The Ripple Effect: How the Community of Sayulita Turned Semana Santa/Pascua into a Blessing

We’ve all heard about the ripple effect: A situation in which one event causes a series of other events to happen. Like when you drop a pebble in a pond, and it creates a series of ripples that span out over the water. Looking back, we can see that Semana Santa/Pascua 2017 has been part of this ripple effect. Together, the community of Sayulita, has turned Semana Santa into a blessing.

“This year we saw a large and equal amount of expat volunteers and local national volunteers. It was a total partnership between locals and expats in Sayulita. Local Mexican residents often outnumbered expats for volunteering,” says Amanda Smith, one of the main volunteer coordinators.

Semana Santa in a Nutshell

We all know Semana Santa is the Mexican National Holiday, and for many, an excuse to come to the beautiful beach and town of Sayulita. This however, doesn’t go without the usual traffic jams, noise pollution, trash, and overall safety issues. That’s why the community decided to stand together, and make some pro-active changes to welcome an estimate of 17,000 to 21,000 tourists. A meeting was planned to inform and inspire all local residents to be a part of the ripple effect, where positive changes result in more and more positive changes.

Less Traffic Jams

With the new Sayulita boulevard open, the traffic jams were drastically less. Also, all vehicles entering Sayulita were advised on parking at specially designated parking areas. No parking was allowed on the boulevard, and buses were kept outside of town (except for Compostela public transport).

Less Trash

Regulating the trash was a great challenge. Looking back, everyone did a great job, and Sayulita was noticeably cleaner during the busiest days of Semana Santa. Upon entering town, everyone was handed a garbage bag and directions regarding taking responsibility for their trash. When leaving town, and handing over a full trash bag, everyone received Sayulita souvenirs. This appeared to be a great incentive. Beach clean-ups took place on a regular basis, and many of us joined for the good cause of keeping our town clean.

More Overall Safety

To improve the safety of the community during these extremely busy days, camping and parking was regulated. Luckily, people were willing to co-operate and there were very few to little accidents.

Facts and Figures

• Approximately 2000-5000 bags of trash was collected
• Approximately 100 volunteers (this number doesn’t include the volunteer staff that helped with traffic)
• The carritos did a 6am-8am shift every morning to scan the beach, and multiple adults, kids, local national residents, and expats helped out during the 8am and 9am beach clean up shift, as well as the 7pm shift. There was a total partnership between locals and expats and local Mexican residents often outnumbered expats.

A big thanks to Wa Kika who donated waters and aqua frescas to volunteers, El Punto Surf School, the Pachamama girls, Jose Luis Caselin of Sayulita Investment Realty, ChocoBanana, and many more for coordinating and participating!

We are very happy to be able to look back and say this was a huge community effort in Sayulita, where all locals and expats came together for a cleaner and safer Sayulita. The future of our magical town looks bright and many positive ripples will spring forth from the efforts made for Semana Santa 2017.