Mexico

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After a mega mission from Belize, through Guatemala, to Mexico on 5 buses, a boat, a truck, a couple of collectivos and a taxi, we finaly arrived at Puerto Escondido, 3 days later. A nice place with great weather and super warm water. This coastline is full of perfect waves, lots of swell and morning offshores. We explored the coast about 2 1/2 hours drive each side of puerto escondido. There are mainly small villages in between the highway and the coast. Lots of dirt tracks leading to deserted beaches and dead ends in farmland.

We first bused it 2 hours south to a beautiful point break called barra de la cruz . When its a good swell its perfect, but we only managed a smallish swell, which was still really fun. We stayed in some small bungalows in the village, which was almost 1/2 an hour walk. Not so far you say! Throw in stinking hot sun and a billion mozzies and try it. Ive never seen so many mozzies in the middle of the day, then when the sun goes down there were 20 times as many. Dengy fever is common in these parts, but somehow we didnt get it.

Back at puerto for a few days was sweet, waves across the road and good cheap food, beer and cocktails! We made the most of the cocktails every night. Two massive cocktails would cost about $3 bucks. There was more stuff to do there which gave Em's a break from lounging on the beach in the strong sun. There were awsome waves here. This place is known as the Pipe of Mexico. Massive hollow waves seem to pop up from nowhere. If you got pounded by one you would get sandblasted. I met a bodyboarder who snapped his booger, Ive never heard of that before. This was a favourite place to surf for the trip so far. We hired a mo-ped and checked out the few little coves and beaches nearby. I wouldnt go driving too far on one of them there as the drivers are nuts. I almost went deaf from Em's yelling "lookout"! in my ear so many times.

Next mission was a taxi, 2 collectivos, a boat, and a 4wd to a remote wave at Chacahija. Next to a river mouth with a breakwall, a really long right breaks all day with hardly anyone surfing. A few Aussies and a Kiwi, and a few local kids sometimes. Little huts made from coconut leaves and driftwood made a little village on the beach. Hammocks everywhere and hardly anyone in sight. We stayed in the tent for free as long as we brought some food from the bloke who owned the land. We stayed for 5 days totally kicking back. The owner of the place spent about 3/4 of his day swinging away in his hammock. Only moving to cook and rake the sand. It was a really nice place, the lake entrance was beautiful, clear water and heaps of fish. The group of Aussies caught a massive giant trevally and cooked it on the beach one night. We spent most arvos watching the sun set trying to catch the big fish that never came. You could see bait fish jumping everywhere, the place was alive with birds and water life. One arvo we told the owner that we wanted fish for dinner, (cause we couldnt catch them!) so he took his net to the shore, one throw and he came back with about 10 fish.

Puerto again for a day then we hired a car and went south again, stopping everywhere on the way for a look around. One cool little hippyish town, Zipolite, was awesome. Really nice headland with waves smashing through a huge hole. Crazy looking wizzard style places to stay scattered over the hill amongst the trees. Safe place except for the nudists that sunbake at one end of the beach! Hammocks everywhere again. We saw some cool music too, one guy that was awsome with his guitar. Couldve stayed for ages here but not enough time.

This coast was awsome, somewhere we'd love to go back to.

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Photos

Crazy mexican ladder
Each rung is held up by bricks resting on the one below