Lo de Marcos has a number of beachfront trailer parks, popular during the winter with a regiment of American and Canadian RV retirees. Best of the bunch is the good El Caracol trailer park and bunglow complex (P.O. Box 89, La Peñita de Jaltemba, Nayarit 63726, tel./fax 327/275-0050). The trailer park section offers about 15 concrete-pad spaces in a palm- and banana-shaded grassy park right on the beach. With a small beachfront kiddie pool patio, all hookups, and immaculate hot-shower and toilet facilities. The spaces rent for about $19 d/day, $18 d monthly, $16 d for a 95-day stay; add $4/day for a/c power. Add $5/day per extra person. Dogs are not generally welcome. It’s popular, so make winter reservations in July or August. Caracol’s bungalows are correspondingly well appointed. They are available with one bedroom (for up to three) or two bedrooms (for up to five), all comfortably furnished with all the comforts of Hamburg (the owner is German), including fans, optional air-conditioning, and complete kitchenettes. Daily rates run from $55 for two people in a one-bedroom bungalow, up to about $85 for five people in a two-bedroom bungalow; add $5 for one-bedroom air- conditioning, $10 for two-bedroom. Long term-rates, for a three-month rental, can sometimes be negotiated to as low as $25 daily for a one- bedroom and $35 daily for a two-bedroom. Get your reservations in early.

Tent, RV camping, and bungalow lodgings are available at the trailer park Pequeña Paraíso (Carretera a Las Miñitas 1938, tel. 327/275-0089), beside the jungle headland at the south end of the beach. Here, the manager welcomes visitors to the spacious, palm-shaded beachside grove. Basic but clean apartments rent for about $200 per week, with kitchenette, hot-water showers, and fans. RV spaces ($17/day, $120/wk, $450/mo) have all hookups, with showers and toilets. Dozens of grass-carpeted, palm-shaded tent spaces rent for about $5 per person per day. Stores in town nearby can furnish basic supplies. Reserve, especially during the winter.

Get to the beachfront bungalows and trailer parks by turning left just before the beach, at the foot-of-the-town main street (which leads straight from the highway). Continue about another mile to El Caracol, on the right, and El Pequeño Paraíso, a hundred yards farther.

If those two are full, a few other trailer parks are recommendable. Best appears to be beachfront trailer park Pretty Sunset (tel./fax 327/275-0024 or 327/275-0055), with about 18 complete hookup ($20/day, $450/mo) in a mostly unshaded but spacious beachfront park. Another similarly equipped, but smaller, option along the same beachfront is Trailer Park and Bungalows Huerta de Iguanas (tel. 327/275-0089).

If they’re all full, you’re most likely to get a tent or RV space at the huge, overflow-style Trailer Park and Campground El Refugio ($20/day, $500/mo) on the north end of the beach, at big Villas and Bungalows Tlaquepaque (Pie de Av. Luis Echeverría, tel./fax 327/275-0080, villastlaquepaque [at] prodigy [dot] net [dot] mx).