Hotel Mexicana Huatulco

... Tonight was an amazing evening of discovery and serendipity. Max and Donna, who are a lovely couple who live 35 minutes from Ft. Lauderdale in Boca—are from New Kensington, PA—which is literally a town 15 minutes from my grandmother’s house in Natrona, PA. We talked about places like Tarentum, Brackenridge, Creighton, West Tarentum, the Pittsburgh Plate Glass plant (where my grandfather worked) and his business West Penn Hats—a ...

... herbs (a dab hand at rolling and smoking them too!) Very hospitable - I joined her guests outside her ramshackle bunkhouse for breakfast, chess, nastursium flower tasting and flamenco lessons!<br><br>Woke up next morning to discover a millipede on the floor of my chalet - seem to remember during the night brushing off what I assumed was a spider! I am looking forward (once again) to getting back behind 4 solid walls - off to Oaxaca!

... my bucket of fresh juice and soda....life can be good sometimes! When she had bought what she wanted - er, from several of them; Deb's turn to be sheepish! - it was back to the ship and off to Chiapas. Chiapas is the stop we were really looking forward to because it was our first opportunity to explore a site of Mayan ruins that dates back for 2000 years. We had a great tour that we picked up on the pier for $35 each for three hours. The pier is out in ...

... for moi and retired to the boudoir to watch bad DVDs with Mischa Barton and later munch on pizza. FUNNY. Always the way. What is NOT funny is sitting in a small airport waiting for another plane as our has 'issewes' and wont fly. We saw it crack a spac and stomp its feet and whinge and now the airline backed down and it doesn't have to fly. So they are sending another one who wont ***** and moan and will just FLY US to our respective destinations. Ours being Cuba. Waiting. Waiting.

... shut down by 10pm , a place to relax , read a bit and not do too much. Nice little beach here and it was good to be able to get in the sea and have a swim for the first time on the trip ... some of the waves were still fairly big and fun to dive into but not like Zipolite. I had heard of short "ecotourist" trips at the next beach along , Playa Ventanilla , so I caught a "collectivo" along the coast to check it out. Was worth it as I got to enjoy a boat trip ...

... brings out the color of them...who knows. Next we made a very quick pit stop at the harbor, for a view from a look out point and photos. Then it was on the Zepotango (sp) lagoon; for a canoe ride with the crockadiles...yes you did read correctly; no need to go back...i did say crockadile and in a canoe. For this i was very curious...it just did not seem safe, but the brochure did say canoe ride through the lagoon to view crokadiles ...

... type structures with rooves thatched from palm fronds. Here I found some members of the surfing fraternity lounging in hammocks and hoping that the surf would rise. I spent the day alternating between floating around in the waves and drinking cold cerveza. As you might imagine it was hard work! In the evening I joined a couple of the surfers on a launch heading across the lagoon. We buzzed between green islands covered in mangroves and all manner of wading birds before ...

... off that night...whew! We are staying until Tuesday, but I really would like it if we stayed here for the rest of our trip! There is a Universidad Del Mar just up the street...It's absolutely gorgeous, green and feels completely safe! Oaxaca is in an interesting time right now that isn't quite conducive to tourists, as the travel warnings have been saying. I've never felt the need to be scared, but it's imperative that you're on your toes at all times and don't find yourself out to ...

... away. i think we were about 15 miles from shore and we must have been out there for over 4 hours. it was awesome. then after all that we had a beautiful breakfast on the beach. all in all this has been one great f*cking vacation so far. i am dark as hell and my pack weighs a ton but its all good. i am learning more spanish in the time i have been here so far then in 2 years in school. i knew school sucked. something very cool ...

Here we are, coming into the Mexican town of Huatulco. Huatulco (pronounced Wa-TUL-co) is about 250 miles down the coast from Acapulco, but as a resort it's as far removed as you could possibly imagine. The small pier - room for only one ship here - has only recently been built, and it's probably the largest construction in the area. There are very few hotels and all the locals ...