Chamela

Chamela is a small town on Jalisco's south coast, in the municipality of La Huerta. It sits at the southern end of Chamela Bay, also called Island Bay, on federal Highway 200, about 8 miles (roughly 13 km) north of Careyes. The other two settlements on the bay are San Mateo and Punta Pérula. The area is still little developed for tourism and the area has hotels and rustic cabins.

The bay has about 13 km of beach, framed by cliffs and rock stacks, and nine islands that run from north to south: Pasavera (the Pajarera), Novilla, Colorada, Cocina, Esfinge, San Pedro, San Agustín, San Andrés and La Negrita. Pasavera fills with nests in February and March, and the federal government declared Chamela's islands a natural sanctuary on 9 April 2001. Though they look close, currents are strong, so ask local fishermen before crossing by boat. In colonial times Chamela was a port that galleons visited, and ruins of a fortification attributed to Pedro de Alvarado remain. Hurricane Patricia largely destroyed the town in 2015.

In the tropical dry forest stands UNAM's Chamela Biology Station, the best-known facility in the area. It belongs to the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve, decreed in 1993 and covering 13,142 hectares, split into two sections by Highway 200. Only research, protection and conservation activities are allowed there. Main traveller services are in Barra de Navidad and Manzanillo.