ABOUT US

The most compelling feature of the area is the huge bay, the Bahia de Banderas or Bay of Flags, cut like a semicircle out of the Pacific Coast of Mexico. The coastline of the bay is relatively featureless, except for a few small inlets at the mouths of rivers, such as a Yelapa, Boca de Tomatlan, and Mismaloya. In the mouth of the bay is a small cluster of rocky islands, the Marietas or Islas Marietas where some sea birds nest in season.

High mountains come down to the waters edge generally extending from San Blas, Nayarit to the north, and southward to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The Bahia de Banderas, is carved out of these mountains and the cut extends inward in a northeasterly direction as a valley, the Valle de Banderas, or Valley of Flags. The high mountains surround the edge of the valley forming an area isolated from other sea level valleys to the north and south.

The valley is not large by world standards with an area of 100 to 150 square miles. It is relatively flat, especially in the delta area. Towards the sides of the valley there are low foothills, but then the mountains rise quite sharply, sometimes precipitously. On the north side, the valley is bound by the Sierra Vallejo, and on the south, by the even higher Sierra Cuale.

This list covers the floor of the valley primarily, up to 100 meters in altitude, including the foothills and some of the river gorges for a short distance, but excluding the mountains themselves. It also includes the edges of the bay from Punta de Mita on the outer northwestern point on around the bay to Yelapa on the south, as well as the bay itself.