Puerto Escondido
Trip Start
Jan 04, 2008
1
10
27
Trip End
Apr 01, 2008
Puerto Escondido,
Mexico
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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 still can be dangerous, due to a drop off that creates rip tides and/or bad undertows.
Zicatela has a multitude of restaurants and shops all along the road and on the beach, which is quite wide and beautiful. We got the impression that Zicatela is a bit more up-scale than the other main beach, Marinero, where the 'harbor' is and closer to where we were staying. Terry claims that there must be more eating establishments in Mexico per person than anywhere else in the world and I must agree with him
Puerto Escondido from Zicatela Beach
. Along the highways, that's the main 'business' that can be seen everywhere and usually, several of them, all in a row. On the beaches, it's the same, one after another, after another. Another beach that we discovered was Carrizalillo. Not only was it a mouthful to pronounce, but a challenge to get to. I didn't even attempt it but Terry did.....once! To get to it there's a huge rock stairway, with 176 steps and several landings. Going down wasn't so bad but going back up was a bitch! The beach itself was small but nice, and had some nice easy waves to either surf farther out, or body surf, with or without a boogie board on an 'inside' break.
We stayed at the Trailer Park & Cabanas de Cortes (although, there's only 3-4 cabanas that I wouldn't want to stay in). It's a small RV park (that I really couldn't imagine it holding more than 3-4 larger rigs, plus maybe another 3-5 small rigs). The best thing at that park was the electricity, which was strong enough for us to run the A/C and everything else, too.
We were the only ones there at first, then, on the 2nd day, a 5th wheel came in with a couple from Spain. They bought their rig in Texas and store it near Harligen (just north of Brownsville) when they're not using it to travel around North America. They only stayed for two days.
On the 3rd day, a couple, Linda and Gerry, from British Columbia (near the Idaho border) arrived towing a Wilderness trailer, but only stayed for one night. They spend part of the winter in Arizona and are only traveling down here for about a month total. They went down the East coast, like we did, however, they went on to near Cancun, then back over to the West coast, following a similar route that we did, but much faster. Their next stop, for more than a day, will be at Melaque, just north of Manzanillo, where they hope to connect with a friend. It seems like they're rushing and not hardly 'seeing' much of anything except for their longer stay near Cancun.
The next afternoon a couple from Montreal (who speak very little English and a little more Spanish, but mostly only French) arrived. I've never seen anyone take longer and do a worse job of getting their 5th wheel rig into the park. Then, they must have thought the whole park was just for them, because they parked more or less in the middle of at least 2-3 spaces, plus were blocking the way to get to a few other spaces. I can only hope that Roberto, the owner/manager, charged them a lot extra. They really made themselves comfortable, with no regard for others, putting down a carpet, with a table and chairs and even a BBQ. All of which would be normal if they were in a single space and not hogging so much space.
The next day they disappeared for 3 days, leaving their 5th wheel right where it was, blocking everything. When they finally returned, they moved farther back into what could be 2 spaces, but they took up the whole area, plus they parked their big truck in another space. Also, they've had two other couples semi staying with them. I'm not sure if some of them are staying in a hotel, or not, but they're almost always together here and drive a van. Also, since there's not a sewer connection where there should be for that area, he rigged up a sewer hose and pipe that's about 40' long and stretches out into the driveway (where he put up a couple of hazard cones so nobody would run over or trip on it).
