San Sebastian del Oeste

San Sebastian del Oeste was founded in the 1600s on silver, grew to tens of thousands of people at its peak, and then emptied as the mines failed - leaving a village of a few hundred that kept its whitewashed adobe houses, red roofs, cobbled lanes and a plaza with a fountain and the parish of San Sebastian, all at 1,500 metres in the Sierra Madre above the Pacific coast. The temperature drop from Vallarta is the first pleasure: cool pine and oak air, mornings in cloud. The second is that nothing has been prettified into falseness - the old hacienda buildings, the mining museum in a family house, the tiny plaza cafes and the mule tracks between orchards read as a village that simply continued. Local production carries the visit: high-altitude coffee grown and roasted on nearby fincas, raicilla distilled in sierra tabernas, preserves and mountain cheeses. Above the village, the Cerro de la Bufa lookout - reached by a rough track or a stiff walk - opens a horizon that on clear days reaches the ocean.

History

San Sebastián was founded as a mining town in 1605, working gold, silver and lead; by 1785 there were more than 25 mines and a number of foundries, and the town was formally made a city in 1812 (Wikipedia, San Sebastián del Oeste).

What you'll find

• The white lanes - cobbles, adobe and red roofs at altitude.
• The mining memory - hacienda buildings and the village museum.
• The coffee fincas - highland plantations and roasting rooms.
• La Bufa lookout - the sierra to the sea on clear mornings.

When to go

November to May for dry roads and clear views; mornings often begin in cloud that lifts by ten. Weekends bring day tours from Vallarta.

Things to know

Day tours dominate the middle of the day - staying overnight buys the village back. The Bufa track needs a high-clearance vehicle or good legs. Nights are cold; cabins may not heat.

Nearby

Mascota and Talpa continue into the sierra; Puerto Vallarta's coast lies ninety minutes down the mountain.

Key facts