Ixtlahuahuey

Ixtlahuahuey is a ranchería in the sierra of Cabo Corrientes, the Jalisco municipality on the southern side of Banderas Bay. It sits at about 640 metres in wooded hills behind the coast west of Yelapa, roughly 25 km from the municipal seat, El Tuito, in a straight line. The name is also spelled Ixtahuahuey or Ixtlehuehuey on some maps, and is of Nahuatl origin; the ending huey means large.

It is one of the larger settlements of these hills, but it has been shrinking for two decades: 445 people lived here in 2000, 346 in 2005, 287 in 2010 and 252 in 2020, in 77 occupied homes. Nearly all houses now have electricity and piped water, and most residents have a mobile phone, though internet is almost absent. Its nearest neighbours are El Refugio Suchitlán, with about 190 people, a little over 2 km away, and La Sauceda, a few kilometres further on. Peaks such as La Monja (827 m) and El Centinela (782 m) rise nearby.

The area is known for raicilla, the agave spirit of the Jalisco coast and sierra. Near Ixtlahuahuey the Joya family runs a tavern called Los Guajes, where Jorge Octavio Joya García, described as a fifth-generation raicillero, follows the method of his father, Don Victoriano: wild agaves are roasted in an earth pit oven, crushed with mallets in a wooden canoe, fermented in tubs for about two weeks and distilled twice.

There is no lodging in the village. Visitors are rare and come by a long dirt road from El Tuito, so treat it as a day out in the mountains rather than a destination with services.