Mexico
Mexcaltitán
Shrimp boats and narrow lanes circle a tiny inhabited island in Nayarit wetlands.
The island is a tidy oval of streets in a wetland of herons and shrimp boats. It is compact enough to circle before lunch, and watery enough that the lanes themselves flood in the heaviest rains.
Mexcaltitán is a small lived-in island in Nayarit's wetlands where shrimp fishing is the main livelihood and the kitchen proves it, from shrimp meatballs to shrimp tamales. Heavy summer rain can flood the streets, though canal-paddling imagery is occasional reality rather than daily spectacle. The island's association with Aztlán, the Mexica origin place, remains tradition rather than established fact.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · Powered by Geoapify
Solo
Circle the island lanes on foot and eat shrimp in every form the kitchen knows.
Couple
Take the boat across, share the museum and the waterside shrimp table.
- Mexcaltitán is a compact inhabited island of lanes, boats and shrimp-based cooking in Nayarit's wetlands.
- Heavy rain can flood streets, though canoe imagery is occasional reality rather than daily spectacle.
- Aztlán associations are a debated tradition rather than an established archaeological fact.
Shrimp is the island's whole economy and menu: albóndigas de camarón, shrimp tamales and tlaxtihuilli broth.
Dried shrimp travel in barcinas, bundles woven of manta cloth and palm leaves.
Abaiang
Kiribati
At high tide the sea surrounds Tebunginako's church; the village choir times services around it.
Abbotsbury
England
A swannery where six hundred mute swans nest in reed beds behind the Chesil Bank.
Abel Tasman National Park
New Zealand
Golden bays between forested headlands, reached only on foot, by kayak or water taxi.
Aberdaron
Wales
A church on the sand where pilgrims ate their last meal before the island crossing.
Agua Azul
Mexico
A staircase of turquoise cascades tumbles through jungle, each pool bluer than the last.
Bacalar Lagoon
Mexico
Light and depth paint shifting blues across a long limestone-fed lagoon.
Bahía de los Ángeles
Mexico
Desert ridges frame a protected bay of islands and immensely productive water.
Balandra Bay
Mexico
The water is so clear that boats seem to hover on their own shadows.