Tomatlán, Sierra Madre Jalisco real estate: properties for sale

Tomatlán is rural Jalisco coast and sierra south of Cabo Corrientes, an hour and a half to two hours from the airport past El Tuito, and nowhere near the condo towers of the bay. The MLS names two places. La Cruz de Loreto is a Pacific fishing pueblo of about 1,800 people with a small walkable plaza, seafood palapas on the malecón and an open-ocean beach that is swimmable in the calm season. Cajón de Peñas is the largest freshwater reservoir in Jalisco, a lake set in forested hills thirteen kilometres north of Tomatlán town, with lakeside restaurants, boat tours and pre-Hispanic petroglyphs on its shores. The rest of the area's few listings are ranches and large lots around the municipal seat of Tomatlán.

Buyers are Mexican nationals, Guadalajara weekenders and retirees from Mexico City, and a handful of foreign eco-investors; the stock is old vernacular houses, ranch haciendas and undeveloped land, measured in single digits at any time, with almost no condos.

Practical points. Highway 200 is the only road, paved and two-lane, with switchbacks north of El Tuito; do not drive it at night. There is no marina and no hospital of the bay's standard; serious care means Vallarta, two hours, or Manzanillo. Cell signal follows the highway and drops in the hills. Ejido land and communal tenure are the rule here: the notary's search of the RAN and the Public Registry comes before any deposit, and a foreigner cannot hold ejido through a fideicomiso.

— John Forget, Mexico Life Realty