Barra de la Cruz

Introducing Barra de la Cruz

This well cared-for Chontal village, about 20km east of Huatulco, is famed for its surf but is also a relaxed and friendly place for anyone to chill out for a day or two. The right-hand point break, off the beach 1.5km from the village, gets up to a double overhead and is long and fast. Good swells for experienced surfers are frequent from March to October and generally at their best in June and July. Barra’s surf was unknown to the outside world until the mid-1990s, but the word has been well and truly out since the world’s top pro surfers assembled here for the Rip Curl Search event in the 2006 Men’s World Tour.

A lack of undertow also makes for good swimming. Barra’s beach has showers, toilets and a community-run comedor with hammocks and shade. The municipality charges M$20 per person to pass along the road to the beach and imposes an 8pm curfew. The fee goes to help maintain the road and keep the beach clean. You can rent surfboards at El Chontal restaurant beside the toll gate for M$100 per day.

Cabañas Pepe (per person M$80), behind El Chontal, has well-built wood-and-palm-thatch cabins with hammocks out front and shared Western-style toilets and showers. Also good is Barradise (pablo_rafting@yahoo.com; per person M$80), a couple of hundred meters before El Chontal as you come into Barra, which has four fan-cooled rooms with private bathroom. Barradise is ably run by English-speaking Pablo Narváez, who also gives surf classes (around M$450 for three or four hours) and leads local bird-­watching tours. It was Pablo who first brought international surfers to Barra in the 1990s. He sees Barra’s surf fame as an opportunity to develop village living standards and social conditions.

El Chontal (mains M$25-50) serves good Mexican standards and is one of several places to eat.

Last updated: Mar 2, 2009