If you are in Zihuatanejo there are plenty of places online and in town that will set up tours for you. These are pretty standard tours that will take you to the site of the Ruins as well as the lagoon in Barra de Potosi for $60 to $70 per person. This includes transportation and lunch, and is about a 6 hour tour.
Here’s how much we spent for 4 people on our trip to Xihuacan.
We took the public bus from Centro Zihua to Petatlán: 120 pesos
My parents hadn’t seen the town of Petatlán, and my mom really wanted to use her credit card multiple times at one jewelry stand. So Petatlán is the place to go for gold, silver and steel jewelry. After a few hours of visiting every jewelry stand and walking through the Church of the Father of Jesus de Petatlán, we were ready for our visit to Xihuacan.
So the taxis in Petatlán have no idea what Xihuacan is, so you have to ask for transport to La Chole, the village just beyond the archaeological site. We bargained with the driver for a few minutes, before agreeing on a price to take us to the site, wait for us, and then drive us back to our casa in Zihuatanejo.
Total Taxi Fare: 400 pesos.
The breakdown was as follows: 130 pesos for transport to La Chole, and 270 pesos for transport back to Zihua.
As we pulled into the museum parking lot, there was a very excited man waiting at the entrance. He met us at the car, told us he worked for the government as a tour guide, showed us some credential, and let us know that the government doesn’t pay him so we have to give him 200 pesos for the tour. As we discussed whether we needed a tour guide or not, he told us that we could pay him whatever we wanted. There wasn’t another vehicle in the parking lot, and it was 3:30pm in the afternoon. This was definitely a buyers’ market.
Entry into the museum: 80 pesos
Juan, our guide, was very helpful. He had some documents that we could read in English, and he walked through the museum with us. We spent about 30 minutes wandering through the museum. It wasn’t very big, but had a few cool items. Afterwards Juan hopped on his motorbike and we followed him about 200 yards down the road to the first archaeological site. This first site was a large ball field that we were told is the second largest in Mexico. Juan explained how the game was played 3,000 years ago. Dad thought that there was no way anyone could really know the rules to a 3,000 year old game. After we drove another hundred yards down the road to a 45 foot high pyramid. We weren’t allowed on the pyramid, which kinda sucked, but I thought it was still pretty cool. Dad, once again, thought that it looked a little too perfect for something that was supposedly 3,000 years old. We spent about ten to fifteen minutes at each site and then were on our way back to Zihua.
Juan asked us to visit his village, La Chole, but we were hot and tired and so declined his invitation.
Tip for the tour guide: 150 pesos
Total: 750 pesos, which works out to less than 190 pesos per person, or roughly $10 USD each. Not bad!
Next time maybe we’ll pay a few more dollars and include a visit to La Chole and Barra de Potosi. FYI: A taxi from Zihua to Barra de Potosi should cost 350-400 pesos.