Spotlight on Troncones, Mexico

A few years ago Mr. X and I went on a trip to Troncones, Mexico. Troncones is just north of the more well known Ixtapa/Zihuataneo area of Mexico. If you don't know where that is, it is on the Pacific side, south of Puerto Vallarta but north of Acapulco. When we flew in we caught a cab from Zihuataneo to Troncones (about $40) but on the way back to the airport we simply caught a bus ($5-ish). I called it the chicken bus because we rode with live chickens and buckets of stinky fish and all sorts of fun things. The doors didn't close and that is especially exciting when you are flying down the rode at like 80 miles an hour and no seat belts.

We stayed in a simple beach side B&B. There were something like 5 or 6 bungalows there that rented out for about $20/night (off-season, since we were there in February). We were lucky because our bungalow was the closest to the ocean.

They were pretty simple - concrete floors, a bed, and a wall that separated the sleeping area from the shower and toilet (no door). I liked the shower because it was in the bungalow but there was no roof over it so you felt like you were showering in the open due to the trees and plants growing just above your head. Every morning breakfast was served under a palapa on the beach. It was usually an assortment of tropical fruits with toast. You just had to make sure your bags were up off the floor so things like cockroaches and scorpions didn't crawl into them. Freaked out because I found cockroaches in my shoes, I made Mr. X search my bags for more of them and that's when he found this scary scorpion in my bag. Lucky for us the scorpion didn't survive the encounter but we did.

Nearly every day we walked down the beach to Manzanillo Bay because it was a pretty decent surf spot (there was a place we could rent boards right there at the bay) and an excellent place to snorkel. We saw puffer fish, sting rays, lobster, jellyfish, and all sorts of other fish.

There was a little restaurant that served the absolute best chips and guacamole I have ever tasted.

In fact, the food that we had in this tiny town was incredibly delicious and very inexpensive. I think lunches and dinners were somewhere between $5-$10 for both of us together.

I believe the town's population is around 500 people so there's pretty much just one street running through it and it's not paved. When we wanted to go somewhere else we just walked to the end of the street and caught a chicken bus.

The thing I liked most about Troncones was the relative lack of people at all. The street was empty. The beaches were usually pretty much completely devoid of anybody. It was quiet, relaxing and peaceful. I would recommend it to anybody.