Caracol Plaza Puerto Escondido

... Pacific Ocean out of the bus window. We found a hostel pretty close to the bus station and ran into a group of Aussies straight away. It was good to hear some familiar sounding voices again. Some swedish girls told us about a good pizza joint, so we went there for tea, before heading back for some drinks at the hostel with the aussies. We ended up going out to some bars on the other beach strip, Ziggatella (something like that), and hitched a ride in the back of some guys pick up ...

... wesentlich kleinere Wellen, aber sie sind immer noch kraeftig und gross genug fuer unseren Geschmack. Wenn wir nicht gerade Unterricht haben oder, jawohl, Hausaufgaben machen, sitzen wir am Strand, schluerfen aus einer Kokosnuss und schauen uns tolle Sonnenuntergaenge an. Das Spielen mit den Wellen auf bodyboards lassen wir uns natuerlich auch nicht entgehen. Schwimmen (ohne board) ist am Zicatela wegen der Stroemungen eigentlich nicht erlaubt ...

... to me by countless travellers, some parts are now full of loud and obnoxious gringos. Still, the fishing trip on the Pacific, rounded off with the fish filletted and cooked to perfection for us on a breathtaking beach was pretty unforgettable.

... don´t trust those towns several hours inland that say they have fresh seafood.   Bump into Julian the Belgian I met in Mazunte on the beach in Puerto Escondido and, as usual enjoy a sunset beer watching the surfers.   Found a female only hostel with a couple of cabana rooms upstairs, an nice arty owner, cute dog, sharing K & B and shady seaview terrace with hammocks with one other. The BUT you´re waiting for is that it was noisy as hell - digging up the ...

... a cold Corona. I told Jesse I had to go back. He said, "You've got about an hour of daylight. Do you think you can find that stand? And if you do, do you think you can find your wallet? And if someone else found it, do you think you'll get it back?" I said, "I don't know but I have to try." I did NOT want my wallet to be added to the list of things I've lost. I was determined. Screw it all, I'm going. So I suited up in my rank riding suit and headed out ...

... myself. Simple pleasures indeed... The sunset was spent on the very long main beach watching surfers take their shot at the incredible waves that were rolling in. These beaches host actual surfing competitions and it´s obvious from the picturesque and consistent waves that come in, dwarfing the surfers, just like on TV. I use that phrase in order to avoid describing their size, which I would estimate to be 15 to 20 feet, but I'm no good with that. Instead I will ...

... an awesome cabaña on Playa Zicatela (the big gal surfing beach) and love it. That is until something decided to start chewing on my clothes last night. Ah....the joys of open air living. My guess is it is "rodent" of some sort. I only lost two items to the chew before I discovered it and moved everthing out of hiding in the wardrobe area, and onto the bed next to mine. I have only two more nights at this place and ...

... and the streets was a no man's land of dust, bare trees and rocks that people sometimes parked cars on to get to the beach, and that took a terribly long time to trek up. Oh well. So we got to the top, with much sighing and groaning on my behalf, and sulkily hailed a taxi to take us to our destination. We have not taken so many taxis since.....well.....New York...which was only a few days ago....but ANYWAY it remains to be said we took taxis a lot as it was very hot and ...

... s now the largest port in Mexico, with many huge container ships and seems to be a major installation of the Mexican navy. From Manzanillo, we headed on down the Pacific coast. The driving was tough from Puerto Vallarta all the way down to Zihuateneo - twisting mountainous coastal roads with heavy truck and other traffic, slowed down even more by the seemingly eternal speed bumps at every hamlet. We managed to see most of the Topes in time, but were surprised every once ...

Huatulco to Puerto Escondido We left Huatulco and drove the short 65 miles up the coast to Puerto Escondido. It's bigger than we expected, and has several beaches, but basically there's two main beaches where most everyone goes. One is Playa Zicatela, famous for the big waves it gets a couple of times a year and they have surfing contests that rival those of the North Shores in Hawaii, etc. Right now the surf isn't big but ...