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Published: March 28th 2010
Oaxaca City
Colonial Oaxaca (Wa-ha-ka) City, the capital of Oaxaca State is a very nice little place. Sun-drenched, a little dusty and very cozy, it had more tourists than we’d seen anywhere outside Mexico City since getting to Mexico. We quite enjoyed our hostel, which had an atmospheric central common room which was actually a covered courtyard that kept the sun out during the day, but still had a fresh air feel to it. It was fairly cheap, and it was nice to have a kitchen again after several weeks in hostels and hotels without one.
We walked around town looking at their many churches and colonial buildings, went to the central market for food, and enjoyed a couple of cafés with free wifi. There isn’t really anything in particular to see in town, so we used it as a time to run some errands and stock up on sun-screen etc before going down to the coast.
Before realising we had a kitchen at our disposal, we walked around looking for food the first night. Oaxaca is supposed to be famous for its seven ‘moles’ (sauces) and its version of tortillas called
‘tlayuda’ which is a large tortilla
filled with beans, cheese or meat and tomato, avocado and onion, folded in half and roasted over a coal-fire. They have a crispy exterior, tasty interior and a smoky flavour to top it off. Quite nice for a quick, yet filling bite. As we’ve found out, it’s not just in Oaxaca City you can get them, and we are big fans of them now.
One thing we’re not fans of, however, are surly hostel-owners who pinch every penny out of you: charging for luggage storage and making a point of telling you you can’t use their facilities after check-out. So even though we liked our hostel,
Banana Magic , and it was one of the cheapest we found in Oaxaca, I’m not sure I would recommend them for this reason. God forbid we should take up all the space from the TWO other people staying there! Seriously, no skin off his nose letting us chill for a bit until our night-bus, but instead he gets a bad recommendation from me! Ha!
Monte Albán
Other than seeing the colonial town of Oaxaca itself, the real reason we were there was to see the ruins of
Monte Albán. The site has been
Yet another church in Oaxaca
Basically this is all we did that day - look at churchesoccupied since around 500 BC by the ancient Zapotec civilization. The ancient city stands on a flattened hilltop just outside present-day state capital Oaxaca City. It is supposedly one of the most impressive ancient sites in Mexico. We thought it was very remarkable indeed. To think that they actually flattened the entire hilltop with its 360-degree views over the surrounding valleys, then built some very large structures all without the tools we consider essentials for this scale of building-work! We got up really early to be there for opening time, and it was kind of funny how an unofficial race began between all us early birds to try and get to the main pyramid and the views of the whole site first, before it filled up with groups and our pictures would be full of people instead of ruins. Oh, and by the way we won 😉 It was such a nice sunny day, and though a bit hazy, I really enjoyed the views from the hilltop. I think the pictures tell you more than I can… without knowing much about the Zapotecs.
Puerto Escondido
And then we were going to the coast again. Ahhh, sigh 😊 Along
Old lady cleaning the church
The Maria statue used to be lavishly decorated but her crown of several kilos of gold was stolen a few years ago, as was her gemstone embroidered cape. So sad :( the Southern Pacific Coast in Oaxaca there are a number of little beach towns and beaches that sound really nice. We decided to start from the Western end as we would eventually be going east to the Yucatan peninsula after a few weeks on the beach. So we found a night bus to Puerto Escondido, a backpacker hub on the coast that still has some of its fishing village charm. We stayed at
Cabaña Edda which turned out to be a very nice place. It was M$150 for a large room with our own bathroom in a basic cement block, but with a nice grassy area out front and a hammock. We enjoyed having a kitchen to use (even if it was a little low on kitchen utensils), a 3km long beach to go running on in the mornings, and a smaller beach in the bay for swimming and sunbathing only minutes away from where we were staying. We enjoyed some beautiful sunsets here with a 2-for-1 mojito in our hands. And one day we walked over to the other side of town to a tiny beach in a very small bay called Playa Manzanilla. It was the kind of place
you wish no one else knew about… white sand, protected by rocks and with a backdrop of green palms - and that’s before mentioning the clear, warm water with nice snorkelling opportunities.
This was a good beginning to our time of minimising our spending… Cooking for ourselves and staying at a cheap place. Long-distance buses are really expensive in Mexico, and travelling all the way from Tijuana to the Southern coast of Oaxaca in just a month meant we were a little over-budget. Therefore, we had planned in a little beach-time in the cheapest place we could find in the book, before going to the more expensive Yucatan peninsula where my mum, Karin, is going to meet us for a couple of weeks of Easter holidaying.
Zipolite
The next place we went to, east of Puerto Escondido, was Zipolite, which was supposedly even cheaper. Zipolite is known as being a bit of a hippie hang-out and Mexico’s only nude friendly beach. The beach is probably about 1.5km with crashing waves (it is also quite the surf spot being part of Mexico’s pipeline), a tendency towards red flags being planted by the volunteer lifeguards every morning, and a
less interesting sunset than ‘PE’ as it sets behind the rocks at the Western end of the beach blocking the view of the more intense colours. The town consists of about 3 streets with the main drag backing right up to the beach. This was where we found our cheap lodging at ‘Nice Place on the Beach’, a Western run restaurant, bar and basic lodgings that are definitely a nice place on the beach. After walking through a little path between potted plants and palm trees you get to the restaurant which overlooks the ocean. To the left are some cement rooms, to the right is the bar, and straight ahead up the stairs are 4 cabanas on stilts above the restaurant, with just bamboo walls, a bed, mosquito net, a little table and plastic chairs and a couple of shelves. The side facing the beach has a big open window with views through the palm trees to the waves you can hear crashing onto shore all day and night. It’s very peaceful. Except when our neighbours were home when you could hear most of what was going on and the whole ‘house’ wobbled from their walking around 😊
There isn’t really too much to tell from our almost two weeks here… We sunbathed (I more than Ell obviously), read some very good books, went in the water to get splashed by the waves (no swimming when the waves crash this close to shore) and went for walks and runs on the beach (together with the nudists who seem to have a much higher desire to strut their stuff than those with swim gear on). Our favourite nudist was a guy who walked the length of the beach at least twice a day wearing a white cap, a white sleeve-less crop-top and nothing else! We’ve been discussing at great length the reason for this ensemble… To get an even tan? To enhance his nudity by covering another part of his body? Suggestions to help us solve this puzzle are welcome 😊 We also loved the guy who when he went running, at least donned a sarong to go with his heart-rate monitor. That this sarong was about 20cm long and only just covered his bits is another story 😉
Apart from this I, in particular, enjoyed the food at our place. I had a different veggie lunch every day
Our hostel's courtyard
Banana Magic Hostel... (lovely omelettes with nice fried potatoes, curry, chow mein and chow fan) and in the evening we became the regulars of one of the tlayuda places on the main drag that turned out to have quite a varied and cheap menu as well.
I guess we were a bit unusual in that we didn’t join the party that seemed to evolve every night in our bar. It looked like fun, but I just don’t know how people (some of them on trips as long as ours) can afford to drink cocktails night after night (or even enjoy getting that drunk night after night!). We had some nice chats with our fellow residents, but I guess our focus was more on chilling than partying.
One afternoon we saw a wedding being planned in a hotel down the beach from us. The ocean-front terrace was all decorated with white tablecloths and flowers, and chairs covered in white fabric had been set out on the beach in front of a little gazebo facing the ocean. It sounds really romantic, that they were getting married as the sun was setting around 6 o’clock, right? But now put in the picture a crowd of
random people on the beach, some of them nude all gathering around to look and take pictures too. I’m not sure getting married on Mexico’s only nudist beach would be my first choice. Unless of course they were locals in Zipolite… But I wouldn’t know, because I refused to join the gawking masses and let them have just a fraction more privacy for their intimate event.
Although the days blurred together and time seemed to almost stop at times, the dates eventually caught up with us and suddenly there was only a week until my mum was arriving (20th March - 5th April), so we pulled ourselves and our stuff together and got on a night-bus to Palenque where we were planning to see these amazing jungle-set ruins on our way to the Caribbean coast.
So, bye-bye Zipolite…
Love,
Kristine
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Eric
non-member comment
Hey Kristine. I really enjoyed your post. It reminded me of my time in Mexico. My blog is looking for some good travel photos and hostel reviews. If you have time, email us some at dirtyhippiesblog@gmail.com or check us out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com Continued fun on your travels, Eric