We were heading for the lagoons at Manialtepec, but missed them completely and kept on driving as we noticed there were more lagoons coming up. We went down the road to the Chacahua lagoon but it was just a place to take boats to the other side of the lagoon and didn't look very interesting. So we consulted the guide book and it said we could get to the lagoon down a 25km sandy track and it would lead us to astunning beach with the lagoon on one side and the sea on the other.
We had made a no dirt track promise prior to starting the trip, but we decided rules were made to be broken and went for it. It wasn't a bad track and it didn't take a dramatically long time to arrive in Chacahua village - an afro-mestizo village. It was strange to see black people in Mexico (elsewhere there's not a lot of ethnic diversity but here the african slaves who escaped from the spaniards years back ended up settling down on the coast and creating a very different community.)
Loads of people descended on us offereing boat trips, cabanas and camping and we let one kid arrange a boat ride over the lagoon to the beach for us and he told us about where we could camp. So we left the car and headed across the lagoon. When we got over there it turned out you could camp at any of the beach's many palapa restaurants for free as long as you bought some food at that restaurant.
We chose one and pitched the tent. The beach was stunning. No sun beds, just a long sandy beach stretching far round the coast and a few little restaurants mainly serving seafood. The perfect place to relax away from everything. Almost.
Turns out there were no toilets or showers at the restaurant we chose. the owner said we could use net door's, but the kids there wanted us to pay $10 to use their rather grimy facilities. I did it once, but when i discovered the toilet was little more than a glorified bucket, i decided there were better places to pee and showering could wait until we got back to civilisation (we were only staying there one night after all...)
So we chilled out on the beach, snacking on food from our restaurant. I went for a dip in the sea but i was quite rough and ed didn't fancy it. The evning was amazing. I've never seen so many stars in my life. The sky was like one of those star maps you see in books and it was spectacular beyond belief. I felt truly lucky to be in such a beautiful place so far from anywhere.
We ate at a different restaurant as ours was more like a snack bar, and i managed to find a non-seafood dish. w stayed up gazing at the stars and enjoying the peace and quiet of the beach at night.
The tent was a bit smaller than anticipated and very very hot. Ed couldn't sleep and kept getting up and shifting about - but i was out like a light as i was pretty exhausted.
We woke up early the next morning - went for an illicit pee in another restaurant's toilet and then sat on the beach and this time got to watch the sun rise! Despite being just along the coast from Puerto Escondido, the bay faces the opposite directiona and so after watching the sun drop into the sea so many times in Escondido, we finally say it rise up out of the ocean in Chacahua. Needless to say, it was a very special experience.
We got sopes for breakfast and then set about getting packed up and heading over the lagoon to the car, for the long journey on to Acapulco.
