Bahía de Santa Cruz

Bahía de Santa Cruz, often just called Santa Cruz Huatulco, is the sheltered bay a short way south of La Crucecita where most visits to Huatulco's coast begin. Its marina is the departure point for the boat tours that run along the nine bays, its pier receives cruise ships from lines such as Princess, Royal Caribbean, NCL, Seabourn and Oceania, and a town beach curves around the inner shore, lined with restaurants and shops.

This is the oldest part of the coast's story. The bay was a Pacific port early in the colonial period, shipping goods and the purple dye from local sea snails, and that wealth drew Francis Drake in 1578 and Thomas Cavendish in 1587, who burned the settlement. Tradition tells of a great wooden cross on the beach, venerated by pilgrims long before the conquest, which survived the fire and gave the bay its name. Until the 1980s Santa Cruz was a small village of fishermen and farmers; FONATUR built the resort around it and in 1986 moved its families up to the new town of La Crucecita.

By the beach stands the Capilla de la Santa Cruz, an open-sided chapel built in 1988 to a design by Alfredo Ovando de la Vega and Ana María Cuevas Moreno, with no doors so that the sea is visible from the pews; weddings and baptisms are often held there. Around the bay are a craft market, an open-air theatre, a small park and an organic market. From the marina, shared boats head out for snorkelling and swimming stops at the other bays, and La Entrega beach is 2.5 km away by road.