Coyuca de Benítez

Coyuca de Benítez is the seat of the municipality of the same name on Guerrero's Costa Grande, and the first sizeable town that federal highway 200 runs through on the way west from Acapulco towards Zihuatanejo. The 2020 census counted 13,866 people in town, while the municipality as a whole has over 73,000. It is a trading town: the municipal market, grocery stores, shoe shops, farm-supply stores and small eateries keep the centre busy, and villages from the hills and the lagoon shore come here to shop.

The name has more than one reading: some translate the Nahuatl as "place of coyotes", others as "place of canoes". Benítez was added in honour of María Faustina Benítez, wife of General Juan N. Álvarez, the strongman of the south; their son, the soldier Diego Álvarez Benítez, is also counted among the town's notable people. In the late 15th century the Mexica conquered this coast and folded it into the tributary province of Cihuatlán; after the Spanish conquest the land was split into encomiendas, and by 1786 Coyuca answered to the subdelegación of Zacatula. During the War of Independence it was an insurgent stronghold that joined the forces of Morelos and Álvarez. It became a municipality on 4 May 1876.

In the centre stands the parish church of San Miguel Arcángel, colonial in style with a central dome, facing the zócalo and its bandstand. Nearby are monuments to Faustina Benítez de Álvarez and to the insurgent Hermenegildo Galeana. The Coyuca River runs beside town, fresh water and shallow enough that locals wade in to cool off. The big celebrations are San Miguel's, from 20 to 30 September, and the Feria de la Palmera, from 6 to 16 April, which books well-known performers; Holy Cross (3 May), San Isidro Labrador (15 May) and the Immaculate Conception (8 December) are also marked. At some religious feasts dancers perform the Guajolote (turkey) dance from the village of Tepetixtla. One local legend has Juan Álvarez burying a treasure on Cerro del Guajolote.

For food, Coyuca is proud of its coastal pozole, including a white seafood version, and of fish from the lagoon. Towards the sea lie the Laguna de Coyuca, with its islands Montosa and de los Pájaros, and the Barra de Coyuca, where river, lagoon and ocean meet.