The Far North · Boca de Chila · Platanitos · San Blas · Mexcaltitán · Costa Nayarit · Mexico

The Far North

North of Chacala the resorts run out and the real Mexico begins — a hundred kilometers of empty beaches, shrimp coves, a colonial naval capital, and an island that may be the birthplace of the Aztec people.

Past Chacala, the Riviera Nayarit lets go. The polished corridor of One&Only, Rosewood, and the Ritz-Carlton Reserve gives way to a long, wild shoreline of undeveloped Pacific beaches, river-mouth fishing villages, mangrove estuaries ringed with shrimp ponds, and palapas where a family grills your catch over mangrove charcoal. Mass tourism never reached this coast, for two honest reasons: it’s two-plus hours from the Vallarta airport, and the *jejenes* — the famous no-see-ums — have quietly kept the bulldozers away for fifty years. What’s left is the version of this coast long-time residents remember: a secret beach all to yourself, and a family that cooks your shrimp in garlic and butter for a third of Sayulita prices.

A word of candor, because you deserve it: this is not a market we actively serve, and we’ll tell you why. No resident luxury agents, no MLS, frequent ejido title that needs careful legal conversion, and owners who price rustic beach lots like they sit in Sayulita. We feature the Far North as a destination and a horizon — a place to go and fall in love with, and to watch. And the watching just got interesting: the new Tepic toll highway (late 2025) and United’s first-ever Houston–Tepic nonstops put a real airport about an hour from San Blas. The math up here is changing for the first time in half a century.

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The Stretch

~100 km

Boca de Chila to Mexcaltitán, all north of Chacala.

Nearest Airport

Now Tepic (TPQ)

~1 hour to San Blas via the new highway; PVR is 2–3 hours.

The Signature Dish

Shrimp, Garlic, Butter

Zarandeado fish and oysters on the shell at a third of corridor prices.

Real Estate Reality

Thin, By Design

No MLS, ejido traps, a handful of listings — a horizon market, stated plainly.

Neighborhood Overview

Character
Wild & authentic
the opposite of a resort strip
The famous wave
Las Islitas
once the Guinness world’s-longest; now “longest in North America”
The deterrent
Jejenes
worst July–Oct; cleared by any breeze; manageable with DEET and long sleeves at dusk
The enclaves
Las Tortugas · Punta Custodio
the only genuine micro-markets on the stretch
Value
Real
recent sales $225K–$700K where Sayulita asks millions
Our position
Horizon market
go, fall in love, watch; don’t expect us to list it yet

The Journey, South to North

A hundred kilometers of wild, historic, and untouched coastline

Boca de Chila 📍

The half-finished port A quiet river-mouth hamlet that a president decided to transform: AMLO built a full naval base and a ferry pier here, inaugurated in his final days in office, meant to carry tourists to the Islas Marías. The base is real — a thousand-plus personnel, a dredged channel — but the tourist ferry has never sailed, and the grand vision was effectively shelved. Who comes / who buys: nobody, yet. No services, no market. Its significance is as a wildcard: a brand-new pier and a permanent federal presence at a once-inaccessible point.

Platanitos 📍

The palapa cove “Little Bananas” — a small, sheltered, palm-backed cove famous for one perfect thing: a hillside row of six or seven open-air seafood palapas looking down over the bay. Pull off the highway, sit in the shade, and order the whole experience: pescado zarandeado off the mangrove-charcoal grill, oysters on the shell at about 150 pesos a dozen, garlic-butter shrimp. The beach below is short, calm, and good for families. Who comes / who buys: Guadalajara and Tepic families on weekends; surfers passing through. There’s no residential market in the cove itself — the real estate is next door.

Playa Las Tortugas & Punta Custodio 📍

The value enclaves — the one genuine market up here Past the headland runs eight to ten miles of wild, federally protected turtle-nesting beach backed by an 800-acre mangrove estuary — and on it, the only development on the entire stretch: Playa Las Tortugas, a tiny HOA community of 16 custom ocean-view villas and 14 lots (one recently listed at $125K). Recent sales tell the story: a beachfront three-bedroom for $700K, two-bedrooms for $225K–$275K — a genuine bargain by any coastal measure. Next door, Punta Custodio is a small gated cluster of about fourteen mostly American-owned homes. The honest read: the value is extraordinary and it comes bundled with 15 km of dirt road, jejenes in the grass, no dining or shopping, and a resale that takes patience. The right buyer is a self-sufficient nature lover, and we’ll say so to their face.

Matanchén Bay 📍

The longest wave and the best shrimp A broad bay strung with villages — Santa Cruz de Miramar, Aticama, Los Cocos, Las Islitas — that holds two claims to fame. The first: Las Islitas carried the Guinness record for the world’s longest surfable wave (~1,700 meters; California surfers nicknamed it “Stoners” in the ’60s and took turns driving down the beach to retrieve each other). Jetties shortened it; today it’s billed as the longest in North America, best on summer south swells. The second: the densest run of shrimp palapas on the coast — Chiringuito de Palo, Mr. Camarón, the oyster counter at Cabaña 12, and Casa Mañana’s Alebrije, the most refined kitchen on the bay. Don’t leave without Juan Bananas pan de plátano, baked to the same Hawaiian-adapted recipe since 1973. Who comes / who buys: surfers in season, Tepic and Guadalajara weekenders. Real estate is informal and ejido-complicated — eat and surf here; list elsewhere.

San Blas 📍

The colonial naval capital A genuinely remarkable town that history forgot. In 1768 the Spanish crown made San Blas its Pacific naval base — thirty thousand people, the departure point for Junípero Serra’s California missions and the voyages that reached Alaska. Then the harbor silted up and left a time capsule: the hilltop ruins of La Contaduría, the church whose bells inspired Longfellow’s last poem, the old customs house, and the dock from the Maná song. Today it’s a Pueblo Mágico (2023) and one of the finest birding destinations in the Americas — 400-plus species within 40 km, second in the hemisphere only to Panama — with La Tovara’s mangrove tunnels and freshwater spring as the crown jewel. Who comes / who buys: birders from around the world, history travelers, surfers. The housing stock is old fishing homes, often priced by owners who confuse historical romance with market value. A destination, not a listing sheet.

Mexcaltitán 📍

The island that may be the cradle of Mexico Out in the lagoons floats a tiny circular island village reached only by panga — streets that flood in the rainy season until residents move by canoe, shrimp drying on every rooftop, and a legend with teeth: that this is Aztlán, the mythical homeland from which the Mexica began the migration that founded Tenochtitlán. The archaeologists remain politely skeptical; the island wears the title proudly anyway — la cuna de la mexicanidad. Eat what exists nowhere else: tlaxtihuilli (shrimp-and-corn atole), camarón a la cucaracha, shrimp meatballs at La Alberca, all from the lagoon outside the window. Every June 28–29, the whole town races its saints around the lagoon in decorated boats, and San Pedro — patron of fishermen — always wins. Who comes / who buys: Mexican cultural travelers. There is no market here, and there shouldn’t be. It’s the single best story on the coast, and the reason this page exists.

Shops, Markets & Life

Provisioning up here means village tiendas, the San Blas mercado, and whatever the panga brought in this morning. La Tovara tours, turtle camps, and the January migratory-bird festival are the “attractions”; everything else is beach, estuary, and table. Bring cash, bring repellent, fill the tank in Las Varas or San Blas — and that’s the entire logistics briefing.

Lifestyle & Amenities

This is the coast for people whose amenities are a wave, a bird list, and a grill. Surf Las Islitas June through September; run the mangrove tunnels at La Tovara (the jejenes don’t follow you onto the water); watch for the 400 species; eat shrimp three meals a day without apology. The jejene truth, told straight: they’re weak fliers cleared by any breeze, worst in the rainy months and around dusk, managed with DEET and long sleeves — long-term residents barely notice, unprepared visitors get eaten. We tell you because the disappointed first-timer is this coast’s oldest cliché.

Who Buys Here

Key residential and investment profiles attracted to the area

The Day-Tripper & Weekender

Guadalajara and Tepic families who’ve been coming to Platanitos and Los Cocos for generations.

The Surf Pilgrim

Las Islitas on a south swell — the longest ride of most surfers’ lives, still.

The Birder

A world-class destination: 400+ species, La Tovara, and the January festival. They book Garza Canela and stay a week.

The Self-Sufficient Value Buyer

The Las Tortugas / Punta Custodio profile: built or bought $200K–$700K on a wild beach, eyes open about the roads and the bugs.

The Horizon Watcher

Investors tracking the new highway and the Tepic flights — the access math that could, eventually, change everything up here.

A Day in the Life

The Saturday Test in The Far North

08:00 AM — Leave Chacala
Coffee, full tank, repellent in the glovebox.
10:00 AM — Platanitos Pull-Off
Oysters on the shell and the cove view from a hillside palapa — breakfast of champions.
12:00 PM — Las Islitas
Paddle out if the south swell is running; swim the gentle inside if it isn’t.
02:00 PM — Lunch on Matanchén Bay
Zarandeado fish at Chiringuito de Palo, banana bread from Juan Bananas for the road.
04:00 PM — La Contaduría at Golden Hour
The naval ruins above San Blas, cannons aimed at an empty, beautiful harbor.
06:00 PM — La Tovara by Evening Light
Mangrove tunnels, crocodiles, and a spring-fed swim — no jejenes on the water.

Eat & Drink

The Instagrammable Guide to The Far North

Seafood Palapa

Las Palmas (Platanitos) 📍

Hillside over the cove; zarandeado and garlic shrimp.

verify on location

Seafood Palapa

El Delfín (Platanitos) 📍

Camarones al ajillo at the center of the famous palapa row.

verify on location

Coastal Casual

Cabaña 12 / “El Chuy” (Aticama) 📍

The oyster-and-tostada stop, open from breakfast.

verify on location

Seafood Palapa

Chiringuito de Palo (Matanchén) 📍

The connoisseur’s pick: beachfront palapas and a pool.

verify on location

Casual

Mr. Camarón (Matanchén) 📍

The bay-boulevard shrimp institution.

verify on location

Boutique

Casa Mañana 📍

Alebrije** (Los Cocos) — The most refined kitchen on the bay; camarones al coco.

verify on location

Bakery

Juan Bananas (San Blas) 📍

The original pan de plátano since 1973 — part bakery, part museum.

verify on location

Upscale

Garza Canela (San Blas) 📍

The best sit-down meal in town and the birders’ legendary base.

verify on location

Pre

Hispanic 📍

**La Alberca** (Mexcaltitán) — Tlaxtihuilli and camarón a la cucaracha with the lagoon at your elbow — the most distinctive plates on the entire coast.

verify on location

Now Available

The Far North Listings

Browse current homes, condos, and lots for sale below. Ask us about titled-vs-ejido status on any property — it’s the first question that matters here.

Nayarit Costa Norte, Nayarit

$ 32,000,000.00 USD

7 bedrooms | 6.5 baths

Beautiful villa located in the exclusive Mandarina development. Features stunning ocean views, infinity pool, and luxurious amenities....

Nayarit Costa Norte, Nayarit

$ 6,000,000.00 USD

MLS # 43543
7 bedrooms | 8 baths
1,498.45 m2 / 16,129.34 sqft

Exclusiva villa frente al mar en Marina Chacala Villa Malinali IV, Riviera Nayarit. Una propiedad diseñada para compradores que buscan...

Nayarit Costa Norte, Nayarit

$ 3,600,000.00 USD

MLS # 39621
5 bedrooms | 6 baths
1,038.61 m2 / 11,179.64 sqft

ENGLISH: Welcome to a one-of-a-kind tropical villa in the exclusive gated community of Marina Chacala. Perched on the oceanfront point,...

Nayarit Costa Norte, Nayarit

$ 895,000.00 USD

MLS # 40370
2 bedrooms | 2.5 baths
269.90 m2 / 2,905.20 sqft

English below: Una joya escondida con impresionantes vistas al Océano Pacífico! Esta espaciosa casa de 2 recámaras y 2.5 baños...

Nayarit Costa Norte, Nayarit

$ 849,000.00 USD

MLS # 39116
3 bedrooms | 3.5 baths
251.91 m2 / 2,711.52 sqft

English Below: Entra a un santuario privado donde el caos del mundo desaparece y cada día se siente como unas vacaciones. Esta extraordinaria...

Nayarit Costa Norte, Nayarit

$ 819,000.00 USD

MLS # 40482
3 bedrooms | 3 baths
331.88 m2 / 3,572.31 sqft

ENGLISH BELOW: Un seductor refugio moderno con vistas al mar en Aticama. Construido con estándares de EE. UU. por un constructor...

Nayarit Costa Norte, Nayarit

$ 549,500.00 USD

MLS # 40459
3 bedrooms | 4 baths
380.86 m2 / 4,099.55 sqft

English below: Vive la experiencia del verdadero estilo de vida frente al mar en esta impresionante casa de 3 recámaras, 2 baños...

Nayarit Costa Norte, Nayarit

$ 539,000.00 USD

MLS # 37997
3 bedrooms | 2 baths
209.92 m2 / 2,259.60 sqft

Descubra esta encantadora casa de artista, un remanso de paz con 3 dormitorios y 2 baños, perfectamente situada con acceso privado...

Nayarit Costa Norte, Nayarit

$ 225,000.00 USD

MLS # 37080
2 bedrooms | 2.5 baths
278.90 m2 / 3,002.04 sqft

Spanish Above/English Below A 3 minutos a pie de su playa semiprivada, a 1,5 cuadras del océano. Construida según los estándares...

Nayarit Costa Norte, Nayarit

$ 189,000.00 USD

MLS # 40567
2 bedrooms | 2 baths
161.94 m2 / 1,743.12 sqft

Nestled in the heart of the authentic Mexican community of Las Varas, this delightful 2-bedroom, 2-bath home offers the perfect blend...

Nayarit Costa Norte, Nayarit

$ 162,000.00 USD

MLS # 27098

Terreno de 47,000 m2 ubicado en San Blas Nayarit. Una zona en la riviera del rio frente a una isla, lugar paradisiaco, zona de manglares...

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