They’re both gems of Mexico living, but San Miguel de Allende and Puerto Escondido couldn’t be more different: the desert of the central highlands and the tropical beaches of the Pacific coast; colonial grid and urban sprawl; a cultural treasure trove and a natural paradise.
But the two towns’ greatest faceoff comes in the shape of facelifts and tattoos. In San Miguel, residents crowd the benches and cobbled alleys around the Jardín Allende, where mariachi bands serenade matrons sporting the smoothest faces and whitest teeth money can buy. In Puerto, shaved heads and tanned bodies are a wrinkled canvas of fading tattoos.
Decades ago, artists discovered San Miguel while surfers discovered epic waves in Puerto. Many came and went, but those who remained stamped the towns with their image. They couldn’t be more different.
What San Miguel and Puerto Escondido do share is an iconic status in Mexico. 650 miles apart, they are my two favorite places; each in its own way, each with its own crowd. For me they’re the perfect combination: alternative lifestyles that feed the mind and nourish the body.
One of San Miguel’s many simple pleasures is to peer past ornate wooden doors and discover private courtyards with tinkling fountains and lush gardens overflowing with bougainvillea, jacaranda and myriad climbers.
In Puerto, life is there for all to see, though the pace is similarly gentle. A stroll along the Zicatela beachfront or through the hilltop neighborhoods overlooking the ocean is to find oneself slowing to the point of immobility. As we ambled at the pace of an aging tortoise, my son laid his hand on my arm and said, “Dad, not so fast.”
The men at the next table in El Cafecito are the typical Puerto denizens: one is wearing a faded T-shirt listing the many venues of Pink Floyd’s 1977 world tour while his friend’s long grey hair is gathered in a scraggly ponytail held fast by purple string. In San Miguel, I once overheard an elderly man waiting in line to hear a string ensemble in St. Paul’s church tell his wife “If I ever grow a pony tail, shoot me.”
My favorite Puerto Escondido restaurants are El Maná, an Italian restaurant in La Punta owned by Franco, an Italian born-again Christian whose angelic wife Adriana makes the world’s best tiramisu, and the Mediterranean eatery El Sultan in Rinconada, with the best hummus and falafel this side of Lebanon. In San Miguel, fabled for its food, I have too many favorites to number.
The cultural fare in San Miguel is peerless. World class festivals of writers, cinema and opera rival weekly jazz, rock and chamber music events; cinematheques and artist’s open studios compete with museums and art galleries, top-class interior design and furniture stores.
There are organic farmers markets and local crafts shops, hot springs and charming campo villages. It’s endless.
Puerto, on the other hand, has the beach, the beach and the beach, with natural wonders galore nearby. My favorite is Lagunas de Chacahua National Park; a splash of 1940s California with access by motor launch through a leafy lagoon. Forget the neon bars and condos and urban sprawl of Cancún, Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco, Puerto Escondido lives up to its name: hidden port. There isn’t one franchise store: no Starbucks, H&M or Body Store. No high-rises or massive condo complexes.
It isn’t that Puerto has resisted change. Nobody used to want to invest there. It was just a small fisherman’s port with local produce, mom and pop stores and wares brought in from the mountain villages. In that respect the two towns are similar: cozy and authentic. The only franchise store in San Miguel’s Historic Center is a Starbucks, which may well be the world’s prettiest, with its inner courtyard cooled by the stone fountain, spreading ivy and shaded arches.
But change is coming to both. A new highway connecting Oaxaca city to the coast road at Puerto Escondido has cut the drive time from six or seven hours to two and a half. From Mexico City a drive of 14 hours has become a manageable nine. Hotels are under construction, private homes are building extra rooms to rent out and restaurants are hiring staff.
As major travel magazines like Travel + Leisure call San Miguel the “best small city in the world” and Architectural Digest says Aldama Street is the “fourth most beautiful street in the world,” the town is facing an explosion of high-end development. Weekend tourism is booming as nearby Querétaro gains fame as a key industrial hub: its population has soared from 250,000 to 1.5 million in a decade. 45 minutes away, San Miguel is the newcomer’s first choice for a weekend visit. Same for many in Mexico City, a three-and-a-half-hour drive away.
San Miguel is considering an airport at the edge of town, in addition to the two existing ones within a ninety minute drive. While Puerto has plans to expand its own airport 10 minutes from town.
Rapid change is coming to both towns and just as quickly, resentment is growing, with complaints from locals of too little water and too much construction.
Managing that change is the challenge for San Miguel de Allende as well as Puerto Escondido, and the jury is out on how successful they will be. But one thing is sure — they are still my favorite towns.
Martin Fletcher, author and journalist, traveled the world as a foreign
correspondent for NBC News and PBS Weekend Newshour. He has won almost every
award in TV journalism and has written seven books, including Walking
Israel, which won the National Jewish Book Award of America. He has settled
in San Miguel de Allende.
