San Blas is both a municipality and municipal seat located on the
Pacific coastA country's Pacific coast is the part of its coast facing the Pacific Ocean.-The Americas:Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western border.* Geography of Guatemala* Geography of El Salvador...
of
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in the state of
NayaritNayarit is one of Mexico’s 31 states and is located on the central west coast, bordering the Pacific Ocean. Nayarit is surrounded by the states of Sinaloa to the northwest, Durango to the north, Zacatecas to the northeast and Jalisco to the south with the Pacific Ocean bordering it to the west...
.
San Blas is a port and a popular tourist destination, located about 100 miles north of
Puerto VallartaPuerto Vallarta is a Mexican resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas.The 2005 census reported Puerto Vallarta's population as 177,830 making it the fifth-largest city in the state of Jalisco...
, and 40 miles west of the state capital
TepicTepic is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Nayarit.It is located in the central part of the state, at.It stands at an altitude above sea level of some 915 metres, on the banks of the Río Mololoa and the Río Tepic, approximately 225 kilometers north-west of Guadalajara, Jalisco....
. The city has a population of 8,707.
San Blas is known as the port where the Spanish priest
Junipero SerraFray Junípero Serra was a Spanish Franciscan friar who founded the mission chain in Alta California. Fr. Serra was beatified by John Paul II on September 25, 1988.-History:Junípero Serra was born Miquel Josep Serra i Ferrer in Petra, Majorca, Spain...
, 'Father' of the California Missions, departed from nearby Las Islitas beach on Matanchen Bay in the locally-built
barqueA barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel.- History of the term :The word barc appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the French words barge and barque...
"Purísima Concepción" to California on March 12, 1768.
The area is also noted for its fine surfing.
San Blas is both a municipality and municipal seat located on the
Pacific coastA country's Pacific coast is the part of its coast facing the Pacific Ocean.-The Americas:Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western border.* Geography of Guatemala* Geography of El Salvador...
of
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in the state of
NayaritNayarit is one of Mexico’s 31 states and is located on the central west coast, bordering the Pacific Ocean. Nayarit is surrounded by the states of Sinaloa to the northwest, Durango to the north, Zacatecas to the northeast and Jalisco to the south with the Pacific Ocean bordering it to the west...
.
City
San Blas is a port and a popular tourist destination, located about 100 miles north of
Puerto VallartaPuerto Vallarta is a Mexican resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas.The 2005 census reported Puerto Vallarta's population as 177,830 making it the fifth-largest city in the state of Jalisco...
, and 40 miles west of the state capital
TepicTepic is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Nayarit.It is located in the central part of the state, at.It stands at an altitude above sea level of some 915 metres, on the banks of the Río Mololoa and the Río Tepic, approximately 225 kilometers north-west of Guadalajara, Jalisco....
. The city has a population of 8,707.
San Blas is known as the port where the Spanish priest
Junipero SerraFray Junípero Serra was a Spanish Franciscan friar who founded the mission chain in Alta California. Fr. Serra was beatified by John Paul II on September 25, 1988.-History:Junípero Serra was born Miquel Josep Serra i Ferrer in Petra, Majorca, Spain...
, 'Father' of the California Missions, departed from nearby Las Islitas beach on Matanchen Bay in the locally-built
barqueA barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel.- History of the term :The word barc appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the French words barge and barque...
"Purísima Concepción" to California on March 12, 1768.
The area is also noted for its fine surfing. Playa de
MatanchenMatanchén is the name of both the bay and one of the small towns located just south of San Blas, Nayarit, on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It is known for its exceptionally long surf break. Las Islitas, one of the villages and surfing spots on Matanchén Bay, is documented by the Guinness Book of...
is famous for being the longest surfable wave in the world as listed in Guiness book.
San Blas was founded in 1531, but the official date of founding is 1768, when Don Manuel Rivera and 116 families arrived on the orders of the Viceroy Marquez de Croix, under the supervision of Don Jose de Gavez, representative of New Spain. At its height the town had 30,000 inhabitants and became headquarters of Spain's General of the Southern Seas.
The old hillside fort was built in 1770 to defend the town's extensive sea trade with the Philippines. Its front has stone carvings of the kings of Spain. On the hill behind the Fort are the ruins of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, built in 1769. The ruins once contained the bronze bells that are said to have inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, ‘The Bells of San Blas,’. The ruins of a 19th century customs house are on Calle Benito Juárez, three blocks from the main plaza.
During the colonial period, hardwood forests were the raw materials for ships which did a brisk trade with the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
and the
manila galleonThe Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines, and Acapulco, New Spain . The name changed reflecting the city that the ship was sailing from. Service was inaugurated in 1565,...
, until the shipping moved to the port at
ManzanilloManzanillo may refer to:*Manzanillo, Cuba*Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico* A municipality in the province of Valladolid, Spain* The name of a bay, island and major port terminal near the Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal...
, and later to
AcapulcoAcapulco is a city, and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay. It is a port of call for shipping and cruising lines running between Panama and San Francisco, California, United States...
.
San Blas continues to attract bird-watchers. There’s an annual international gathering of bird buffs at the Garza Canela Hotel.
The formerly elegant Playa Hermosa, built in 1951 on a lonely and beautiful stretch of beach about a mile from the plaza. In the 1960s, Hollywood had a brief hideaway flirtation with San Blas when the likes of actor
Lee MarvinLee Marvin was an American film actor. Known for his gravelly voice, white hair and 6' 2" stature, Marvin at first did supporting roles, mostly villains, soldiers and other hardboiled characters, but after winning an Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual roles in Cat Ballou, he landed more...
discovered San Blas for fishing. The Playa Hermosa was the hotel of choice.
The hotel still gets visitors who gasp in dismay at its present condition and wax nostalgic over its grandeur when they were kids in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Now overgrown with vines, it is little more than a photo opportunity on a lonely stretch of beach.
Municipality
The total municipality had a population of 37,478 in 2005.
Islas Marías
The Islas Marías are an archipelago of four islands that belong to Mexico. They are located in the Pacific Ocean, some 100 km off the coast of the state of Nayarit. They are part of the municipality of San Blas, Nayarit. As of 2006, the islands are still being used as a penal colony,...
, site of an infamous prison colony, are part of the municipality.
The area is known among birders for its abundance of migratory birds in the surrounding estuaries and lowland palm forests, attracting significant numbers of bird-watchers. The town is also gateway, along with the nearby village of
MatanchenMatanchén is the name of both the bay and one of the small towns located just south of San Blas, Nayarit, on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It is known for its exceptionally long surf break. Las Islitas, one of the villages and surfing spots on Matanchén Bay, is documented by the Guinness Book of...
, to the La Tovara park, an extensive
mangroveMangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in saline coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S. The saline conditions tolerated by various species range from brackish water, through pure seawater , to water of over twice the salinity of ocean seawater,...
forest and federally-protected nature preserve accessed by small boats. A boat tour can be taken up the estuary, where a freshwater spring provides the local drinking water as well as a natural swimming hole used by both locals and tourists.
The economy is based on agriculture, fishing, and the tourist industry. The main crops are beans, sorghum, tobacco, corn, watermelon, and citrus fruits. There is a substantial cattle herd and the raising of shrimp in the extensive marshlands has become a recent economic windfall despite the environmental damage.
External links