Puerto Escondido - Mexico

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Saturday 18th September

We grabbed a quick coffee and settled our bill with Marianna and waited for our taxi which was late and we had only 20 minutes left until our bus left Pochulta. The next 15 minutes was a blur as the taxi driver was trying to make up for being late and was gunning it along the windy roads trying to get us to the bus station on time. It doesnt help with the speed bumps every mile but nevertheless we made it with time to spare. Its only another hour drive by bus to Puerto Escondido and we arrive in no time at all observing the dramatic change in scenery as we went.

Its a beutiful hot and sunny day today and we jumped into a taxi and showed the hostel address to the taxi driver took longer to get our bags in the boot than it took to get to our hostal!! We were literally 200 metres from the bus station. I suppose 2 pounds to get the heavy bags down the street was worth it considering the heat.
We are staying in the Mayflower hostal which is run by a German lady called Mina. We check in and do the formalities and proceed to our room. As expected its a bit of a come down from the last three days living in supreme comfort in Mazunte but we prepared ourselves mentally and just cracked on.
We showered and got freshened up and went for a wander around the area so get our bearings and maybe suss out some adventure for the week if available.

Puerto Escondido (pop 21,000) is one of the most important tourist attractions on the Oaxacan coast. The main attractions are the beaches, from Zicatela Beach, which hosts major surfing competitions, to beaches with gentle waves. About 3/4 of the tourists here are surfers and watersport enthusiasts and it has that relaxed feel about it and the locals aren't pushy when touting for business.

We are really feeling the heat today and ive developed a heat rash on my feet and ankles of all places. We found out some nice places to go for a long walk tomorrow so we got back to the hostal and relaxed for a couple of hours until we were hungry.

At night we went to a place called Mario's where we had some very nice shrimp lasagne and as we were finishing off our meal Mario himself came over and chatted with us for nearly two hours. He was such a nice gentleman. 70 years old, fluent in 5 languages, 4 kids and spoke excellent English. He opened the restaurant in 1986 with his wife and had been here since. I later found out that its one of the oldest restaurants in Peuerto Escondido. Initially he asked if i enjoyed my meal to which i replied it was very tasty and the right portion size. He then asked if we were Scottish and when i told him i was a chef he sat down and told us a story about the Scottish chef that worked here the year before and i suppose we hit it off from there. He bought us coffee and drinks and we spoke about current affairs and lots about formula one racing and it was obvious he was a typical italian ferrari lover of all things fast! He explained to us later on with tears in his eyes that he had just lost his wife recently and was feeling lost and often liked to talk with customers if and when he came down to the restaurant floor. His son Pablo runs the restaurant and he also was a genuinely nice lad, always smiling and happy to help. We touched by Mario's warmth and we found it hard to part with such great company in the late hours of the night but we managed to drag ourselves away off up the road.

Sunday 19th September

Nightmare sleeps all round. We've both been bitten and my rash on my left foot is unbearably itchy and is red raw with scratching!! i know i know i can hear you thinking mum, 'stop scratching, get cream on, anti histamines'. Done all that and to be honest we think ive taken a reaction to the washing powder that my socks were washed in. No more scratching!!

We took a walk to the twin beaches of Puerto Angelito and Playa Carrizalillo just west of the town. These are in sheltered coves, making it safe for swimming, with Playa Carrizalillo having slightly more surf and is popular for beginners as the waves are only about 3 to 4 ft! Playa Carrizalillo has no road access and you have to climb down very steep steps to get to the beach making it a quieter and more exclusive beach.
At Playa Carrizalillo beach we sat and watched surfers of all experience and we fancied a shot ourselves but its quite exensive for lessons and its probually better for us to get lessons in oz.
We then walked about a half hour around to the next beach which is Puerto Angelito. This is a gorgeous beach. Angelito beach is full of family-owned small restaurants located in open thatched huts and its quite popular with locals which is understandable as theres no surfers as the waves are minimal.

Its very hot on the South Coast here and it helps with the breeze coming off the south Pacific sea. We stopped for a bite and headed back to our appartment as i was still having a moan about my rash. That was me for the day im afraid as i couldnt walk far without irriating my skin around my feet but Jill hauled off to the famous Zicatela beach where the really big waves are and has the legendary 'mexican pipe' waves. Im having a right whine to myself in the room and my misery is further compounded by finding a swarm of ants climbing up the toilet wall. We did go out later for some tortillas and we bought a couple of beers to take back to the room with us.

Monday 20th September

Well we are having a boring day today as the weather turned sour and its been spitting of rain all day. We did manage to take a walk to an indoor market and also we went to the local supermercado to get some food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We had some yogurt and granola for breakfast and had sort of hung about hoping for an improvement in the weather which didnt happen as hurricane Karl is still lurking about the skies! At least my rash is less itchy now as im tending not to scratch as much and have changed socks three times today!

Tuesday 21st September

Our bus leaves tonight for another overnight 10 hour journey so we are not looking forward to that but needs must. The weather improved alot today in fact its probually the hottest day we have had in a while so we made up for a lost day yesterday and headed for Marinero beach for a bit of sunbathing.

As usual i got bored after an hour and went for a walk alone along the La Punta beach which is two miles long. The waves here are sometimes 10ft high and come crashing down with some force that you wonder what the attraction of surfing is here! The mexican pipe wasnt on show today as its too early in the year but ive seen photo's of it and it looks awesome.

There are some really good sufers out today honing their skills and its great to watch, so to are the body boarders or boogie boarders as they call them here.
I met two dead box fish sitting on the beach which had just freshly been washed ashore. No wonder they are poisonous and dangerous, the spikes they have are lethal. See the photo!
Well i think i walked to far as i could feel the baldy head burning a bit and when i turned around to head back i realised that whilst watching the surfers on the move id got carried away and had almost covered the whole of La Punta beach!
Thankfully Jill was still in 'please burn me sun' position when i got back and we called our deckchair attendant over for some drinks.
Time was getting on now and we have to leave for the bus station about 8pm so we got back to the mayflower and grabbed showers and a chage of clothes. 7pm and there was an almighty crack and rumble of thunder and lighting and the heavens opened and it poured down with rain. We thought the rain in Mazunte was heavy, nah nah, this was real rain!! It was so heavy you couldnt distinguish raindrops from the sheets of water falling from the sky....oh please stop, we have to walk 200 metres to the bus station in ten minutes!!! TAXI!!
Just walking out the door ten paces to the car was enough time to get soaked to the skin, im glad its still warm though as we'lll dry off in the station. At the station i looked out to the roads with my camcorder and filmed some of the shenanigans that was going on with cars and busses trying to get through 12 inches of cascading waves of water!! Surfers paradise indeed...😱

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Photos

hands sculpture Playa Zicatela
La Ola (The Wave)

Playa Zicatela
Hands sculpture called La Ola (The Wave)

Playa Zicatela
surfers competetions here