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  Puerto Escondido, Mexico
Sunday, February 3, 2008

January 28 - Feb 1

We arrived in Manzanillo from Marina Vallarta, where we spent the night at a hidden treasure of a hotel. Our hotel in Marina Vallarta was set right on the harbor, where we could look out our patio windows over the swimming pool and right into the heart of the boat and portside restaurant action. The old Colonial hotel we found in Manzanillo's port was classic with shutters and spindle room dividers carved in dark wood, plus it had CNN in the dining room with news of Hillary's and John McCain's victories in Florida. We made friends with the local street car washers, who loved the Jeep and kept watch on it for us, as well as washing the car with their buckets and rags in the main square by the port. They even saved our parking place for us when we went out.

In 1974, my parents rented a house on a beach in Manzanillo and invited me and my brother's family to stay. I wasn't sure we could find it, but John's navigation skills came through in flying colors. From my description of where it had to be, he took a dirt road that seemed to go nowhere and went on for miles. Then we found the very beach. It was then a deserted beach with two or three little houses and a lovely bay where I spent many an hour floating on my back, admiring the scenic location. It's much built up now, with a whole development along the beach where those 2 or 3 houses were. We couldn't quite tell whether it's completely Mexican, or more of a mixed bag. There are many little restaurants with Corona beer signs and lots of sun-bathing chairs just north of the houses.

Again

A few pictures are included.The view of the bay is the same, and across the bay Las Hadas - -- "The Fairies" - a fantastical, white resort hotel with towers and hills, almost Moorish in style. We went there for good measure, since John had never seen it. The other amazing thing is the port, which I remember vaguely if at all. It'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 in a while. A Mexican gentleman who we spoke to at one point and who was pulling a sailboat said Mexico and their Topes are like Minn. and their lakes. Minn. has 10,000 lakes and Mexico has 1,000,000 Topes. The reward for all that effort was the extraordinary views of pristine Pacific beaches with rolling white surf in curving bays of aquamarine water. This was not developed land, but long stretches of palm and other forests climbing up the mountainsides and back down again. The miles covered during those two days or 14 hours of driving was only 360.

There are a few pictures of shrubbery we took along the way. The most notable shrubs - carvings of animals and many other types of art such as bells, arches people, etc.

Church

are along very busy streets with no stopping - our pictures were taken in safe havens. Besides their beauty, we took the pictures to show what a worker can do using only a machete - yes no clippers - power or manual - amazing to watch.

Zihuateneo is a beach-front town between two lagoons or inlets extending off the almost enclosed and very safe bay. We had to approach it by a foot-bridge which lead to a boardwalk of restaurants and shops. Our hotel - The Three Marias - was a favorite of retirees from the north, who were just beginning to arrive for their 2-3 month stays, greeting each other by name and organizing their patio cocktail parties. On the boardwalk, we found great fish restaurants and Sergio from Elgin. Mexican by birth and 35 years old, he had worked in Elgin for 18 years, building both of the riverboat casinos, and decided to come home. He said Elgin was to cold for him. Now he's working for developers arranging viewers for new condos being built across the bay, part of the phenomenon of ocean-side development we saw everywhere on our way down the coast.

We headed down to Acapulco, which John had never seen. From my Mexican work and travels in the 1970's, I remembered only the cliff-divers, plunging 200 feet down. The harbor and port are huge, beautiful and impressive. The commercial city seemed like chaos itself. We had lunch on the port, then climbed up the hill to leave town on the south and found a whole stretch of new developments that resembled Miami Beach. We picked out the nearest market town south of Acapulco and found a travelers' hotel in San Marcos, complete with locked compound for the Jeep and swimming pool for us.

Manzaillo - Christmas is over

We were driving mountain roads with temperatures in the high 80's, so the water felt very good. Restaurants choices were few: we had dinner in the open air at a roadside barbeque recommended by the hotel. There we met the owner's son, a 12 year-old who was raised in Atlanta and spoke perfect American English. His father must have made enough money to come home and open the restaurant, but we wondered how the son was adjusting. Breakfast the next morning was also a roadside place, under a "palapas" of straw, our scrambled eggs and hot water for tea was cooked on a wood fire. It was the best breakfast we'd had.

Friday the 1st was a magnificent drive down the coast, more stretches of pristine beaches and pounding surf. The curves were not as bad, not as much steep climbing and descending, but the number of speed bumps increased geometrically as the roads straightened out. We started shouting "topes" (toe-pays - the Mexican name) at each other every time we saw one - so many were largely unmarked, and we hit one or two unexpectedly, a rather jarring event. Steering around several large lagoons, we found our way to surfer heaven in Puerto Escondido ('hidden port'), another stretch of golden beach on the water side and excellent restaurants and bars on the land side. A good hotel recommended by The Lonely Planet Guide, a few laps in the pool, a walk along the beachfront and a nice dinner of local fish - the traveling life does have its advantages. John even found a wifi internet place where he checked and wrote E mail - all outside in a garden.

More

We left Puerto Escondido with the intention of staying on the coast, but found ourselves a little early for stopping when the road turned inland for our next goal - the ruins in Palanque. We drove longer than intended, due to the map showing a completed tollroad, when it was only 1/5 built. The Saturday traffic was pretty bad, and by the time we made the next good-sized town, which turned out to be much bigger than we thought, it was 6pm. After stopping briefly at Wal-Mart to see if we could find an immersion heater, we headed out of town again, believing that the next charming hill town was only a short distance away. Luckily we found a completed toll road this time, we confidently set out climbing up the hills to our goal. The hills turned into mountains, the dark descended and the charming hill town was easily 40 or more miles over curving and climbing mountainside. Exactly what we said we would never do. John did a magnificent job of managing the curves. The local drivers' habit of clinging to the inside lane - which was really more of an escape lane - let us make good progress, and we watched the lights of the seaside towns get smaller and smaller. Exiting from our heaven -bound toll way at San Cristobal, we asked for directions at the local Pemex gas station, which were so exact that we were at the target hotel within minutes, and smack in the middle of Saturday night. There were cars cruising the main square, bands playing, political rallies and loud-speakers, couples arm-in-arm, restaurants and bars filling up, and a very noticeable drop in the temperature.

More

We had gone from 90 meters above sea level and 95 degrees to 2100 meters and 55 degrees in an hour. Luckily, the target hotel had a good room for us with 2 double beds, so we unloaded a few bags, drove with the 'bellhop' to the locked parking garage and headed drinks before dinner. While we were having a drink in a local bar John started to chuckle. When I asked why he said: "Look around - this is like sitting in the bar with Chewybacca and Jabba the Hut." The mix of people was absolutely amazing.

Sunday was a perfect day, although it started very cold. We walked the town center with its 17th century convents and churches, along with trendy and artsy shops and cafes. Behind one of the municipal buildings we found a drum and bugle corps playing at the top of their lungs and drums. Half of the drummers and one of the buglers were girls, and they were all having a great time. The enclosed market was a maze of shops and market stands, though most of the butchers and purveyors were closed. Not many people shop during Sunday dinner, it seems. We took a picture of one vendor and then showed her the picture. A huge smile came across her face just to see her own image. The end-point of the central city tour was the Arch of Carmen, the old gate to the city when it was completely walled, a lovely orange-amber shade with remnants of the original walls of the same color on both sides. Then we found our way to Na Bolom, the home of a Dutch couple in the 1950's who moved to San Cristobal to study the native Lacondan people and help preserve and record their language and mores. The collection of photos and artifacts was excellent and gave a real sense of the people in their own habitat. The house itself was beautiful and calm, a square of rooms around a central courtyard with a magnificent mountain pine standing above it. So we stayed to lunch in the courtyard and imagined ourselves back into that time and the distance and isolation of this beautiful place. Look for the picture.

For dinner, we went to the local Italian restaurant, where the owner makes his own pasta and pizzas. Between watching the end of the Superbowl - was that a great touchdown pass or what? - we chatted with several young Australians who were doing their walk-abouts and having a great time. Wandering back to the town square, we found it jammed with local people who were out doing their evening walks and listening to the band playing on top of the restaurant in the center. There were people walking arm in arm, children playing, Indian women selling handicrafts, everyone enjoying the evening air. In front of the restaurant, several couples our age or older were dancing some version of the two-step, but much faster, so we joined them and got compliments for being able to keep time. Then we wandered into our hotel and found a great guitar player and singer in the hotel bar, so we ended with modern Latin American ballads. All in all, a perfect day in a lovely mountain town. It was 39 the morning we left - brrrrrr.

More Pictures

More	More Still	The Wise Guys	Guess
The End	Hotel Wood work	Guess	More Wood
Really nice Frank	Carol's Beach?	Well Maybe	Yep that's it
Nope - yep	Yes	For sure	A celebrating drink
Manzanillo harbor	again	fairy tale castle	lost
still lost but chech the bags	future development	More	More
with a macvhette	more	more	acapulco - fishing
harbor entrance acapulco	leaving aculpulco	still leaving	zihuataneho
main beach	Park San Christobal	with a machette	does not know
drum and bugle	great church	Carmen's Arch - Stan	More great wood work
vista	church	goodies	she loved her picture
church	Na Bolum	Crouching Tiger?	his mother loves him
highlands	more

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