For Mom, Love Steve

People often think that the hardest part about traveling is the constant on the move. For me it is not such a big thing as even though a place is great, the way I see it, the next place could be better, and if it turns out to not be, no problem as now I know and knowing things is just as important.

So, on the spur of the moment I packed up my stuff and was out first thing in the morning. I knew it wasn´t going to be horrible as my next destination was the beach and it was only a hour and a half away and I already knew where the second class bus station was and I would be arriving early in the day so I had plenty of time to search out a good place being that it was going to be a heavily touristed area.

As everything worked out as planned I arrived in the newly appointed tourist hotspot of Puerto Escondido. Finding reasonable accommodation was a bit tricky as their are actually two tourist zones and only a couple of swimmable areas. The two zones are split between the main towns beach boardwalk area which was geared toward a higher end clientele and not so many places to choose from as most of the street were tourist shops and restaurants. The beach attached and surrounding are the tighter coves which have sheltered water making them the most popular places, especially for the locals, as it has calmer water. The second area is the Zicatela beach zone home to the Mexican Pipeline. As it describes, the place is another surfers paradise, but a peril for people who wanted to take a dip. It also hosted most of the towns accommodation and the backpacker set as well.

Having plenty of time I waited until the bus hit the central area before hopping off near the El Adoquinado (pedestrian only tourist street). I stopped at a few spots but being Sunday it was packed with local tourists and the beach was totally mobbed. The bay was also the fishing boat area and I knew this was where I wanted to be, but the few budget places that I checked were still priced pretty high and not willing to budge on their prices. I ended up walking the kilometer or so along the highway to the turn off to Zicatela. As soon as you hit the beach street it is hotels one after the other. Unfortunately they are geared for the jet setting backpacker and are priced accordingly. The places were nice with most having pools and modern facilities. I was just looking for a bed but everywhere seemed developed. I decided to switch to my back up which was to ask if anyone would discount if I pre-paid for three nights. I only found one guy who would drop his prices so I assume there is some sort of price fixing among the hotels. The budget places all ranged from 200-250P and wouldn´t budge. I offered this guy 500P for three nights and he agreed. It must have been an issue as I saw the other receipts for other people paying the 200P but on my he wrote on the back of the receipt 500P deposit. I was happy I had a home for a few days in a modern place with a kitchen, no tv (day 10), and a nice shop next door. The beach was of course across the street. It really sucks that I don´t have a laptop for Central America as all the countries are hooked up wifi and it is a benefit in staying at all accommodation levels.

The kitchen/lounge area.

To the right.

To the left.

Surf shots on the “Mexican Pipeline”.

Playa Zicatela.

Playa Principal

The local fishing fleet.

The National flag over the bay.

Shots from the The Andador Escéncico (Scenic Walkway), a set of paths, stairs and bridges that begin at the main beach of the town and winds its way over rocky oceanside cliffs, passing the lighthouse to a overlook by the name of Sueño Posible (Possible Dream). This one-mile walkway was deemed impossible by state authorities but Efren Bruciaga and 200 workers labored for three months to build it in 1992. In some places the walkway is very near the ocean and gets wet from the waves.[14]

This guy shot a nice Spanish Mackeral right off the rocks.

And I walked home in the dark after a long day of scouting out the town.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 10:31 am and is filed under Mexico. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.