We grabbed an early flight out of Mexico City to Puerto Escondido, down on the Mexican Pacific coast. We flew Volaris and once again it was effortless. Dits had told me that the temperature down in PE was similar to that of Mexico City – like hell it was. A furnace. It was 32 C and humid – felt like 38C! Our hostel – Selina Puerto Escondido – was right on the main beach Zicatela and was massive. It was a maze of rooms over multiple levels. We had a room right at the top of the cliff that the hostel was built into – like a lot of the hostels along the beachfront. It was a brutal climb but thankfully the views made it worthwhile although a balcony would have been perfect. It had a pool at our level – as well as the main one on the ground floor. However be both agreed it was overpriced for what it was – perhaps prices were elevated because of the world surf event happening in a few days time.
We unpacked and then headed down to the beach for a swim. The sand was scalding and swimming was a real challenge because of the very strong waves dumping onto the beach. We lasted 5 minutes fighting the current before heading back to the hostel for a swim in the pool and to clean out the sand which had filled our togs. We went for a walk along the beach – it was end to end party bars with beachside lounges and umbrellas – all basically set up for spring break type activities. It was thankfully low season so it was very quite. We met a local called “Hector the Protector”, who was there to cater to tourists every need. He called himself the protector because he protected tourists from getting into trouble with the local police. It was too hot to be out so we headed back to the hostel and chilled there for the afternoon eventually morfing into a card session.
The next morning we decided to brave the 3km walk down the beach to a restaurant recommend by Taylor – Koko. It was really hot waking along the road so we moved town to the water which made it a lot cooler. The restaurant was very basic but the coconut encrusted prawn and fish tacos were amazing. We managed 3 each – served by the owners young kids. We tried to walk back to our hostel but had to bail out and grab a taxi because it was just too hot. We grabbed dinner on the beach and enjoyed a few mescals watching the sun go down.
The next morning we grabbed a taxi to the local bus station before jumping on a local bus for an hour ride to San Antonio. From there it was a simple matter of grabbing a taxi to take us to our AirBnb on Mazunte beach. We had been given a number to call when we go close, which we did but the lady on the call could not understand us so we handed the phone over to taxi driver who then drove us to a hostel at a nearby beach. Problem was it wasn’t our Airbnb so we had to grab another taxi to take us to our correct location. The Airbnb was literally 20m from the beach although we were a bit put off to find the room uncleaned when arrived. Mazunte beach had a really hippy vibe and was certainly a lot older than Escondido – and a lot more basic. Our Airbnb’s location was amazing but outback was a tip and the room lacked a few comforts – such a chairs to lounge on. There was a hammock on the deck at least.
We jumped into our togs and headed for a swim (again having to manage the huge swell) before walking down the beach to grab a late lunch. We were planning on having a quite night but got roped into grabbing a beer by a Pom called Piers. Piers and his French mate Boris had consumed some mushrooms earlier in the day so were in full flight – very entertaining. They had been drinking with a German mathematician called Collier (Dr Collier). We then pulled in an Hungarian called Psy into the foray. Our quiet night turned into a 6 hour bender, going to a couple of bars and trying hard (not very successfully) to get our tripping companions not kicked out of them. It starting raining about 11pm and by the time we headed home we literally had to wade through a river to get home.
It was a slow start the next morning with still plenty of rain. We grabbed some breakfast then tried unsuccessfully to buy some bus tickets – had to get them online. We decided to check out Punta Cometa via the national park headland. We spent a lovely couple of hours exploring the wind swept and wild headland with amazing views of the ocean. Punta Cometa is famous for its sunsets but given the state of the weather, there was little point hanging around for it. We headed back to our beach and grabbed a dinner at the closest restaurant to our room due to the torrential rain. Piers and Psy joined us for dinner – Piers had very little recollection of the previous evening’s events so it was fun filling him in on the details!
We had decided to bus all the way to Oaxaca the next day and flag an overnight stay in San Jose del Pacifico to sample the mushrooms, as our bender had made us a bit gun shy. It was a 10 hour bus ride and required getting to Pochutla by 8am. We booked a taxi the night before which didn’t turn up so I had to wonder through the village to find one. Thankfully there was one around. The bus trip was not too bad – the bus was large and air conditioned with a few spare seats so Deryn and I could stretch out. There were a few stops to stretch our legs and grab some food before arriving in Oaxaca at 7pm. Our hotel – Casa del Sotano – was lovely and only a 10 min walk to the main square. It was relatively upmarket and inhabited by older travellers rather than the younger backpackers we had been used to. Lots of old(ish) ladies. It was the first thing we noticed about Oaxaca, a notable number of older, reasonably affluent Americans. A lovely, cultural and safe city serviced by direct flights from the US; bound to happen.
The first day we spent getting to know the city, doing laundry and planning ahead. We booked a rental for the next day to see some of the further sights – Hierve el Agua, the world’s widest tree and maybe a Mescal tour. We were planning on a quiet night but bumped into a couple of Aussie’s (they own a luxury surf resort in Fiji called Matanivusi – sounds amazing). Anyway we got a bit carried away with the mescal for me, wine for Dits and beer for the Aussies. A great night but not helpful with a roadie planned the next day.
We picked the car up at 9 from Eurocar – US$39 for the day. Once we had sorted the fact that we had booked for the next day, we were off. The roads were pretty bad with load of speedhumps – Reductos – so it was slow going. Our route was thrown into a wee bit of confusion when we came across a roadblock only to be told the motorway is closed. A small challenge for navigator Dits and it wasn’t long before we were winding our way through mountain passes and remote villages on your way to Hierve el Agua. We saw the odd sign pointing to Hierve so kept going. At one staged we were stopped by the military who wanted to know how we had got there. Luckily we had paid 10 pesos each to drive through a gate a few kms back so we showed them that and we were back on our way.
What was meant to be an 80 minute journey turned into 120 but we made it. The rock formations were pretty cool, with a few live springs bubbling away including a very hot one that had been curtained off to stop tourists burning themselves. It was a pretty long walk down to the bottom of the ‘waterfall’ formations but certainly worth it. I cooled off in the rock pools up top afterwards but Dits’ couldn’t be arsed getting changed. We followed the traditional route back to Oaxaca and both agreed, Deryn’s route was preferable as for one, you didn’t have to navigate a mountain road that was very similar to the worst of NZ ski field roads. It was however quicker. We stopped for a feed at a roadside cafe – chicken soup and tapas. I thought it was expensive at a total of 120 pesos ($A9). It was then another odd, rural route to Arbol del Tule, in the centre of Santa Maria del Tule. The incredible tree is the approx 1600 year old and has a circumference of 42m. It was very cool!!
The guys checking the car back at Eurocar spent more time trying to find a chip in the windscreen, than I have seen anyone spend on an entire car. We passed thankfully. The next day was another chill which got Dits and I enthused to hire some bikes and bike the 10kms to Monte Alban. We headed out for a ‘nice’ meal although I hadn’t pre-warned Deryn so she ordered chicken salad whereas I ordered encrusted shrimp! The food was amazing We watched the first episode of Unbelievable. It most certainly was – hard viewing. But needs to be told. We picked up our bikes, paid the 80pp ($6) for a 5 hour hire and set off. It was fun cycling through a different part of the city, after about 30 mins we reached the outskirts of town and started climbing. And climb and climb. 350m of it – from 1550m to 1900m. It didn’t feel too brutal, just went on and on. The ruins once we got there were impressive. Monte Alban flourished from 200BC to about 600AD, after which it was abandoned. No one knows why – a very common theme amongst a lot of these advanced, ancient civilisations that we have visited on our travels. The scale of the main plaza was impressive. It was also really well maintained. We spent over an hour just strolling around the place enjoying the open spaces and relatively few tourists. The cycle home literally took a third of the time it took us to get there. We found a really cool cafe on the ride back for one of the best meals we’ve had in Oaxaca – La Biznaga. It was then back home and start to prepare for our 2 week roadie in the Yucatan peninsula. 2 week car rental for A$190. Go figure.
