Today, Sayulita is a prosperous growing village of approximately 5,000 residents. Hailed as a popular hippie and off-the-beaten-path travel destination, Sayulita offers a variety of recreational activities such as horseback riding, hiking, jungle canopy tours, snorkeling, and fishing. Still a mecca for beginning surfers of all ages, Sayulita also attracts tourists to its numerous art galleries and casual and hipsters cafes and restaurants.

Sayulita is frequented by native Cora and Huichol peoples whose artwork and beadwork is inspired by their cosmology, which is in turn aided by use of peyote, the psychedelic cactus sacred to the tribe.

The town is a part of the newly designated “Riviera Nayarit”, the 160km coastal corridor from Litibú to San Blas. Its natural beauty and easy access to Puerto Vallarta have made Sayulita real estate some of the most sought after in all of Mexico.

Sayulita’s beaches are fine sand, the South are ideal for beginners and North surfers for all levels. Its beaches have waves ideal for surfing all year round. The best surfing season in Sayulita is from December to April. Sayulita is the setting for various surfing tournaments such as the children’s and youth surf tournament, the Open Pacific Surf Music Festival Tournament, the annual long surfboard and paddle board, among many others.  Since the year 2105, at the end of February, the Longboard MexiLog Fest competition, whose international assistance and awards are ranked as one of the most important, takes place.

It is also possible to practice snorkeling, swimming, kayaking, fishing, hiking or horseback riding.  From November to April you can enjoy in this area of humpback whale watching, which reach these waters to have their offspring.  Each summer arrives at the beaches of Sayulita the species of turtle Ridley to spawn in these lands. Eggs are protected at Tortuguero’s camp, where all year round, but especially from October to January, are released.

Growing ecological awareness and stricter zoning enforcement have caused development to be regulated in order to help safeguard the environment and quality of life. Sayulita has a medical office with an English-speaking doctor and pharmacist, a number of internet cafes, and a wide variety of open-air eateries, some located right on the sand beach. In recent years, yoga has also become a fashionable magnet to the area and digital nomads are choosing the town as an affordable base thanks to the facilities, the easy access to an international airport in Puerto Vallarta and the many activities on offer.

The flower of Christmas Eve exists since the time of the Aztecs. They called it Cuetlaxochitl which means “flower of resistant petals like leather “, although some historians translate this term as “flower that wilts “.  For their part, the botanists baptized it as Euphorbia Pulcherrima, which means “the most beautiful”.

This plant became a symbol of “new life “. The Mexicas used this plant in ritual celebrations as a symbol of the purity and new life of the Dead warriors, which associated with the red color of the blood. In fact, its leaves were also used as a natural dye, for the ancestors who died in battle. However, they also used it to dye some materials such as cotton, leather and others.

The plant’s association with Christmas began in 16th-century Mexico, where legend tells of a girl, commonly called Pepita, who was too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus’ birthday and was inspired by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar. Crimson blossoms sprouted from the weeds and became poinsettias.  From the 17th century, Franciscan friars in Mexico included the plants in their Christmas celebrations.  The star-shaped leaf pattern is said to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, and the red color represents the blood sacrificed through the crucifixion of Jesus.

La Nochebuena is known in the United States and Europe as “Poinsettia “, because, in 1828, Joel R. Poinsett, the first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, saw the plant and fell in love with its uniqueness and vivid color so that he sent her to the Unites States where it became a instant hit and from there to various parts of Europe with the name corresponding to his surname.

Poinsettias are popular Christmas decorations in homes, churches, offices, and elsewhere across North America. They are available in large numbers from grocery, drug, and hardware stores. In the United States, December 12 is National Poinsettia Day, which coincidentally is the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s adored virgin.

It is our aim to empower these women to produce their beautiful crafts to sustain, organize and help themselves. Allowing them to grow and prosper individually, as a family, a community and a group o “close-knit” women.

There are hundreds of Maya sites spread across five countries: Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.^[379] The six sites with particularly outstanding architecture or sculpture are Chichen Itza, Palenque, Uxmal, and Yaxchilan in Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala and Copán in Honduras. Other important, but difficult to reach, sites include Calakmul and El Mirador. The principal sites in the Puuc region, after Uxmal, are Kabah, Labna, and Sayil. In the east of the Yucatán Peninsula are Coba and the small site of Tulum.^[380] The Río Bec sites of the base of the peninsula include Becan, Chicanná, Kohunlich, and Xpuhil. The most noteworthy sites in Chiapas, other than Palenque and Yaxchilan, are Bonampak and Toniná. In the Guatemalan Highlands are Iximche, Kaminaljuyu, Mixco Viejo, and Q’umarkaj (also known as Utatlán).^[381] In the northern Petén lowlands of Guatemala there are many sites, though apart from Tikal access is generally difficult. Some of the Petén sites are Dos Pilas, Seibal, and Uaxactún.^[382] Important sites in Belize include Altun Ha, Caracol, and Xunantunich.^[383]

Zinacantán literally means “land of bats” and comes from the Nahuatl language. People in Zinacantán speak Tzotzil (a Mayan language) and they call their own land “Sots’leb”, that is, “land of bats” in their own languag

In pre-Columbian times before the Conquerors’ arrival, Zinacantán already had strong links with the Aztecs in the Central Zone of Mexico. Zinacantecans exchanged their products (especially salt, but by the 19th century also cacao, tobacco, and coffee) with Aztec traders.

The first missionaries who came to evangelize the native inhabitants in Zinacantán were the Dominican Friars. They settled in Zinacantan in the 16th century and built a wooden chapel to begin their mission. These missionaries left Zinacantán before they were expelled from Mexico by the government in the 17th century. They resumed their pastoral work in Zinacantan in 1976.

An important development in Zinacantán was the construction of the Pan American Highway, which significantly improved the mobility and prosperity of the Zinacanteco population, as it enabled them to easily transport goods to market such as maize and flowers.