San Pancho, Nayarit, Oct. 3, 2026 — Authorities evacuated 13 tourists and closed Punta Paraíso on Friday after waves undermined two beachfront towers, the Civil Protection director of Bahía de Banderas said.
José Santos Salas Hernández said a cavity measuring approximately four meters, or 13 feet, had formed around the towers’ foundation piles. He attributed the erosion to Hurricane Rachel’s surf.
The evacuated guests were Canadian and American, he said. Municipal inspectors and Nayarit’s Protección Ciudadana agency surveyed the property on foot and by drone.
Police watch extends to adjacent beach passage
Salas Hernández said Nayarit state police guarded the property, its entrance, and the adjacent beach passage. He cited the risk of further erosion as waves continued entering the complex.
“We carried out the evacuation to prevent accidents,” he said in Spanish.
A separate account published Oct. 2, based on an interview with journalist Susana Carreño, said 40 tourists were moved to a rear tower. It described relocation within the complex.
We could not reconcile that figure with Salas Hernández’s 13-person evacuation count.
In Puerto Vallarta, authorities kept beaches and the Malecón closed Friday as Rachel’s surf continued.
Federal records detail earlier permit and beach access disputes
We reviewed Mexico’s Supreme Court file 451/2022, which identifies the project site as Calle Cuba 56 Norte in San Francisco, known as San Pancho.
That file concerns a challenge to the project’s environmental authorization. It records objections involving coastal-dune protections and turtle-nesting assessments.
The court’s Second Chamber declined to take over that case on Nov. 16, 2022, and ordered the file returned to the federal appeals court.
An earlier enforcement action involved public beach access. In a March 22, 2018, inspection notice, Mexico’s environmental enforcement agency, Profepa, described a partial shutdown ordered in November 2017.
A chain-link fence stood outside the authorized project boundary and blocked public access to the beach, the agency said.
Profepa reported that relocating the fence reopened approximately 210 square meters of coastal dune to public passage. The agency said correcting that violation allowed construction to continue under the project’s federal environmental authorization.
