Living in Bucerías

Bucerías is what Nuevo Vallarta is not. Living in Bucerías means living in a town that grew rather than one that was planned, pressed into a narrow strip between the beach and Highway 200, which is why everything is close together and why it keeps building upwards. Highrises, cobbled streets, shops and restaurants all sitting in the same few blocks.

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The density is the whole character of the place. It is the reason you can walk everywhere, and it is the reason it is loud. Those two things come from the same fact and you do not get to have one without the other.

A lot of Canadians and Americans spend their winters here, so from November onwards it fills up with people on the same schedule as you. If that sounds like company, you will like it. If it sounds like a crowd, look north or across the road.

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The name means "place of divers."

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The beach

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Flat, wide and good for walking, which is the main reason people end up here rather than the swimming. You can put in an hour along the sand without having to think about it.

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Getting onto it is easy, which is worth saying because it is not true everywhere on this coast.

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Getting around

You do not need a car. That is the single biggest difference between Bucerías and most of the rest of the north shore, and for a lot of people it is the whole argument.

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Almost everything you need day to day is a walk: the grocery store, the shops, the restaurants, the market. People who live here often keep a car for the airport and the bigger supermarket runs and leave it parked the rest of the week.

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Everyday things

An easy walk to a grocery store, which sounds ordinary and is not once you have lived somewhere that involved a drive for everything.

The market and the shops are good, and there is enough of a town here that the services you need for actually living are present rather than an errand. Finding a good hairdresser is not a project, which is the kind of small thing that stops being small around week four.

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Eating, drinking and music

The range of restaurants is one of the best things about the town, and there is live music most nights if you want it. This is where people from the quieter parts of the north shore drive to for an evening out.

It is also, inevitably, why the evenings are noisy. See below.

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Thursdays, November to April

Every Thursday evening through the season the galleries open their doors for the Art Walk. They sit clustered together in the Art District, also called the Golden Zone, close enough that the whole thing is a walk rather than an outing. It is free and you go at your own pace.

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There is usually a glass of wine and something to eat, the artists and the gallery owners are there to talk to, and most people end up in a bar or a restaurant afterwards because that is where the route leaves you.

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If you are new here and wondering how you are supposed to meet anyone, this is the answer. It happens every week, nobody has to organise anything, and turning up on your own is completely normal.

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Festivals

The one Charlotte plans around is the Patron Saint Festival, nine days from the sixteenth of January, honouring Our Lady of Peace. Cannons, live music, beauty contests, a fair with rides, and most of downtown closed to cars for the duration.

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It ends on the twenty-fourth with the Blessing of the Boats. Decorated fishing boats sail down from La Cruz de Huanacaxtle to Bucerías in a pilgrimage and are blessed for the year ahead. Bucerías means "place of divers," and once a year the town says so out loud.

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This one is not put on for visitors. It is the town's own, and you are watching rather than being catered to, which is most of the reason it is worth being here for. The dates are the same every year, so it is easy to plan around.

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The other one worth knowing is the Chalk Art Festival, usually in February. Lázaro Cárdenas street becomes the canvas, artists come from around the country to spend the day drawing on it, and the money raised goes to local causes. Then it is gone, because nobody keeps chalk art.

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The water

This is the one to know about before you sign anything.

Most buildings in Bucerías run on a cistern, and they have been known to run out. Not constantly, and not everywhere, but often enough that it is a real question rather than a theoretical one.

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So when you are looking at a place here, ask about the water. How big the cistern is, how it gets filled, how often it has been a problem, and what happens when it is. It is an ordinary question locally and the answer will tell you a lot about how well the building is run.

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Nobody mentions this in the listings. It is worth more than most of what they do mention.

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Noise and pace

Loud, and honestly so. More people in less space, plus bars and restaurants, plus a highway close by. If you are coming for atmosphere this is exactly what you want. If you are a light sleeper, the street you choose matters more here than anywhere else on the north shore.

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That is not a reason to rule it out. It is a reason to stand on the balcony at ten at night before you decide, rather than at ten in the morning.

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In February, and in September

February. The busiest it gets. The Art Walk runs every Thursday, the restaurants are full, the beach is busy and parking becomes a sport. The Chalk Art Festival lands this month and the Patron Saint Festival has just finished. If atmosphere is what you came for, February delivers it.

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September. Quieter, though not empty in the way the gated communities go empty. Bucerías is a town with its own life, so things stay open and the streets stay in use. Fewer Canadians, more of the place itself. Hot and wet.

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Why it matters. The swing here is smaller than in the purpose-built communities, because a real town does not switch off. That is one of the better arguments for living in Bucerías rather than somewhere that empties.

It also means the noise that defines February is largely gone by September. Some people find that a relief. Others find it lonely, and it is worth knowing which one you are before you commit to several years of both.

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Worth knowing

The proximity of Highway 200 explains more about Bucerías than anything else. It is what compresses the town, what keeps it walkable, what makes it loud, and what puts you ten minutes from Nuevo Vallarta and half an hour from the airport.

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Whether that is a good trade is the entire question for anyone choosing between here and somewhere further off the road.

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If this sounds like you

Bucerías suits people who want to walk, who want somewhere to go in the evening, who would rather be among other people than behind a gate, and who are happy to trade quiet for it.

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It does not suit light sleepers, or anyone whose picture of Mexico is a quiet street and their own space.