• 1/10

  Hippies, guitars, and a wandering mini-bus

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• 2/10

  A juggler with a painted face, Mercado del Pueblo

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• 3/10

  A healing, hand-holding circle on the beach, 12/12/12

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• 4/10

  A lovely girl happy to have some Mexican sunshine

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• 5/10

  A cool visiting hipster dude relaxing in shades and hat

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• 6/10

  Surfers, acrobats, you name it, Sayulita has it

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• 7/10

  Mother and children strolling Sayulita streets

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• 8/10

  Mexican paddleboarders gathered for a portrait

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• 9/10

  A happy tourist kicks up his heels

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• 10/10

  Sayulita has room for everybody

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Contemporary Sayulita offers the world an inspired example of how a multi-hued, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic circus of humanity can work beautifully in the tangled, oft-troubled times we live in.

Start with the originals, the Mexicans whose families settled this lovely little seaside valley less than a hundred years ago. Naturally, Mexico’s charming traditions came with them, and now flourish in Sayulita: you’ll hear Mariachi music on the corner, and celebrate the Day of The Dead in the plaza. Eat tacos bought fresh from a cart on the street, hang with the fishermen hauling in their catch, watch the children playing in the plaza every evening, completely safe, embraced by family and pueblo. This is Mexican life still lived as it always has been here.

Throw in the rest of us who’ve come to join them. You and your friends, and all the wandering souls that inspire the modern mashup of Sayulita culture: vagabonds, hippies, surfers and yogis, one and all reveling in the love, tolerance and feelings of openness and freedom that define Sayulita.

This may not be the right place for everybody, but it is a amazing place for cultural adventurers. Sayulita remains open to interpretation. Make of it, and of yourself, what you will. What you desire.

Related article: Sayulita as Bicultural Mecca