Villa del Mar, Jalisco

Southern Cabo Corrientes (between Corrales and Villa del Mar) represents one of the last gasps of primo undeveloped beaches along Pacific Mexico. (Northern Cabo Corrientes beaches are the better known ones like Yelapa and Las Animas; they are still fun and funky but more familiar to travelers, and with more services.) The more remote Cabo Corrientes villages didn't get phone service or electricity until the very end of the 20th century, and are for the time being equal parts tropical, serene, and au natural.

Between Mayto, Tehuamixtle ("Tehua" for short), and Villa del Mar there are at most 500 inhabitants; each is just a tiny enclave of families who moved here to embrace the simple life long before there was phone service, electricity, or a decent access road.

Although it is an easy walk down a low bluff from Villa del Mar to its long, beautiful beach, this village has a more pastoral and less "beachy" feeling than Mayto and Tehua. Small houses of wood or cement block are painted bright colors, topped with roofs of tile or tin. Cows and horses graze behind fences of tree limbs and barbed wire.

Not much noise ruffles the air; options for eating and drinking are limited. You can contact locals to go boating or horseback riding or rent an ATV; it's all very informal, but available if you ask around. For now there are no restaurants or services on the Villa del Mar beach. Communally owned El Cielito has a restaurant, pool, and comfortable cabins for overnight stays. Just down the road, privately owned Cabañas Ecológicas El Ocaso rents simpler and less expensive cabins, and has no pool or restaurant.

As an outsider, I have no place to comment on whether selling Cabo Corrientes Sur's pristine beachfront land is good or bad for the people who have lived there for generations. But as a longtime Mexico fan, I'm hoping that they don't get sold up the river to become the exclusive domain of the rich or famous. I hope they will at least retain some of their unsophisticated charm for future generations of travelers, as well as for the current owners.

For more information on the beaches of Cabo Corrientes Sur, see Mayto, Tehuamixtle, and the Cabo Corrientes Sur Travel Guide.