names I couldn’t decipher. I’m not sure what it’s called, but do your best to order what was a large, foil-covered tray on which an amazingly prepared white fish — it boasted this terrific smoky flavor, but I do not know for a fact that it was smoked — is surrounded by yummy veggies. The dish proved to be a great use for the small tortillas provided to the table, and a few of us could not stop picking at this culinary treasure long after we were full. This day ended in Jala, a little town where, once you drive past the Oxxo — a line of convenience stores we saw everywhere in Nayarit — time seems to have stopped long ago. Now late in the afternoon on that Tuesday, a celebration of some kind, complete with booming fireworks, was going on a stone’s throw from our hotel, Quinta Nukari Boutique , which feels historic and quaint but with some welcome modern touches, such as a big in-room AC unit and a spacious bathroom with a standing shower and soaking tub. I enjoyed walking around town and taking in the restaurants and little shops. However, I did not trust buying water from any of them — one store was selling what appeared to be a half-consumed bottle of Coke — so I hauled it back to the Oxxo for agua. It was back at the hotel that we enjoyed a rooftop dinner, enhanced by selections from nearby fledgling winery Vinedos Meseta del Cielo . We enjoyed getting to know Paula Gangoiti, who told us all about the labor of love her parents began only last year with wines made from the 2022 harvest . I enjoyed a red, Gran Poeta, the bottle of which has an artistic design. This first part of my Mexico experience ended the next day in the more touristy Sayulita, home to lots of shops and restaurants and a busy beach, where a new friend and I enjoyed a margarita from a stand just feet from the water. We enjoyed a solid lunch at Don Pedro’s Restaurant and Bar , where, after enjoying a margarita-like cocktail made with mezcal and called the Mezcalita, I finally realized why people on the trip so often ordered lemonade — the use of sparkling mineral water, adding carbonation to the familiar drink, is a game-changer. Finally, it was off to Grand Velas, where I found myself to be a fish out of water while never being far from it, including soaking in the sun from that aforementioned dream pool. More on that to come.
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