Costa Grande of Guerrero
For this reason, there are few archeological remains; however, recent work especially at La Soledad de Maciel has indicated that the cultures here are more important than previously thought.
Today, the area economically is heavily dependent on agriculture, livestock, fishing and forestry, with only Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa with significantly developed infrastructure for tourism.
[2][3] The Costa Grande covers most of the Guerrero coast, extending 325 km (202 mi) from the Balsas River on the Michoacán border, southeast to Acapulco.
The San Luis River flows from a mountain area called Cumbres de la Tentación for 56 km (35 mi).
Land vegetation includes evergreen tropical forest dominated by Bravaisia integerrima, Hymenaea courbaril, and Manilkara zapota, deciduous tropical forest (the most abundant) dominated by Amphypterigium adstringens, Cochlosperum vitifolium, Cordia dentada, and C. elaeagnoides, semideciduous tropical forest dominated by Astronium graveolens, Enterolobium cyclocarpum, Annona primigenia, and Bursera arborea, areas with dry scrubland with species such as Acacia cochilacantha, Guaiacum coulteri, Krameria cuspidate, and Crossopetalum puberulum, and sandy beach areas with Ipomoea pes-caprae, Heliotropium curassavicum, and Okenia hypogaea.
[5] Troncones is a growing beach area located 35 km (22 mi) northwest of Zihuatanejo, with hotels, bed and breakfasts and guesthouses, many of which are owned by Americans.
Playa La Ropa (literally Clothes Beach) gets its name from a cargo of silks and other textiles which washed up onto it when a ship wrecked outside the bay.
[5] Ecotourism is an attraction here, with activities such as sports fishing, canoeing, water skiing, sailing, camping, swimming and photo safaris.
The Frailes Blancos (White Friairs), also called the Rocas de Potosí (Potosi Rocks) are a group so twelve tiny bare islands, just over 2 km (1.2 mi) from Punta Gorda facing the Petatlán Bay.
The sanctuary is located in the center of the city, next to the traditional plaza, which contains a kiosk surrounded by gardens, a basketball court, the Casa de Cultura and the municipal palace.
[5] Tecpan de Galeana is best known historically as the regional seat of most of the Costa Grande, and for its role in hosting insurgents during the Mexican War of Independence.
[12] Another hero of this war Hermenegildo Galeana is from this area and is honored each year by a cultural event called Expo-Tecpan held each April.
[4] After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Hernán Cortés sent expeditions to Zacatula under Gonzalo de Ungiría and Juan Alvarez Chico.
He destroyed the indigenous settlement of Zacatula, which was located on the Balsas River, and founded in its place the Villa de la Concepción, with a fortified shipyard and port he named Puerto Santiago.
The Spanish used the bay as a point of departure to explore the Pacific coast as well as a port for the first ships to sail to the Philippines, named the Florida, the Espiritu Santo and the Santiago.
These ships were ordered built by Hernán Cortés and offered to the Spanish king Carlos V. They left Zihuatanejo Bay on 31 October 1527, with Captain Alvaro de Saavedra y Cerón.
[1][4] From this point on, ports on the Costa Grande would only be used for the shipping of local agricultural products to markets, and occasionally as hideouts by Dutch and English pirates, such as Sir Francis Drake and William Dampier, who attacked the galleons leaving from and arriving to Acapulco.
[4][10][11] For the most part, the Spanish takeover of the Costa Grande did not meet with resistance after news arrived about the fall of Tenochtitlan, but much of the already sparse population disappeared and it is not known where many of them went.
Frair Juan Bautista Moya and Pedro de Gerovillas, regrouped the natives in the Tecpan area to refound the old pre-Hispanic settlement in 1538.
[23] Spanish interest in Guerrero during the colonial period was mostly focused on the gold and other minerals coming out of Taxco and the Asian trade centered on Acapulco.
In 1810, José María Morelos y Pavón passed through the Costa Grande from Michoacán in order to take Acapulco, having little trouble recruiting soldiers.
[12][14][22][23] Despite the imposition of the municipality system by liberal elements of the Mexican government, real political and economic power remained uninterrupted in the hand of cacique families, a number of whom are still honored for their roles in the War of Independence.
[21] Labor movements in general were active from the 1930s to the 1950s, culminating is a strike by workers on coconut plantations from Acapulco to Zihuatanejo in 1952, which blocked roads.
These fought police and military forces for a number of years during this decade along with local groups such as the Comando Armado Revolucionario del Sur (CARS).
[31] Local farmers depend on these resources and in the late 1990s, banded together to form the Campesino Environmentalist Organization of Petatlan and Coyuca de Catalan (OCEP).
[30] The OCEP continues to exist and fight deforestation mostly through legal channels, although some are still accused by authorities of drug trafficking and membership in a guerrilla group.
Since 2005, the Costa Grande has been dominated by drug related violence according to the Procuraduría General de la República and state authorities.
Exploited species include shark, sailfish, huachinango, sea bass, mojarra, octopus, shrimp, lobster, clams and crabs.
[4] Shrimp fishing and raising is important in the Atoyac municipality, especially in the areas of Mexcaltepec, Agua Fria and Junda de los Rios.
[3] There is also a fair amount of tourist infrastructure in the municipality of Coyuca, but most of the rest of the beaches of the Costa Grande have only open air restaurants and one or two places to stay.
