Mexico’s traditional “spring break”, Semana Santa, saw a huge influx of visitors to our town. The baseball field was turned into a gigantic parking lot for over 50 buses and hundreds of cars. Many more buses were seen at the entrance to town, in all more than 100. Many areas of the beach and town were converted into temporary campgrounds. > Read more

As a five-year resident of Sayulita and a surfer with decades of experience in the water, my surfing expectations are high. We who surf all the time around here expect good waves, either here in town or at one of the nearby breaks. Over the years I have had hundreds of memorable surfing sessions in Sayulita at the left or the town right, and at half a dozen other surf spots in the area. I guess you could say we take good waves for granted. Or took them for granted, until this year. > Read more

This is the first in an intermittent series of blogs about unusual fruits, and maybe a few vegetables, that we find in Mexico and not in the US or Canada. At this point, thanks to refrigerated truck travel and other gas-guzzling, global-warming conveniences, we are all quite familiar with the usual suspects, as far as tropical fruit goes: begin with your now-universal banana, throw in the mangoes, pineapples, and papayas, and it would seem that gringos sort of know their way around what grows on trees down here. > Read more

Devoted readers of SayulitaBeach.com will have noted that our blog has not been updated for the past two weeks. > Read more

Sayulita Beach is possessed of great natural beauty. Of this there can be no doubt. Gorgeous swaying palms, dramatically breaking waves on the shore, birds wheeling, fish leaping, the moonrise, the jungle-draped hills, the sunsets—and all the rest of what makes Sayulita magic. > Read more

After all the partying, films, tequilas, surfing contest, and general good times had by everybody throughout the three days of Festival Sayulita, the whole thing ended on Sunday morning with an Awards Brunch, held at festival organizer Storm Richardson’s Sayulita Public House. With live music on the rooftop, Sayulita sunshine pouring down along with Champagne and Bloody Marys, and copious quantities of great food, it was one last special, Festival Sayulita moment. > Read more

One of the high points of the recent Festival Sayulita was the Master Tasting, which, contrary to the slightly studious sound of the name, was really just a great big party under the Don Pedro Palapa up on the bluff overlooking the town, beach, and sea. We all know this Las Brisas palapa to be of the greatest event venues around, and with the Festival by then nearing its end—the last movies were shown later that night—there was a sense of congratulatory celebration in the air. > Read more

Along with movies, tequila, and music, the Festival Sayulita and the Sayulita Surf Club managed to stage a wonderfully entertaining surfing contest on Saturday, right in the midst of all the Festival Sayulita activities. And this was no dog eat dog event, with all our local shredders attacking the waves. No, this was a super-mellow, super-fun kind of contest, dreamed up by the surf club guys, with a whole different format than the usual contest. > Read more

Friday night, January 17th, the second night of our magical and merry Festival Sayulita featured, along with a lot of great movies on the beach and in various venues around town, a simultaneous food and tequila tasting event. The deal was this: those who signed up got to sit down in an excellent Sayulita restaurant, and, while being fed fine food, taste fine tequila, in a sequence designed to enhance the offered food. This event, called a pairing (pairing distinct dishes with specific tequilas) was designed to enlighten those of us unaware of the charms of tequila not only as a barroom, night time fiesta drink, but as a liquor with subtlety enough to accompany fine food. > Read more

Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and Thursday afternoon, saw the premiere events in the first annual Festival Sayulita, as a pair of VIPs-only screenings ran Tuesday and Wednesday, followed, on Thursday, by a VIP welcoming party featuring a tasting of maestro tequilero Alberto Becherano’s El Secreto tequilas and Elixirs of Agave, paired with half a dozen beautiful-to-look-at-and-even-better-to-taste appetizers whipped up by the chefs who do their work in the Hotel Playa Escondida restaurant kitchen.

This event, attending by several dozen festival VIPs (who paid a premium for the VIP designation) as well as hotel managers and festival organizers, took place on Playa Escondida’s Terrazza, a lovely and inviting shaded outdoor space (which doubles as a sports bar when necessary) overlooking the beach and sea, with a yoga platform nearby. With the tequila flowing and endless trays of appetizers coming out of the kitchen, there wasn’t much yoga going on, but there was plenty of gourmet eating and drinking, as the VIPs settled into their festival-going groove.

VIPs were presented with an informal presentation about tequila—the differences between blanco, reposada, and anejo—which have to do with aging and the flavor suffused into the tequila from the type of barrel it is aged in—as well as the special qualities of elixir of agave. For those of us who grew up swilling Cuervo Gold and thinking it was the real deal, the explosive growth and emergence of refinements in the tequila industry, followed by similar growth in interest in mescal and elixir of agave, have been inspiring and informative, as well as offering us all another level of sophistication to be achieved in our imbibing.

And these special tequilas are, above all, extremely tasty as well. The myriad iterations of distilled agave liquors offer a wide range of flavors, all subtly different: blanco, white, reposada, resting (aged at least one year), and anejo, (aged at least three years), tequilas each have their charms. And let’s not forget this is a festival about tequila as well as film!

VIPs were also treated to a margarita, a bag of gifts, and brief welcoming speeches from the hotel owner, Diego Luna and several staff members. Festival organizer Lina Weisman also said a few words, offering VIPs info on how best to enjoy the festival during its three day run (to be capped by an awards brunch on Sunday morning.)

Festival film programmer Sheryl Orr pointed out to me that one of the great strengths she’s seen in the Festival thus far is how welcome the talent feels. She noted that Christian Lybrook, the director of The Seed, one of the short films entered in the festival, has been thrilled with the reception he’s gotten, the reaction to his movie, and his time spent in the company of the local family that agreed to host him. Thanks to Kimberly Flor Keehn, Christian’s host, and all the other “host” families who’ve allowed film makers to stay in their homes and rental properties. It’s a great way to connect the community with the real stars of the Festival, the writers and directors whose work is being shown.

From this Tasting, VIPs and everybody else headed to the Plaza, where the official opening of the festival took place (see accompanying feature article).