We arrived around 8:45 in the morning on Tuesday. I didn’t sleep much on the bus, but that was alright, I was finally at the beach.
We took a cab to the hostel, and were hoping that they’d be kind enough to let us store our stuff there until our actual check in time. Not only were they more than willing to do that, but they offered us breakfast and told us we could use the extra bathroom to get ready. The owners of the hostel were absolutely amazing. There was a man and a woman, who Katharine and I assume were siblings, and then the man was married to an Irish? woman, and they had a beautiful 4 month old girl. They were all so wonderful.
Our beautiful hostel:
So, we waited around for a bit and then got ready to go to the beach, which was about a five minute walk from the hostel. Puerto is made up of a few different bays and beaches, and ours was right by Playa Carrizalillo (Carrizalillo Beach).
My first time at a Pacific Ocean beach!
This is a smaller, less crowded beach. It’s in a little bay, so the water is calmer too. As soon as we laid our stuff down and talked to a guy about a tour (the people are aggressive salesmen here…), we ran into the two couples that we had met in Oaxaca that are from Vancouver. What a small world. We helped them translate their order and talked for a bit. Katharine and I both went swimming for a bit, and then since the sun was so strong, decided to leave as to not burn. Well, that would have worked, had I not forgotten to put sunscreen on my shoulders and feet. Anyway, we walked down the commercial area near that beach, and found a spot with ice cream. They made it right there, so it didn’t have any preservatives or anything, and it was delicious. We then continued on to the next bay, Puerto Angelito Bay, where there are two beaches, Playa Angelito and Playa Manzanillo.
As soon as we set foot on the beach, a man came and asked us if we wanted to go on a boat tour to see some turtles. It was cheap, so we decided to go. We went out on the boat, and saw that everyone was wearing lifejackets, so we did the same. We looked around at some of the bays.
Then found a turtle that a different tour boat had. The driver asked if we were going to get in the water, and we said yes. Then he asked us why we were wearing life jackets. (another only-in-Mexico thing, in the US, they would have made sure you kept it on). So we took them off and we got in the water with the turtle! I felt bad for the turtle, but it was still so neat.
We walked back to the commercial area for some lunch and went back to the hostel for a quick rest. We went back down to the first beach to watch the sunset, which was gorgeous.
I'm in love with the ocean
We ate some dinner and went swimming in the pool at the hostel. It was so nice to be around water again!
Wednesday morning we woke up early and went back down to Playa Carrizalillo at 7am for a boat ride to see the dolphins. We went over to the next bay to pick up more people and we were off.
In the early morning:
We saw a few turtles on the way out there, and within an hour or we saw dolphins! There were a ton of them, and they swam right along with the boat! We only saw dolphins jumping off in the distance, but it was so cool. We got in the water, but we weren’t really near any of them. We got back in the boat and rode around a bit more.
Dolphins!
Go ahead and skip to around 32 seconds...unless you like to get seasick and watch me kick a big, rusty anchor:
More Dolphins:
After the rest of the boat ride, we returned to the hostel to pack up our stuff and eat. When we asked if we could store our stuff there again, they said of course, and told us we could use the extra shower that evening before we got on the bus. On top of that, they told us they’d take us to the bus terminal. When we finally had everything packed up, we asked if they knew where we could find some tape for the box that we wanted to take to the post office. They didn’t have any, but they drove us to get some and then dropped us off at the post office. Nicest people ever.
After the post office, we went to the next beach over, on the main bay. This beach was really crowded, and it was mostly restaurants, so there wasn’t much room to lay down.
We continuously had offers for boat rides. A few would say (in Spanish) “do you want a boat ride?” and when we’d say no, they’d offer their services as guides or boyfriends. We walked around the stone path through some of the rocks and then decided to eat.
I decided it was a good time to have my first alcoholic beverage since turning 21.
Then we walked though some shops on our way to Zicatela beach, the biggest beach. It has huge waves, and is a world-renowned surfing beach. The sun was still really strong, and we were both really burnt, so we rented some chairs under an umbrella to watch the surfers. I decided to go in the water, and I discovered that they weren’t lying when they said the waves were strong. I was whipped about, and it was so much fun. As of today, I have showered twice since then, and am still finding sand in my hair.
Anyway, we then walked up to the road to find some ice cream. We weren’t having much luck, so we stopped at a tourist info booth to ask, and they told us the closest ice cream place was at the next beach over! I still don’t understand how a huge beach can’t have any ice cream stores. We bought some water instead and went down to watch the sunset. It was beautiful, of course.
We took a taxi back to the restaurant area near our hostel and ate at the same restaurant we had gotten ice cream at the day before. The lady was so nice, and the food was delicious. We ran back to the hostel to shower and went to catch our 9:30 bus to Tuxtla Gutierrez.
New Food: Chile poblano – this was breakfast one day at the hostel. It was green peppers, corn and a white sauce. It would have been great if it weren’t for the green peppers…
Facebook album: Puerto Escondido
I apologize for the ridiculous amounts of pictures of just water or the beach. Believe it or not, this album is the whittled down version.
Greetings from Poland Silesia
ReplyDelete