Caleta de Campos

Caleta de Campos is a small town and tenencia of the municipality of Lázaro Cárdenas, about 50 km up the coast from Playa Azul, home to just under 3,000 people. Officially the locality is called Bahía Bufadero, after the bay below it, and some maps show only that name. The bay takes its name from the snorting sound (bufido) the waves make as they hit its cliffs. The town sits on the high ground above the water, and on the point stands the Faro Bufadero, a Navy lighthouse whose light, with a range of 18 nautical miles, was restored to normal service in September 2023.

What brings people down to the shore is how calm the water is. Unlike the open, pounding beaches on either side, the bay is sheltered, with yellow sand and deep blue water, so families swim here, go out in boats, snorkel and fish at dawn, and some windsurf. Palapa restaurants line the sand serving fish and seafood, there are bungalows looking out to sea, and it is common to see families camping on the beach. The landscape is classic Michoacán coast: reddish hills and large rocks surrounded by sea. The climate is hot and humid all year, warmest in July, with most of the rain falling in late summer and September the wettest month.

Caleta is also the practical base for this stretch of coast. It has shops and services that the surf camps and villages nearby lack, and the long left at the mouth of the Nexpa river, one of the best-known surf breaks in Mexico, is about ten minutes' drive away. Travellers heading north-west to Maruata and the beaches of Aquila often spend a night here or in Lázaro Cárdenas to split the long drive. Nearby you can also visit the El Atrancón waterfall and Playa Huahua, an undeveloped beach about 30 km away where people camp, surf and kayak.