page_title: Puerto Arista
section_title: Tourism
hierarchical_section_title: Puerto Arista / Tourism
caption_attribution_description: English: View of beach with vendors at Puerto Arista, Chiapas
context_page_description: Puerto Arista is a small community and tourist attraction located on the north coast of Chiapas, Mexico in the municipality of Tonalá. While it originally was a port, its lack of harbor and suitability for large cargo ships eventually shifted the economy to tourism in the 20th century. It is popular with people from Chiapas as it is located close to the state capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez as well as the regional city of Tonalá. It is the most visited beach in Chiapas and one of its most popular tourist destinations, despite its relative lack of sophisticated tourism infrastructure. Puerto Arista is home of one of the state’s four marine turtle sanctuaries, design to help protect the various species which come here to lay their eggs.
context_section_description: Puerto Arista is located 195 km from the state capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez, making it a popular getaway for this city as well as Tonalá along with Boca del Cielo fifteen km east. Although it is crowded mostly during Mexican vacation periods such as Holy Week and Christmas and empty most of the rest of the year, it is still the most visited beach area in the state. It is one of the most visited sites in Chiapas after Palenque, San Cristóbal de Las Casas and Chiapa de Corzo . The area received 90,371 total visits in 2008. During the Christmas vacation period in 2009, the port received about 2,000 visitors in two days, who spent about a million pesos with hotel occupancy at about eighty percent. In summer 2011, the average hotel occupancy was 46.38% with 17,000 visitors, up from 11,000 the year before.
  Puerto Arista has thirty two km of wide beaches facing open ocean. From the beach area, the peaks of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas can be seen in the background, which are often covered with clouds. The climate is hot and semi humid with most rain falling in the summer. The average annual temperature is 27C.  These beaches have fine, gray, volcanic sand, flocks of frigatebirds visible. The surf can be heavy but this is not common. At low tide, the surf is gentler and safer for swimming. However, the most dangerous aspect about the water is riptides, capable of sweeping people out to sea. These mostly occur beyond the second line of wave breaks.  There are no indications as to the safety of the waters and no professional lifeguards. In 2008, 27 of the 41 near drowning incidents in Chiapas occurred in Puerto Arista.
  Tourist infrastructure mostly consists of basic hotels and simple palapa restaurants which face the ocean. There are some upscale hotels up to three stars: Hotel Safari, Hotel Lucero, Aguamarina and Arista Bugambilias and one business offering bungalows José’s Camping and Cabañas. The palapa restaurants all specialize in seafood dishes, all with very similar menus and prices. Although there are a couple of dozen of these restaurants, only five or six are generally open at any given time. On the main road near the lighthouse, there are food stand selling Mexican staples.
  ATV rentals are popular here but there is also boat rental, sports equipment and camping. The beach was the site of an event related to the NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit 2010. The Guerreros del Atlético Chiapas professional soccer team used the area for training in 2011-2012.
caption: Palapas on the beach
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D60", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "Ver.1.00", "Image DateTime": "2011:12:27 17:29:19", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2240", "Image XPComment": "[32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, ... ]", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:12:27 17:29:19", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:12:27 17:29:19", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "55", "EXIF SubSecTime": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "20", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3872", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2592", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "82", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4180"}