Río Grande

Río Grande, also known as Piedra Parada, is the largest community in the municipality of Villa de Tututepec de Melchor Ocampo on Oaxaca's coast: the 2020 census counted 15,373 residents, up from 12,943 in 2010. It sits at roughly 30 to 40 metres above sea level on Federal Highway 200, about 55 km west of Puerto Escondido according to Wikipedia.

The name comes from the river that crosses the town north to south on its way from the sierra to the Pacific. Local tradition says a nine-year-old, Pedro Martínez, was chasing an iguana when he found three carved stone human figures, which is how Piedra Parada got its name. The present town grew after floods forced residents to move from the Pueblo Viejo neighbourhood, which in 1935 was a ranch owned by the Del Valle family. Pre-Hispanic platforms and the so-called Piedras del Rey have turned up in the area, and the band Grupo Miramar, popular across Latin America from the 1970s to the 1990s, comes from here.

For travellers it is mainly a service stop on the coast road and the link to Lagunas de Chacahua National Park: from here you continue by taxi to El Zapotalito, where the boats leave. We found no hotels or sights of its own documented in reliable sources, so treat it as a place to pass through.