Beaches

Beachcombers might enjoy a side trip to nearby Playa los Corchos. If, at the junction five miles (8 km) west of Santiago Ixcuintla [1], instead of turning off for Mexcaltitán [2] you continue straight ahead (west) for about 15 miles (24 km), you’ll arrive at Playa los Corchos. Here, waves roll in gently from 100 yards out, leaving meringues of foam on sand speckled with little white clam shells. A few ramshackle Sunday palapas line the broad, wind-rippled strand.

From here you can hike or, with care, pilot your four-wheel-drive vehicle eight kilometers south along the beach to Barra Asadero, at the mouth of the Río Grande de Santiago. On the sandbar and in the adjacent river estuary, many sandpipers, pelicans, gulls, and boobies gather to feast amidst the summer flood deposits of driftwood troves.