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Published: March 31st 2007
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Puerto Escondido
Excited at the bus station As most of you know, I just returned to Oaxaca after spending my spring break with 5 other girls from our group in Puerto Escondido (a few others from our group hung out with us sometimes too). Except for the humidity, I already miss the beach like crazy. For a little background info, Puerto Escondido is a small town on the Pacific coast southwest of the city of Oaxaca. It has one of the best beaches for surfing in the world, which is obvious by all the surfers and surf shops. Since it wasn’t surfing season or Mexico’s spring break, there weren’t many people there at all, which was nice. It is very different than the typical Mexican beach resort towns like Mazatlan or Puerto Vallarta- much emptier, relaxing, and less expensive.
Friday night we were all very excited as we left Oaxaca on the bus to Puerto at 11pm. I took Dramamine so I slept during almost the entire bus ride and didn’t get sick even though it’s a really long windy road. We arrived Saturday morning in Puerto at about 8:30 and found a hotel on the main street of Playa Principal (playa = beach). We decided
Puerto Escondido
Amy and I on the bus to stay at Casa Blanca, which was very nice. It had a balcony and a pool, which was nice since it was so incredibly hot and humid and we only had fans, no a/c. We then relaxed on the beach and all got sunburned even though we wore sunscreen. The sunscreen has to be reapplied constantly here due to the intense sun, water, sand, and endless sweat. We learned that it is worth it to rent the umbrellas and beach chairs. The ocean water was the perfect temperature- just like pool water. Anyway, Sunday night we ate at the most amazing restaurant. It was right on the beach, and we sat on fancy pillows with short little tables. There was cool lighting and music and hammocks between the palm trees- awesome atmosphere. The best part however, was the food. Most was seafood so I ordered gnocchi- oh wow. YUM. Everyone enjoyed their food so much that we had to order dessert too. Everyone's was fabulous, but I was the only one to order the chocolate volcano which turned out to be heaven on a plate. Best dessert I've ever had. Seriously. Warm gooey cakey stuff with warm gooier stuff inside
Puerto Escondido
The view from our balcony and chocolate syrup on the plate. Super rich, but super good. It was so delicious that a few days later we returned just for chocolate volcanoes with Caleb and Patty who had missed out the first time.
Monday we went on a boat tour to see sea animals, including sea turtles, mannarays, and dolphins, although we got too seasick to keep looking for dolphins. But the turtles and mannarays were very cool. First we saw a bunch of mannarays, which looked like penguins trying to fly out of the water! So funny. Then the younger guy jumped in the water and caught a sea turtle, and the other guy helped him get it in the boat. It was intense. We all got to take pictures with poor sea turtle. I felt sorry for the her, she was probably scared to death, although they didn't hurt her. We also caught 3 huge fish with the help of the 2 tour guys, although by that time I was so nauseated that I just watched. Needless to say I was very happy to return to land even though we didn't see any dolphins or whales.
Tuesday we decided to explore other
Puerto Escondido
The view from our balcony beaches. There are several in the area, and all are beautiful in their own way. The first, Playa Carrizalillo, was my favorite. You have to walk down tons of stairs to get down to the beach, but it is definitely vale la pena (worth the pain). It's small, pretty, and peaceful. The sand was amazing- thick and full of cool rocks and shells, and it didn't stick as much. While we were there we rode the "banana," a long yellow raft that they pull around with a jet boat. It was super fun, but a couple of times they purposely flipped us off (don't worry, we all had life jackets), and the last time I got kicked in the face by someone who landed on me. I didn't really realize it until later when an area on my jaw kind of hurt. I asked someone if it looked red or swollen, and turned out I had a scratch on my face and the area was swelling. Again though, vale la pena. After Carrizalillo we hiked up the million stairs and walked over to Playa Manzanillo. It was much rockier and we ate at the slowest restaurant in the world, but
Puerto Escondido
Playing in the ocean on the first day, getting a nice sunburn it was also nice. That evening three of us girls got our hair braided- it's hard to resist in Mexico at the beach. It looked silly but I no longer had to worry about my frizzed out beach hair.
Wednesday we decided to move to Playa Zicatela, the popular surf beach. Although it is next to the Playa Principal, it had a much different feeling. Surfers and hippies everywhere, and a younger crowd than the other beach. We were lucky enough to get a pretty nice $100 hotel room for $60 at Puerta del Sol. It only had two beds and a hammock for the 5 of us, but Kelly was excited to sleep in the hammock. Again we enjoyed the pool, and were glad that since the beach is bigger, there is more of a breeze and therefore is a little cooler. In the afternoon three girls took a surf lesson at a beach with smaller waves and Caleb and Patty attempted to surf as well. It looked fun but I decided I am too out of shape and too clumsy for surfing. Kelly and I just relaxed under an umbrella and watched a bit.
Thursday we
Puerto Escondido
Chillaxin´ by the pool relaxed at Zicatela and went back to Carrizalillo to enjoy our last day at the beach. We nearly cried at dinner when we realized we only had a couple of hours left of our incredible trip. We left around 9 that night and arrived about 7 the next morning. I slept so hard that I didn't even wake up during a few stops, one which included the police doing a quick drug search...
Overall I had an incredibly fun spring break, and it didn't even cost that much. We met lots of nice, interesting people, ate some good food, bought some cool stuff, and relaxed on some of the prettiest beach in the world. I feel very fortunate and very spoiled, although we were all needing a nice break from the craziness of school. It´s kind of nice to be back in Oaxaca, but I was hoping it would be cooler here- wrong. It warmed up while I was gone and now it´s almost as hot as Puerto but now I can´t go jump in the pool or the ocean to cool off! So enjoy your cool weather up there in Oregon.
Well, I hope everyone else enjoyed
Puerto Escondido
We learned our lesson and sat in the shade spring break too!
Besitos,
Janna
P.S. While looking at my pictures you should be listening to Bob Marley. It was the theme music of our trip because it was playing everywhere we went- restaurants, taxis, etc.
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