San Ignacio

San Ignacio is a roadside village on federal Highway 200, the Tepic to Puerto Vallarta road, about three kilometers southeast of Sayulita in a straight line and some five kilometers by road. It sits at about 60 meters above sea level beside the Sayulita River, which runs down from the hills to the sea at Sayulita, and its neighbors along the highway include Palmarito and San Quintín. It belongs to the municipality of Bahía de Banderas, whose seat, Valle de Banderas, is about 22 kilometers away.

Few places in the area have grown so fast. The 1970 census counted just three people here and the 1980 census about a hundred; by 2010 there were 610, and in 2020, 1,362, living in 347 occupied homes. Over the same decade the share of adults with paid work rose from under 40 percent to 55 percent, and average schooling went up by more than a year, a sign of how the boom of the Sayulita and Punta de Mita coast has spread inland. The village takes its name from its patron saint, Ignatius of Loyola.

San Ignacio has no hotels; the nearest are in Sayulita, a few minutes away. What it does have is everyday Mexican food at local prices: fondas, antojitos, roast chicken, taquerías and a restaurant-bar, most of them along Avenida Las Palmas. There is a kindergarten and a school. For travelers it is a place to stop for a cheap meal on the highway before or after the beach.