San Agustinillo

San Agustinillo is the small village on the next bay east of Mazunte, so close that you can walk between them in about twenty minutes. Like Mazunte, it lived from sea turtles until Mexico banned the trade in 1990; turtle hunting on this coast is said to have started here, and the area's turtle slaughterhouse stood nearby. Today the village gets by on small-scale fishing, farming and a gentle kind of tourism.

Its beach is about 1.3 kilometers of golden sand facing the open Pacific, divided into three sections by rocky points. The western end, Playa Rinconcito, is the most sheltered and the usual choice for a swim; the eastern section, Playa Aragón, has bigger waves and a strong undertow. On calmer days the waves in the middle are popular for bodyboarding and learning to surf.

The village is a single strip of small hotels, cabins and seafood restaurants along the road and the sand, quieter than Mazunte and much quieter than Zipolite. From December to April, boats from this coast go out to look for whales, dolphins and turtles.