San Pancho

Hello! Jem here! Let’s start off at the end of Cancun:

The dwindling alzam stash was yet again threatened as the heavens opened one last time just to make sure we wouldn’t find the car rental return place. At one stage after my third turn on and off the highway, direction commands were coming from 3 anxious voices: Kyla, mom, and moms phone navigation on the loudest setting. 😬 thank you Cancun for that last farewell 😂 Not to worry though because getting to the airport a bit late means looong lines with people and their dogs. So Kyla and I were very happy squealing at various doggo friends.

We finally arrived in San Pancho at about 5pm, ready to find food and have a dip in the pool (the order of which did not matter). The short walk up and down the main road leading to the beach really highlighted the quaint beauty of San Pancho. The quiet streets glow with life from the restaurants that choose to be open each evening (there seems to be no real rule for business days and hours in the town as most places were erratically closed at random times). The restaurant and taco stand tables spill out into the streets and the sound of live music bounces down the road from a not too far away beach bar. On this first night we had dinner at a boho style spot where a glass of wine was a steal at R80! A slow jazz duo serenaded us through a *few* glasses of wine, heehee, at our table in the corner of the stoop. After watching a few people go in and out of a small door next to us, mom remarked: “goodness! Quite a few people live up there!” Kyla and I fell apart when explaining that it was actually the loo!

The next few days were occupied by a lot of absolutely nothing at all and it was fabulous. Thanks to a nasty full body sunburn I got on morning 1, despite being in the shade, and the rough waves at the beach which had us all in shrieks trying and failing to not get absolutely pummelled by the huge barrelling waves in the shallows, we stayed happily at the peaceful poolside for most of our days.
Obviously this meant that we punctuated our pool time with meal times!

In this unassuming town we had some of the best seafood and service of our trip so far. At a slightly fancy dinner spot we had shrimp aguachile (raw prawns in a red fresh citrus sauce), oysters, soft-shell crab tacos, and fish ceviche - nearly a home run except that mom felt very hoodwinked by a R210 glass of *ok* wine. One night we tried an Italian place which had only just opened the week before. The Italian chef came out to chat with us, we were given a free desert, and mom’s prawn pasta was to die for (also only R90 a glass of wine). Needless to say we went back again for our last dinner where the chef convinced mom of a lobster risotto and I finally scratched an itch about lasagne! Just outside our hotel was a street side taco place where we went one evening straight from the pool - Kyla and I just in our towels as the post dinner swim was already calling to us!

For two sunsets, we had cocktails and seafood on the beach. On one of these occasions, our shrimp aguachile arrived just as we realised a turtle hatchling release was happing further up the beach. Abandoning our cocktails and feast, we run over to see what the fuss was about. What an amazing blessing to be in the right place at the right time! In San Pancho, Project Tortuga aims to protect the endangered turtle population by relocating eggs from the beach where high temperatures, birds, and humans threaten their survival. Once the eggs hatch, they are released safely within hours, and on some evenings, these releases are done at sunset for the public to watch. On this evening, about 200 few-hours-old hatchlings were released to make their toddle down the beach to the sea. It was an incredible site to witness and the volunteers were so gentle with the teeny tiny turtles.

Our final sunset was spent at a beach shack spot called Oyster Point, where we had to-die-for prawn skewers and surprisingly amazing braaied oysters in the regional Zarandeado sauce. Unfortunately, my sunset view was blocked for a bit by the waiter who was shamelessly flirting with Kyla for far too long 😂

All in all, we definitely cracked the seaside holiday code with this one. On an evening visit to the nearby more popular Sayulita town and beach, this was confirmed as we all preferred our San Pancho which seems to promote a calmer, quieter, and more-down-to-earth type of tourism. Also! Following a local’s suggestion, we walked down to the end of the beach to the spot where children are taught to swim and had our peaceful beach swimming moment (even coming across a baby turtle having a swim in the waves with us!).

What a beautiful week spent on the Mexican coast!Read more