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Balamjuyuc,Mazunte
Thumbs up for Balamjuyuc. This is what we were longing for. We arrived in Mazunte on the 25th of April. The pick up truck that we took from the bus stop in San Antonio dropped us off at the beach and were shown a place to stay. We decided to move on however and check out a place recommended in the Rough Guide; Balamjuyuc. We are so glad we did as we absolutely loved it. It was exactly what we had been looking for!! So calm, so peaceful on a cliff right above the beach overlooking the ocean. Beautiful. When we arrived no one was there so we decided to wait. After about an hour or two Emiliano, the owner (quite a character indeed) arrived. He told us we should have just helped ourselves to one of the rooms as most of them were free...
Our first night was a little bit of a peculiar experience. As we got back from the beach, Emiliano was preparing a Temaxcal and asked if we wanted to join. Not knowing what it was, except that it was somewhat like a sauna in a tent we declined and decided to just lay in the hammocks outside our cabaña and chill. After a while we started hearing
chanting-like sounds from the tent and later we saw Emiliano coming out to get more hot rocks from the fire. Then there was silence until we heard a voice crying uncontrollably, sobbing. It was completely dark outside and all we could hear was this voice of despair. It was bizarre. We later found out that Temaxcal involves a lot of ritualistic elements and the calling of spirits which sometimes evokes strong emotions in people...
According to Emiliano, Balamjuyuc is a very spiritual place full of different energies. Some people love it while others feel very uncomfortable and decide to leave after just one night...
Most of our time in Mazunte we spent relaxing in our hammocks, hanging out on the beach, playing skip-bo, listening to Emiliano talk about how much he missed his wife Gabriella and their kids who were in Argentina on holiday.
One day Monia was very unwell, apparently because she brushed her “tits” with tap water. Her poor stomach couldn't handle it.
We got to know Emiliano quite well, he even cooked delicious Pasta Fresca for us one night. It took him a long time to prepare as it had to be perfect, but it was well
worth the wait.
Emiliano's advice for us was to travel with open hearts and to not just look with our eyes, but to feel each experience. He told Kiki to only plant beautiful flowers in the garden of her heart and to be careful of sweet poison. He advised Monia not to be so lazy and put her ideas into practice. In his eyes Monia is walking the right path, but she is not balanced. He believed that it's a good idea for her to go to India and that she may end up staying there longer than planned...
Emiliano's friend Manolo who lives in the UK also arrived after some time and we taught him to play skip-bo, which he loved.
You must know we had one frightening, life threatening experience in Mazunte. SCORPIONS! It all started when Kiki went to the bathroom and found a big scorpion on the wall. Emiliano came and killed it with his flip flop (well done Emiliano!!). Emiliano had told us before that there are no scorpions because he puts poison all around the premises... he said this was a one off. But later, when we were just about to go to bed,
what did we see running across the floor!?? A big fat brown scorpion! Monia was so brave. She grabbed a Corona bottle and squashed it. We could see it trying to sting the bottle with it's tail for ages. When we finally thought it was dead, Monia lifted the bottle but it turned out it was in fact still alive and started to run. Monia killed it on her second attempt.
When it was time to leave for Oaxaca, we didn't want to go. Emiliano and Manolo tried to convince us to stay, but as much as we wanted to stay, we knew we had to go now if we wanted to see both Oaxaca and Mexico City. Manolo took us to the nearby town of Pochutla (thank you so much Manolo!!) where we took a bus to Oaxaca City.
Mazunte was great, Balamjuyuc was amazing, but the experience would not have been complete without Emiliano and Manolo! Thank you for everything!!!
For those who would like to stay at Emiliano's place!!! Please send him an email on
balamjuyuk@gmail.com
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angel Moudrov
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Emiliano & Gabriella
I stayed with a bunch of friends at Emiliano & Gabi's place, that was in 1999. glad to see they are still there. We really annoyed Emiliano one night because we helped ourselves to his kitchen when he & Gabi were out for the evening. We thought he'd said it was cool to use their kitchen. He gave us this lecture about being the king of the mountain & that he used to be a guerilla fighter in Guatemala. He was cool though after he calmed down. I think he was upset that we hadn't invited him & Gabi and waited till he'd gone out. The following morning he took us out for an turtle spotting boat trip & cooked us a massive red snapper in the evening. The beach is beautiful at Mazunte unlike Zipolite down the coast. I hope it's still relatively un-touristy! Of course the place looks totally different now in your photos than all that time ago. Good memories.