Well — I’m writing this again because I just lost my first draft; amateur hour. I wasted approximately, I don’t know how much time, but one Tecate Light tall boy and a bag of Fuego flavored Takis.
*abre el segundo tecate, mientras escuchas “Danger Zone”
This isn’t an adventure filled post. it’s largely a tale of relaxation and a plausible alternate life.
(I sad that I lost my earlier writings, I’m realizing version two won’t be as good. *bangsheadagainstscreenbutnothinghappens Anyways, back to your regularly scheduled programming)
The hostel I stayed at is called Pacific Buddha. It’s more of a shared house than a hostel. Maybe I lucked out on guests, but I have a feeling that it’s just the vibe of the place.
It’s located on the southern beach in Puerto Escondido (PE for the rest of this article) called La Punta. It’s further away from the city and has a different vibe. When waves are firing (read: not when I was there), the pipeline is near PE, I don’t know how big they get at La Punta. I’ll get to the waves a bit later though.
The Pacific Buddha is down the street from the beach, maybe a block away. On the way to the beach, there is a fruit and vegetable stand that would basically become my second home. Hyperbole, yes. But I didn’t really eat out at all for a week, so maybe not so much. I basically ate only food that I prepared, and given the selection I basically had the following: Bell peppers, onions, jalapenos, oaxaca cheese, eggs, tortillas, bananas, pineapple. Before you leave, saying, “there he goes again with the food”, don’t worry that’s it. There aren’t any fancy restaurants or specific specials that I had here. That being said, here’s my “recipe” I made up, tasted, and enjoyed. Then yes, I’m done.
“Dice and pan fry some onion, jalapeno, and tomatoes with some oil and tajin seasoning. When it’s all done, put them aside and fry up cubed pineapple without washing the pan. Make sure to add some more seasoning and some hot sauce to taste. After that, heat up some tortillas (ideally fresh corn. If you’re not in Mex, any good ones will do). Add some sliced avocado and boom, that’s it. ”
Ok back to the beach. There is a long strip of clean beach from PE to La Punta, the water doesn’t have many rocks or reef and the water is warm, perfect right? Well I’m sure with good waves it becomes a little better. I’d rate this beach pretty highly. The drawback is the shore break and more deleteriously, the lineup is packed, and not only with wave catchers. Of course, you have surfers, and countless teachers blocking your way so their students can get waves. In addition, you have some SUP dudes (pronounced like suh dude, for obvious reasons), body boarders, pelicans, and fisherman boats. Oh confused are you? Same, these dudes are dropping nets around, meanwhile the pelicans are dive bombing for lunch and showing the fisherman where to go. Honestly though, couldn’t complain, it’s nice to catch a wave after a hiatus. Especially when you get to trunk it.
When you hit the southern edge of the beach there are some shallows and rock arches you can meander through until you get to a near-private beach. Just long stretch of clean sandy beach. I did get stopped by the police to get searched, as did Lucas and Leisa, so beware of that. I think it might be a common drug transaction spot, but I don’t want to do too much assuming. A darker side of me also thinks the search was to cover up some police misconduct but who knows. Not my place.
Ok, one day trip to discuss, briefly. Mazunte.
To get ther you walk up to the main road and catch a bus. From the bus you get off a stop in front of an Oxxo, the bus driver will tell you where if you ask. Then you hop in the back of a collectivo and ride down to the beach/town. It’s pretty easy, takes about an hour and change. Pretty cheap as well.
The town is a little bigger than the main section of La Punta and is far more tropical feeling. That is, it’s kind of like a jungle. When you walk down the roads, there are straw roofs and trees everywhere. When you get to the beach, there are three connected beaches that make up the shore. From what I hear, there’s another good beach (also for nudists — mostly old dudes) that’s about 10 minutes south in a taxi. The waves here definitely break on shore and are pretty strong, there was also a decent current toward the northern rocks. However, beautiful place to swim around and hang out. We met up with some friends from the hostel who had left and they had made new friends so we all joined up. We were there a while, hung out on the rocks in the shade and went swimming. It was a nice full day trip. i could see relaxing in that town being enjoyable for longer but we didn’t. Oh well, you can’t do everything.
Also, apologies, I don’t really take my phone to the beach so there aren’t many photos. I also can’t promise this is a good read, I think the first one was better, but this seems to have turned out ok.
