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Published: February 22nd 2010
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Playa Carrizalillo
Our first beach stop. Warm clear sea, warm golden sands, and cheap Coronas! Puerto Escondido
After 6 days in beautiful Oaxaca, culminating in our succesful completion of not having more than one diarrhoeal episode within 24 hours within the first 17 days of our trip (there is a clue within that long and boring sentence), we decided to head for the Pacific coast, in particular to Puerto Escondido, a small port town with a few lovely beaches.
We took the 6 hour mini-bus via the windy mountain route (as opposed to the 10 hour coach down straighter roads route) which provided incredible scenery. The climate changed many times, from arid dusty hills to thick cloud forest, to what looked to be jungle (and reminded us both of Malaysia) to pine forest as we went up and down and up and down (and round and round and round). The journey consisted of hair-pin bends roughly every 5 seconds on steep slopes (up or down). And we were stuffed into the back seat of a seriously hot, cramped mini-bus. I felt very ill. At one point I made to lean forward out of the window of the passenger in front to throw up, but this passed. Needless to say, it was a relief to
Body Boarding...
...or Boogie Boarding, at Playa Zicatela arrive in Puerto Escondido.
We stayed at a hostel that had an outdoor pool, a bar with seriously cheap drinks, and our own bungalow complete with TV (that we never turned on), sofas and a beer fridge (Coronas for 12 pesos!). It was owned and run by an English man from Barnstaple that we never met, but left in the care of an American guy roughly my age called Aaron, who took pleasure in creating cocktails for everyone.
We met some really nice people here, and spent a few days enjoying the beaches, bars and restaurants with a few of them. At one point our group consisted of English, Australian, Norwegian, Swiss, German and American. Very international! Their was also a dog and two cute little kittens.
The first day we went to the nearest beach and enjoyed our first taste of the ocean here, spending a very relaxed day in and out of the sea. The second day we all rented boogie boards and got destroyed by the waves at the local surf beach (where it is advisable not to swim). Then that night we went to a turtle hatchery, where a group of volunteers look
Sarah at Playa Zicatela
getting battered by another big wave after turtle eggs to ensure that they hatch ok, and release them by hand when the conditions are just right. They also let us tourists join in with this fun bit.
So at sunset, after waiting for the pelicans to fly away (the Mexican Pelican, incidently, is the only Pelican to dive at water, apparently), We all stood behind a line drawn in the sand, with our baby Leatherback turtles in our hands, gently put them down and coaxed them towards the ocean. Some started walking, some didn´t, and others did but in the wrong direction! (these ones we turned around). Every now and then a huge wave would come and wash them all about, and as it was dark we had to be very careful not to stand on any of them! It was really special to be able to participate in this.
Sarah and I, Trent the Australian and Aunald the Swiss chap all headed back to the road, not really thinking about how we intended to get back to the town now that it was dark and we were in the middle of nowhere with only flip flops on our feet. We stood in the
Sarah and a 10 hour old Leatherback Turtle
outside Puerto Escondido, shortly before releasing them into the ocean (once the Pelicans had left!) pitch dark at the side of the road for a good while waiting for a Camioneta to come along (a sort of truck that acts as a very rudimentary bus with everyone climbing into the back), which it never did. We also hoped for taxis, but saw none. However after a good while of staring in awe at the hundreds of stars above us while keeping our thumbs out in view of the road, a taxi came along and took us back. Hurrah, we were saved.
After 3 fun days of beaches, body boarding and cheap Coronas and cocktail inventions we decided to head off further down the coast to San Agustinillo, a small village of approx 250 people with a beautiful beach and places to stay. We´ll write about that next time. Sneak preview, we experienced something here that we never had before!
Click here to see on Google Maps where we were. The bay on the left is the nice swimming beach, and the long beach to the right is the surfing/no swimming beach
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