Huatulco, a hotspot on Mexico’s Oaxaca coast

By Medicine Hat News on April 21, 2018.

ERNEST FODE

Looking out the window of my Sunwing 737, 10 minutes before landing at the Huatulco International Airport, I notice the lush green Sierra Madre mountains, the stunning pristine coastline and the beautiful bays of this Mexican coast.

Our long, cold, drawn-out Alberta winter made me decide to take a spring vacation to a tourism hotspot on Mexico’s Pacific coast of Oaxaca.

Huatulco’s tourism industry stretches 25 kilometres of coastline and has nine bays with 36 beaches.

Huatulco is 403 kilometres south of Acapulco and has international chain and boutique hotels along its nine bays and is much less developed than the other Mexican resorts like Los Cabos.

My 3.5-star all-inclusive resort was situated on Huatulco Bay close to the Santa Cruz beach, market place and marina.

Santa Cruz, a small fishing town, has a cruise ship port, tourist shops and restaurants. Up to 80 cruise ships arrive each year.

During my week stay, I counted two cruiseliners “Norwegian Pearl” and “Norwegian Sun” arriving from the Panama Canal and South America.

Hearing that Huatulco is a prime coffee-growing region and the town of Pluma Hidalgo known as the capital of organic coffee, I booked a “Three levels of Huatulco” sightseeing tour.

On this five-hour tour, we visited a tortilla factory in La Crucecita and drove up the misty Sierra Madre mountains to walk the cobbled streets of Santa Maria and Pluma Hidalgo.

Arriving in the town of Pluma Hidalgo, high in the central valley of Oaxaca, we stopped at an organic coffee plantation which has been family run for more than 150 years.

Because of its warm sub-humid year-round weather of 28C (82F) and growing under the shade of natural forest canopies, this area’s coffee is considered the finest in the country.

At the end of our tour, we stopped in at Tostado’s Grill in La Crucecita for a traditional lunch consisting of Chile pork meat, tortillas, beans, avocado sauce and black mole.

Huatulco, known for its organic coffee, is also famous for its black pottery and its church in La Crucecita claiming it has the largest painting of the virgin de Guadalupe (65 feet) on its ceiling in all of Mexico.

After my enjoyable week here, I agree that Huatulco can be considered the next tourism hotspot on Mexico’s Pacific coast.