Living in Conchas Chinas, Amapas and the south shore

Living in Conchas Chinas, Amapas or further south means the coast where the mountains come down to the water, running south from Zona Romántica. Hillside villas and ocean-view condos tucked into jungle, small beaches between rocky stretches, and the bay opening out in front of all of it.

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It is quiet. Birds rather than traffic, and a long way in feel from the streets ten minutes behind you. People here tend to spend more time at home than anywhere else on this site, because the home is a good part of what they came for.

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If Zona Romántica is where the bay socialises, this is where it goes to be left alone.

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The views

This is the reason the area exists in the form it does.

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Because the properties are built into the hillside, what you get is uninterrupted: sunsets over open water, the bay, the jungle behind, the city lights at night, and whales in season, from the balcony, without going anywhere.

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That last one is worth pausing on. It is the only thing on this entire site that happens to you rather than being something you go and do, and it only happens in the winter months, which is exactly when you are here.

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The hill, and the part nobody writes down

Steep roads. Long staircases. Walks that are genuinely hard work.

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Every listing on this coast sells the view and none of them mention what holds it up. The view exists because the building is high and the ground is steep, and those are the same fact.

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And here is the part that matters most and gets said least: it gets harder as you get older.

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A staircase that is nothing at sixty-two is a consideration at seventy and a problem at seventy-eight. If you are buying somewhere to spend six months a year in for the next fifteen or twenty years, you are not buying for the person you are now. That is an uncomfortable sentence and it is the most useful one in this entry.

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It is also fixable, if you think about it in advance. Within the south shore there are flatter positions and steeper ones, places with a lift and places with forty steps from the road. Walk the actual route from the car to the front door, carrying shopping, in August, and then decide.

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Getting about

You need a car, or you need Uber and taxis, and you will use them daily rather than weekly.

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Groceries, a pharmacy, a doctor: depending where exactly you are, none of those is a walk. This is the least walkable area on the site and it is not close.

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The road is Highway 200, the same road that pins Bucerías against its beach at the other end of the bay, and it congests here too, especially heading into town at busy times.

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How close is town, really

The honest answer is that it depends how far south you are, and this is where the area divides.

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Amapas and Conchas Chinas, at the northern end, sit immediately above and beyond Zona Romántica. Town is five to fifteen minutes, and dinner out is an ordinary decision rather than an expedition.

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Garza Blanca and south, towards Mismaloya and Boca de Tomatlán, is further in every sense. Quieter, more dramatic, more self-contained, and a longer run for everything.

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That difference is large enough that a reader should know which end they are being shown. A property described as "south shore" could be ten minutes from Los Muertos or a good deal more.

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And the airport puts a number on it. In February, allow thirty to forty minutes from the Conchas Chinas end, forty to fifty from around Garza Blanca, and forty-five to sixty from Mismaloya.

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Those are longer runs than most people expect from somewhere that looks close to town on a map, and the far end of the south shore is a longer trip to the terminal than Bucerías at the top of the bay. If you fly often, or you expect family coming and going, that is a cost of the view that no listing will mention.

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Noise and pace

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The quietest part of this side of the bay, and close to the quietest anywhere on the site.

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Which is the point, and which is also the risk. The document this entry draws on put it well: people who thrive on company sometimes discover the south shore is too removed. It is a long way from the markets and the art walks and the places where you bump into somebody. If meeting people is one of the things you are quietly worried about, this area does the least to help you.

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In February, and in September

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February. The season. Whales in the bay, the weather at its best, town busy ten minutes away whenever you want it, and the balcony doing exactly what you bought it for.

September. Hot, wet, green, and very quiet. The jungle is at its most dramatic and the hill is at its least appealing.

Why it matters. This is a place whose best version is unusually good and whose quiet version is unusually quiet. 

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Worth knowing

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Three questions, and none of them are in the listing.

1. How many steps, from where the car stops to the front door? Count them.

2. What is actually within walking distance? Not what is nearby. What you can walk to.

3. Which end of the south shore is this? Ten minutes from Zona Romántica and forty minutes from it are both sold under the same name.

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If this sounds like you.

 

The south shore suits people who want the view more than the street, who are content to drive for everything, who would rather be at home than out, and who have thought honestly about the stairs.

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It does not suit people who want to walk to things, who need a neighbourhood to introduce them to somebody, or who have not yet asked what the place will be like to live in at eighty.