Juluchuca

Juluchuca is a farming village on Guerrero's Costa Grande, about 10 km southeast of Petatlán and just 10 metres above sea level. The 2020 census counted 691 people, up from 571 in 2010, making it the sixth-largest of the municipality's 330 localities. The name comes from Xolochiuhyan, a pre-Hispanic settlement of roughly 500 people near the river mouth; it has been read as "place to grow old", "place of the ancient ones" or "place of the gourd", the hollow calabash used to carry and store water. When the river changed course the villagers moved about 2 km to stay near fresh water, and the town settled on its present site once the coastal highway was built in the 1950s.

The old site still has three mounds that served as farming terraces, a small pyramid that once watched over the watershed, and a lake that was a reliable source of water. Aztec tribute records list this stretch of coast paying in salt, conch shells, cacao and cotton cloth, and salt is still harvested by hand here and sold at stands along the highway.

About 2 km southwest of the village lies Playa Icacos, at the mouth of the Juluchuca river, where a sand bar seals off the estuary for most of the year. Juluchuca ranks among Guerrero's best surf breaks, alongside La Barrita and Loma Bonita. Olive ridley, leatherback and green turtles nest on the beach, and La Tortuga Viva, run by about a dozen local volunteers, guards the nests and released the hatchlings. In the rainy season, from late July to late September, the dry scrub turns green and fills with wildflowers, butterflies and birds; from late December to March whales can be seen breaching offshore.

Beside the beach, on some 80 hectares of estuary, mangrove, coastal forest and the archaeological site, is the eco-hotel Playa Viva, about 35 minutes south of Zihuatanejo airport; the turtle camp works hand in hand with it.