Puerto Escondido, home of the killer pipeline like wave! But not right now...

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Tim Version:
* Searched longer than ever before for a good hostel and still didn't find one!
* Checked out the wave and while it was just OK it really needs the right season to work.
* Bit disappointed by the place really....

The version that entered with a jittery excitement, and left with a bad taste in its mouth:

Puerto Escondido! While this isn't a surfing trip, and every time I surf I find I suck more and more as what little skill I had drains away, I still get little-kid-at-disney-land excited by a chance to surf, or really just a chance to hit up a beach with any waves! Puerto Escondido, meant to be incredible! I've seen videos of the waves here that would make you... well, it'd scare you a lot heh.

Entering the place, it looked OK... a bit quiet but hey it was early. I did my usual thing, searching for a good hostel (remember no guide books for here). First up, the primary spot, in front of the wave! The wave? Where? What? That thing?.... it looked like Scarborough! (Thats not a good thing...). As a precurser, this of OFF SEASON. So, I couldn't expect the world... but still. The hostels, nothing great! And I'm sure they don't mutate from season to season. Not happy with any there and the fact that the crowd had an average age of 60, not exactly what you expect from an area famous for a killer surfing wave, I checked out the rest of the area. Hours later in killer heat I found the whole place was dead! So I settled for a dodgy hostel in the first area near the wave. Maybe it would be better tomorrow right? Its just a bad swell right now and nothing to worry about... anyway, the beach is good. Well, kinda... the beach itself is good, wide with nice sand and all. It does however come with that incredibly tacky look I dislike of lots of places putting out big coloured umbrellas and plastic chairs, with old miscoloured plastic sun lounges.

So for the next couple of days I talked to some locals and checked out the wave each morning, and while it got much better it was still very heavily a seasonal thing, which I wouldn't have minded at all if the place wasn't a bit of a hole, but really it is! At the moment it is kind of an all-crashing medium sized closeout wave. The swell I heard wasn't a bad one right now either. You can see the potential, but it wasn't going to be fulfilled any time soon. It's also unfortunately not a wave that I find fun to surf with a hired board (its the perfect type to break your board) so I had no want to test it. I'm well and truly becoming a beach snob now heh, I've seen too many beautiful tropical beaches, many with world class breaks, and its a bit of a bad thing! Its a morning break which I liked, again like Scarborough, and the crowd awake at dawn brought the age average to maybe 30s, much better... but again by 10:30 the average age was 60 again, with many well over that. One big retirement village!

So instead of a healthy surf filled couple of days, we ended up having a few drinks with those out and about at night and had an OK time. Still though with the low crowds, not really a great one. Sorry Puerto Escondido, thumbs down for the town, the people, the surf, and the nightlife unless it is the right season for the wave and it is pumping. Then this place I'm sure would be great!

I did however meet an Aussie guy living in another beach town, Zipolite, reportedly much more beautiful, so I made a B-line for there to escape the kinda crappy experience of Puerto Escondido.

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Photos

A heck of a paddle!
A beautiful view from the end of one street looking over towards the main break. Im not sure if you can see it but there is also a paddle boarder near the centre of the photo right out to sea.

Flying your flag
As is with many places in Mexico, the huge Mexican flag flying high and proud

Pelican flying formations
They love this here! When you're out swimming amongst the break there are constant streams of 3 or 4 pelicans flying over you, often with 30cm of you, in perfect formation folloing the breaking waves. Its beautiful.