We survived the bus ride from hell! Apparently the road from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido is supposed to be one of the worst. It was very windey (how the hell do you spell that word? Haha) but not as bad as I imagined it to be. We checked in to our hostel in La Punta, the very end (the point) of the long stretch of beach where there is a good surf spot. Conditions were considerably small for the usual big waves Puerto Escondido is renowned for. This is where the Mexican Pipeline breaks and the town has a very laid back surfer vibe to it. We were supposed to be in a dorm but a couple just checked out of the private room so it was great we got our own room. The owners were a couple named Tyler and Angelina who lived in the hostel too, they were massive stoners but pretty cool people. There was also a kiwi couple and an Aussie guy and another kiwi guy staying in the hostel for the next week and we all instantly became friends and the hostel had a nice homely feel to it (Great thing about hostel travelling is meeting people!)
We arrived late and met Jon and Nate at a burger place around the corner, originally not realising they were staying in our hostel. The burgers were delicious and the seats were made from wooden swings with sand on the floor. We met Greta and Anthony the next morning.
Matt and I got breakfast which had huge yummy fresh juices (there's lots of cool cafes and restaurants to eat at here) then headed to La Punta beach. That night it was Angelina's birthday so we had a few drinks at the hostel then headed to a salsa bar. It was pretty cool and I finally got to salsa dance!
Our first big night out, we were planning on doing surf lessons but coz we weren't feeling the best we all decided to go to another coved beach nearby (yes with 5 of us in one taxi). You had to walk down a few steps to get there but it was a stunning beach. We layed there all day and the water was so nice to swim in. That night we watched the sunset on the beach then had dinner as a group at Spirualina, a really cool place with great food in Zicatela.
Matt and I did yoga on the rooftop of a hostel nearby called One Love the next morning. It's a new hostel with restaurant/bar and cabanas which are named after classics such as Marley, Hendrix, Dylan, Joplin etc etc. I really wanted to stay in a cabana on the beach on our stay in Puerto so we decided to book our last night here. We went in to town to book our bus ticket the next day then walked back along Zicatela beach to our hostel, stopping again at Spirualina to try one of the soy burgers Jon recommended. It was so good! We then hung at our first hostel for a bit and said goodbye to our new friends before walking with our bags to our new hostel.
We were in the Bob Marley cabana and it was a pretty cool little roof with a thatched roof, a Bob Marley mural and quote on the wall and a private hammock on our balcony. There was a cat that liked us and cuddled up to us in our room all the time. We ordered a drink and watched the sunset from our rooftop that night. It had a great view of the beach and a few hammocks you could chill in.
We slept in the next morning coz we wanted to make the most of staying in the cabana. We had a late breakfast/early lunch at another cool recommended place on the main strip of Zicatela then looked at the shops afterwards, lots of surf shops here! Then spent our last day in Puerto at the other beach we went to that second day with everyone and hired stand up paddle boards. We had a delicious dinner back at One Love - Matt had two cerviche tacos, I had a delicious salad with toasted almonds, blue cheese, sliced apple and a vinaigrette sauce and shared a mushroom pizza also with two Mexican beers and two margaritas... all for under $40! Gotta love Mexico! We relaxed for a bit on our rooftop, then saw it was going to be a beautiful sunset so walked down and watched it set casting beautiful colours in to the sky and taking some pics.
puerto Escondido definitely has a pull to it, the reason why I came back and so many travellers were booking week after week just to chill out and surf Or getting jobs in the hostels and bars. There was a half consideration to stay another night. I just realised that day walking through Zicatela they do Lagion tours at night where you can swim with the glowing algae, the fish taco place we had been recommended just opened back up, I wanted to try some more yoga, we never ended up doing a surf lesson and our new cabana was pretty cool. But if we booked another night we probably wouldn't have ever wanted to leave. A place so relaxing there really isn't much to do but it's perfectly ok. As a friend of Tyler and Angelinas said (who is from Spain and farms in California half the year and lives in Puerto half the year) you can be as busy as you want... You can spend the day going for a walk, reading a book, doing the washing, cooking dinner, entertaining guests etc. ... That sounds like a great lifestyle to me! doing 'not much' doesn't mean you're living an unfulfilling life and there is so much pressure in society (especially Sydney and first world countries) to be continuously striving, be a certain person, live a certain life, be 'successful', earn a certain amount of money, be busy being busy. I love Cronulla and am so privileged to live the life I live but it's also easy to fall in to fall in to familiar habits, worry about the stresses of a first world society and start comparing yourself to others. so far in this trip, it's been so nice to step outside that bubble and travelling definitely opens you up and shows you how everyone lives their life so differently but are still happy wherever you're from or whatever life you might lead. Life is what you make it!
