Tomatlán

Tomatlán is the seat of a municipality covering some 3,015 km² of the Jalisco coast, and sits in a valley about 42 metres above sea level, inland from the Costalegre beaches. It had 9,842 people in 2020. The name means place of tomatoes, after a small wild tomatillo with sweet-sour clusters that grew all over the area. Tradition says a Nahua group came down from the Sierra del Nayar and settled the valley around 1324.

Spanish conquerors rode in from El Tuito on Holy Monday 1525, spent Easter here and raised a first church on the site of the native shrine. The region rebelled in 1541, and Pedro de Alvarado had to march from Manzanillo twice to put it down. Tomatlán was granted the title of pueblo on January 15, 1752, and had a town council by 1825. In October 1811 the insurgent Miguel Gallaga, a nephew of Hidalgo, was shot in front of the church of Santo Santiago.

That church, the parish of Santiago Apóstol, is the town's main sight: Franciscan in origin, with stone walls up to 1.5 m thick and bell towers you can climb, about 50 steps up. The municipality lives from cattle, mangoes, papaya, plantains and sesame, and holds Jalisco's main salt flats. Inland is the Cajón de Peña dam, built in 1976 and the largest reservoir in the state, with bass fishing and cabins; towards the sea lie barely developed beaches such as Chalacatepec, with a turtle camp, Majahuas and Peñitas. Tomatlán is also where Pi's lifeboat comes ashore at the end of Life of Pi.