Puerto Escondido and Environs: Sun, Surf, Spanish Lessons

After Guadalajara and Mexico City, two wonderful cities, it was high time for some time at the beach. Puerto Escondido is not just a beautiful beach town, it's a world class surf destination. Good place to spend a few weeks then, right? Study Spanish and surf. Perfect.

Well...

There was definitely a beach. Bahia Principal, a lovely little bay well protected by a breakwater. Excellent for swimming. (photo credit: flickr).


Lots of beach. Playa Zicatela stretches east from Bahia Principal several kilometers to Punta Zicatela. (photo credit: flickr).


And the Spanish school was everything I could have wished for. I am standing in a "classroom" looking past a "hammock" and "tropical garden" at the "ocean." And by "classroom," I mean a patio. And by "hammock," "tropical garden," and "ocean" I mean exactly those things.


A closer view of Playa Zicatela, directly below the school.


But man, oh man, the surf. It seems obvious in retrospect, but it never occurred to me that a world class surf destination might be beyond my meager abilities as a surfer. (photo credit flickr).


It didn't get this big while I was there. That would have been fun to watch. (photo credit: flickr).


Mostly, it looked like this. Head high, hollow and closing out. The lip falling on your head feels like a sandbag. Then you go through 10 seconds of rinse cycle. After you finally surface, you realize that you've been pushed 15 yards closer to the beach and are no closer to getting past the break than you were before. Fun, fun, fun. (photo credit: flickr).


Ok, so surfing is not an option. There are other things to do in Puerto. Let's go fishing! But... we didn't catch anything. And I've already signed up for two weeks of classes. What's that leave?


Oh, right. Drinking.

They had coconuts with all manners of liquor, deliciously chilled. There was also listed a "coco loco," so we inquired as to its contents:

"¿Qué licor contiene el coco loco?"
"Todos."
"¿Todos?"
"Ron, vodka, ginebra, tequila.." *expansive shrug* "..todos."
"Cuatro, por favor."

It was goooood.

And that's about it. I was living with a local family, who were very nice. I had two hours of class five days a week. The rest of the time I tried to move as little as possible (christ, it was hot) and not get drunk every day. I mostly succeeded.

My t-shirts, all of my t-shirts, drying on the roof.


Camionetas are the preferred mode of public transit within town. Yes, that's just a pickup truck with a canopy, no, there aren't any seat belts, yes, that's a small child peaking through the window above the cab. It was great: when they got really full, you could just hang onto the back, standing on the bumper. The wind in my face was the closest I got to AC.


There were guard dogs at the school. They were fierce.


Just before I left, I tried to go surfing at another spot, Playa Carrizalillo (say the names 'Carrie' 'Sally' and 'Joe' in quick succession with a bit of a slur. You've got it. Carrizalillo). The swell was small and the break too well protected, so there was almost nothing surfable. Trying to find something, anything rideable, I drifted closer and closer to the rocks. Guess what lives on the rocks? (Photo credit: flickr).


These assholes. (Photo credit: Gov. of the U.S. Virgin Islands).


My foot wasn't quite this bad. There were perhaps 20 spines total, confined to a half dollar sized area on the ball of my foot, just below my big toe. But damn was it unpleasant. I spent an hour and a half with a needle and tweezers digging them out. The worst were embedded a good 1/4" or more. I took this a sign that I should leave Puerto Escondido, post haste. (Photo credit: flickr).


This is Mazunte, about 30km east of Puerto, and appears to have been taken from atop the same hill as the hostel where I stayed (photo credit: flickr). The rooms were full, so I slept in a hammock. This seems like a wonderful idea until you consider the outrageous heat (even if a room doesn't have A/C it will usually have a fan), complete lack of any refreshing sea breezes and swarms of mosquitoes. I probably woke up 4 times, just to reapply repellent.

While in Mazunte, I visited a salt water lagoon and a turtle aquarium/hatchery. At the former, there were many beautiful birds and several lazily dangerous crocodiles. At the latter, there were oodles of turtles (both sea and land). Unfortunately, my camera had stopped working by this point.

Apparently, putting your camera in your pocket along with a half cup of sand isn't good for it. It would remain out of commission for the next two weeks, so the forthcoming entries on Ciudad de Oaxaca, San Cristobal de las Casas and Palenque will be based exclusively on other people's photos (either from the internet or taken by those with whom I was traveling).

Don't go swimming. You won't be the alone in the water. (Photo credit: flickr).

Just down the coast from Mazunte is Zipolite, famous for its hippie culture and nude beach. I only spent 2 nights there because I wasn't feeling particularly sociable (I read a 1,200 page book, start to finish) and I was paying high season rates ($18/night, gasp!) to do so. One anecdote, though, definitely bears repeating.

The way most people took advantage of Zipolite's nude beach was actually fairly retiring: they set up their towel, book, beverage, etc. and only just before lying down to sunbathe did they remove their swimsuit. A few people walked along the surf sans clothing, but they were in the distinct minority. On the whole, surveying the beach, one was hardly struck by conspicuous nudity. Except for that guy.

That guy started off just like everyone else, taking off his trunks to sunbathe. But when his friends came up to the beach bar, they put them back on. That guy, though, was clearly having way to much fun being naked. He spent a good four hours walking around the beach, talking to his friends in the beach bar, even engaging in a bit of horseplay, all while flopping every which way. It's not like his nudity was offensive, it's just that he didn't conduct himself in a similar manner to everyone else. Kind of like the guy that mistakes a relaxed night out for the time to get raging drunk. Except that guy did it with his penis dangling all over the beach.

It would take a lot more than that guy's penis to ruin a view like this. (Photo credit: flickr).