Living in
La Cruz de Huanacaxtle

La Cruz is two things at once and does not seem troubled by it. It is a working fishing village, and it has one of the serious marinas on the bay, so commercial pangas and large yachts share the same water and the same town.

​

That combination is most of the character. The village end stays a village, with the pace and the prices and the daily life that go with it. The marina end brings the restaurants, the crews and the visitors. They sit a few hundred metres apart and both are better for it.

​

It is smaller and quieter than Bucerías, ten minutes further north, and it feels considerably less built than either of its neighbours.

​

Sunday is market day

This is the one Charlotte goes out of her way for.

​

The La Cruz market runs on Sundays and it is bigger than the Nuevo Vallarta one by some distance. More vendors, and a different mix: alongside the produce and the food there are clothes, jewellery, and a proper showing of artists rather than a couple of stalls. There is always live music, and enough people that watching them is half the morning.

​

Three things worth knowing before you go. Go early, because things sell out. Go early for the other reason too, which is that it is hot by midday. And wear shoes you can walk in, because seeing all of it means covering more ground than you expect.

​

Charlotte has her regulars. An artist she buys a piece from every year. A jeweller who makes leather bracelets, which have become the standing answer for the men in the family. And a local designer who hand-paints dresses, which is the one stall she cannot walk past without leaving with something.

​

It is that kind of market. You browse for two hours and go home with things you did not plan on, and it is the single best reason to be in La Cruz on a Sunday whether or not you live there.

​

The marina

Worth a paragraph of its own, because it is the reason a lot of people end up here.

Large yachts and working fishing boats tied up within sight of each other, and you can walk the docks and look at all of it. Doug does this most times he is in town, and for anyone who likes boats it is a better hour than the beach.

​

The restaurants cluster around it, which is why a village this size has more to choose from than it should.

​

The beach

Beautiful, and quieter than Bucerías or Nuevo Vallarta.

A bit more wave here, so not as flat-calm as the Nuevo Vallarta beach. Better for standing in the water than for swimming lengths, depending on the day.

​

Getting around

La Cruz is small enough to walk once you are in it. The village, the market and the marina are all within easy reach of each other.

Getting elsewhere is the trade, and it is a real one. The closest large grocery store is in Bucerías, so the weekly shop is a drive rather than an errand. Bucerías is also where you go when you want more restaurants than La Cruz offers, and it is close enough for a short cab ride.

​

The airport is the real consideration, and the number that matters is not the distance. In high season, budget an hour and a half to two hours to get from La Cruz to the terminal. The road runs down through Bucerías and Nuevo Vallarta, it is the only way, and in February it is full.

​

That is not a reason to rule the town out. It is a reason to book later flights, leave earlier than feels sensible, and know the number before you commit to several years of doing it. If you fly often or expect a stream of visitors, this is the single biggest argument against living here.

​

Eating and drinking

Good restaurants and bars, helped along by the marina. Fewer of them than in Bucerías, which is either a limitation or the entire point depending on the person.

If you want a different restaurant every night for a month, live in Bucerías and visit here. If you want six places you know well and people who know you, this is the better address.

​

Noise and pace

Quiet. Not silent, because a working village and a marina both make their own noise at their own hours, but quiet compared with Bucerías and without the highway close by.

​

In February, and in September

February. The market is at its fullest, the marina is busy, and the restaurants fill up with people who have come from further down the bay for the evening. It is the busiest La Cruz gets and it is still not crowded in the way Bucerías is.

​

September. Quiet, warm and wet. But the fishing does not stop, the marina still has boats in it, and the village carries on being a village. Fewer visitors rather than an empty town.

​

Why it matters. Of the three north shore towns, La Cruz has the smallest swing between its two seasons. It has real work going on in it year-round, so what empties out is the visitors rather than the place. If you are worried about ending up somewhere that switches off in May, this is the one that worries least.

​

Worth knowing

The Blessing of the Boats starts here. Every January the decorated fishing fleet sails from La Cruz down to Bucerías for the end of the Patron Saint Festival, which tells you something about how the two towns relate to each other and how long that has been going on.

​

That is also the useful frame for La Cruz generally. It is not a place built for people like your reader, and it is not trying to be. You would be living in someone else's town, which most people who choose it consider the advantage.

​

If this sounds like you

La Cruz suits people who want small over convenient, who like boats or markets or both, and who do not mind driving for the weekly shop. It suits anyone who would rather be a regular somewhere than have endless choice.

​

It does not suit people who fly often, who want restaurants within stumbling distance, or who would find a quiet Tuesday in September lonely rather than pleasant.