San Juan de Alima : Km. 211
San Juan de Alima has doubled in size over the last few years. There are so many unoccupied hotels here that surfers joke about demolishing a few of them, and converting them into artificial reefs, in order to create surfable waves, which might just draw enough visitors to fill up the remaining surplus of hotels. On holiday weekends, San Juan is transformed into a zany, madcap, drunken, gold chain-wearing disco inferno, but at other times, it can be eerily quiet, so you're just as likely to have the whole place to yourself.
San Juan de Alima : Phot by : surf.rifa.tv
San Juan is proceeding at breakneck pace with wildly optimistic, unrestrained development and construction of new hotels. Everything is for sale here. Beach lots are now valued at 2 million pesos and up. Hotel prices have increased, presumably to cover the cost of all the remodeling and new construction. San Juan is aiming upmarket; the old strip of $10 dive motels is now getting crowded out by swanky, high-roller, boutique hotels with rates from $50 to $100 a night, and up.
San Juan : Photo by : sntskr1
There are still a couple of cheap-o spots. The Villas de San Juan (Tel: 52-313-12500) has rooms for around $20 per night. (see the inimitable Bear's page for the entire detailed report). Here's another blog report. And here's an excellent fishing report. And some stuff about fideicomisos.
The Coral (Tel: 01-313-328-8006), the Costa Azul (Tel:313-327-9013) and the Cangrejo (Tel: 01-313-327-9171) may still have rooms for under $20.
San Juan : Photo by : jorgeenriquezsj
At the Cabañas Estrella de Mar, a room with 2 beds goes for $40 to $50. (Tel:313) 327 9178
The Parador (swanky flash-based website) (Tel:01 313 32 7 90 38), and the Miramar (tel: 313-327-9048), once located at the south end of town, are now right in the middle of the strip. Both look like they've been extensively renovated. The Miramar has a few rooms without AC for around $25. or $40 with AC, or $80 for a bungalow. The Parador might negotiate.
San Juan de Alima Video from the excellent crazyonbikes website.
The Hotel Puerta del Mar (Tel: 313-327-9120) (video, website), at the far north end of town has nicer rooms for around $40 to $60. Or you can just buy the whole place; it's For Sale for around $ 550,000.00.
View from the swanky chaise lounges at the Hacienda Trinidad : Photo by : efraingo
The Maria Isabel has double AC rooms for $40 and bungalows for $100. (Tel: 313-327-9004 or 9005. Similar deals can be found at the Hotel Oceano (photo), the Hotel Antony (video) (Tel:+52)-313-104245360003), and the Alima Palace. The Hotel Paradise Beach runs $100 to $ 150.
The swankiest, most premium, top notch, high-roller destination has got to be the Hotel Hacienda Trinidad. (Tel: 313-327-9200, Fax: 313-327-9220, e-mail: hotel_hacienda_trinidad@hotmail.com) Here's a Hacienda Trinidad page on Facebook. Rooms run around $100 to $150 per night.
The Oasis de Mariana is a lovely private home that's available for rent. Another house is listed online with only a phone number: (313) 100-3867. A real estate site lists this cottage available for rent.
San Juan de Alima : Photo by : surf.rifa.tv
The main beach at San Juan is a wide, windswept 3 mile patch of hard-packed gray sand. There's a few rocks at the south end (and a steep trail down from the highway). Gravel bars line a few minor sub-points below the town.
San Juan de Alima : Photo by : jwolff
The north end of the beach, called Zancudos (sand fleas) is a nice little cove with plenty of parking behind the dunes. A failed restaurant is sort of returning to the earth here, its kitchen converted into a large, reeking outhouse. There's a shocking amount of garbage at the north end of the beach. This end of the beach could support an excellent campground, but it really needs to be cleaned up. Meanwhile, you can rent Quads:
Looks like Extreme motorsports have become popular here!
Playa Zancudos (Punta La Playa) : Photo by : efraingo
Behind the cove at Zancudos, a dirt access road leads past the end of the beach and into the low, palm-forested area behind the massive Cabeza Negra headland. The road is gated, and watched by guards. The road continues over the low rise and then down into the so-called "Club Privada de San Juan" which isn't really a club, and has nothing to do with San Juan, except for the locals who work there, mostly as domestic servants and gardeners.
The government has a plan to develop the adjoining beaches of Club Privada de San Juan and Tamarindillo into a zona exclusiva y residencial. Which is what they both already are. Due to various irregularities, both of these beaches have remained private, gated and off-limits to locals and visitors alike, for more than 20 years.
La Privada de San Juan (Puerto de La Playa de San Juan) : Photo by : Elizabeth Madrigal
The Privada is an exclusive real estate development, built on privatized ejido land which was sold off by the ejido of El Ticuiz. The people of San Juan have long protested the illegal closure of this beach. Legal decisions in favor of making the road accessible to the public have so far been ignored.
Tamarindillo, the other beach on the point, remains almost completely undeveloped. Vicente Fox apparently tried to purchase the entire bay, and all the land between the beach and the highway, using a prestanombres, or borrowed name. Nobody can own a beach in Mexico, but the law is sometimes circumvented by purchasing the surrounding land, in order to close off all of the access routes. Lots of people don't care for such tactics.
Google Sat Photo via : imageshack
Tamarindillo was declared a natural area in 2005, along with the beach from El Ticuiz to Boca de Apiza, including the lagoons at Mezcala, La Colorada and El Tule. The access road to Tamarindillo has been declared a camino vecinal municipal and therefore open to the public, but it still seems to be closed. You have to know somebody to get in here.
View Larger Map Google Map of La Privada
Parasailing at Cabeza Negra : Photo by : enelviento.com
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