Misdirection in paradise

The small coastal town of Puerto Escondido is a short 1 hour flight on a small plane from Mexico City.  

The airport is a single runway airport and reminded me of the Kimberley airport where you had to walk down the mobile staircase directly onto the runway and the heat would hit you as you step off the aircraft. We were dressed for the Mexico City weather and had to shed a sweatshirt immediately.

Our host offered to pick us up from the airport and he and his wife arrived within a few minutes of our Whatsapp message.  They could speak some English but we valiantly kept speaking Spanish explaining to them that we really wanted to practice.  Naturally they had to revert to a few English words to go over some of the details of where to shop and wash our clothes.

The apartment is in the higher part of the town on a street called Septima Norte (7th street) and overlooks the ocean with a view that includes some of the houses on the edge of the town.  Fortunately it had ceiling fans and the bedroom had an air conditioner to use at night.

Dawn over Centro, Puerto Escondido

 

We had last eaten at 10am at our favorite little coffee shop near Nick's apartment in Mexico City but once we had put our things down in the apartment Anne was keen to make our way to the ocean after we had changed into something cooler.  

Our host told us the name of a good swimming beach which looked to be a 20min walk on Google maps so we set off in the late, hot afternoon down the long hill towards the beaches on the Southern side of the town.

The temperatures here only vary by a small amount between day and night.  We are in the winter now and the nighttime temperatures "plummet" to 72F (22C) at night and go up to 86F (30C) during the day.  Every day.  

An article on the climate in Puerto Escondido says: "The temperature in Puerto Escondido varies so little throughout the year that it is not entirely meaningful to discuss hot and cold seasons".  I suspect it is a little less comfortable in the summer when the humidity is high and the few people we have asked all said it is much the same all year around.

The beach is called Carrizalillo (which I still struggle to pronounce).  It has a staircase with 157 steps and was fairly crowded with tourists and locals.  The waves are what we used to call "dumpers" in South Africa - they break right on the beach and dump you in the sand. 

The beach edge is pretty steep which made me wonder about a rip-tide but there were plenty of people swimming just beyond where the waves were breaking.  A fairly large number of surfers - mostly people learning to surf - were out quite a bit further where another set of waves were breaking.  The waves out there are a lot smaller and slower to break which make it an ideal beach for learning to surf.

The sea is warm for the Atlantic - on average around 84F (26C).  This surprised me but I guess 84F water feels a lot cooler than 86F air temperature for a number of reasons.  It is a very comfortable water temperature for swimming and I didn't hesitate to get in with Anne.

There was a sign at the top of the stairs warning that smoking and nudity (among other obvious things) are illegal, but a small percentage of people ignore these rules.  Topless bathers are less offensive than someone smoking upwind of you but it is easy enough to move as long as only a few people are doing it.

A rather nice tradition is that, on days when the sun sets unobstructed by clouds, the whole beach erupts into applause and whoops as the last ray of sun disappears below the horizon.  A tradition that is repeated at some of the other beaches that face West along this coast.  

After sunset we walked the 20min back up the hill and decided that we'd visit a Peruvian restaurant (called Chicama) that our friend Gina had recommended to us.  I looked it up on Google maps - about a 15min trip - and we started walking down the main road thinking we'd get a Taxi on the way.  At the bottom of the main street we came out onto a 4 lane highway that Anne took an instant dislike to.  It was more or less deserted of pedestrians and not well lit.  It was our first night so we had no idea how safe it would be to walk there.  We'd already walked 10 min so I figured we'd be ok to keep going but naturally our patience with things in general was waning quickly as our blood sugar continued to spiral downward.

A few minutes later, Anne asked how far we still had to walk and I casually opened google maps to check and saw that I'd had "by car" set when I had looked for the restaurant. "By foot" put us around 15 minutes into a 1hr 6min walk!

We had heard that Taxis are easy to get in Puerto Escondido but we hadn't had much luck walking down the main road and on this highway there was nowhere for a taxi to stop.  None of the ones we saw were looking for a passenger.  So after walking for another 10 minutes we decided to go across the road to a rather nondescript looking Hotel where the really sweet receptionist said she would help us get a taxi.  

When we asked if she knew of a nearby restaurant she let us know that they had a restaurant on their top floor so without hesitation we went up to take a look.  We were the only people in the restaurant which had a simple functional layout but the view was rather nice and we were starving, so we took a table at the edge of the balcony.

We took a look at the menu and ordered drinks.  We spotted what looked like safe choices of meals: "Carne" (meat) for me and "Pescado" (fish) for Anne, as there didn't seem to be anything even vaguely vegetarian.  We used google translate (thank you Google Fi) to check out other items on the menu but one item which included "small grasshoppers" and another for octopus convinced us that there weren't really any other options that we'd choose.

I had assumed that my "carne" was a steak and asked for it to be cooked medium which somewhat puzzled the waitress.  I think she just put it down to me not knowing much Spanish because she wandered off to get the chef to start preparing the meal. 

The meal was a surprise.  Anne got a whole, very boney small fish, grilled to a crisp.  The presence of the head and the staring eyes were so distracting that after staring back at it for a few moments, she cut the head off and wrapped it in a napkin - out of sight, (kind of) out of mind.  

My meat was prepared in a very specific way called "carne asada" which is a thinly sliced piece (1-2mm) of beef, also grilled to a crisp and served with beans and rice and some salad and tortillas.  I had seen this style of preparation previously in street food in Mexico City.  The intention is to break up the meat and wrap it in tortillas but it was as tough as leather.

My mind and stomach were prepared for a juicy steak cooked medium rare and Anne had imagined a white fish fillet with some delicious sauce.  After a few moments of dull recognition our hunger gave us the big mental adjustment needed and we ate.

Once we had eaten though, we started to feel a little more human and the receptionist accompanied us out on the dual lane highway to try to help us flag down a taxi.  She was so helpful and compassionate - we were two lost gringos who really needed help.

A large mural on the 2 lane highway not far from our Hotel of the first night

After 10min of waiting in vain I told her that we might try walking back up one of the side roads close to the hotel and she agreed that we may find a taxi easier that way.  She refused the tip that Anne offered her for all of her help and waved goodbye as we headed off.  Sure enough as we rounded the nearest corner a taxi was dropping off a passenger and we were able to get back to our apartment without much fuss, exhausted and a little shell-shocked.

In retrospect we should probably have taken care of eating right after visiting the beach at one of the restaurants close to that beach but, even though some mistakes were made, cool heads prevailed and we didn't have a "hangry spat" on the Puerto Escondido highway.

We did visit the Peruvian restaurant the next night as a treat to ourselves - by taxi this time.  

What an amazing experience!  

The young people serving there, particularly behind the bar made it the happiest restaurant we've ever visited.  They were singing along with the music, dancing and mixing drinks in the most engaging way.  We each had a meal of potatoes and egg and a delicious sauce.  I took a shot of the famous Guatemalan Rum (Zacapa) which the barman said was the best drink in the house.

We stayed in Puerto Escondido Centro for just over two weeks with a daily routine that involved me working from 8am local time until 4pm (excepting for a few days where work intruded into the evening) and then taking a taxi to the beach.  After sunset each day we would walk all the way back to the apartment in the cooler dark - on some days stopping at a restaurant - we found a couple that sold a steak called the New York which was right up my alley. 

We tried 3 other beaches but tended to always return to Carrizalillo because despite the rough waves on the beach, swimming beyond them is rather comfortable and the evening ritual of the sunset is a good way to end the day.

On the Saturday of the weekend after arriving we had paid for an early morning trip on a boat to see dolphins, whales and turtles.  We had mixed feelings about this while we out there - the captain of the boat didn't see two turtles that he motored over and at the beginning of the trip about 10 boats were juggling to get close to the only pair of whales that were spotted that day (he said it was a mother and child) .

Despite these misgivings it was amazing to come in among a pod of dolphins chasing fish and leaping about and be able to drop into the water and see some of them swimming near us - even if briefly.  We also got to swim close to a turtle though to be fair it was more swimming away from us than with us.

On the way back we saw a few flying fish.  They are quite incredible because they can glide for a really long time.  At first I thought I was seeing a bird with a shiny stripe gliding just above the waves and then it was gone!  When I spotted the second one I suddenly realized what it was!

When we got back we went to a nearby beach where we were offered a day long rental of a beach recliner in shade and all the food we could eat for $600MX pesos.  I'm not a big fan of hanging out at a beach all day doing not much and fortunately we aren't big eaters because by about 4pm when we decided we'd had enough the owner calculated how much food we'd had (breakfast, lunch and some drinks) and when he was satisfied that we had not spent over the $600 he said all good, thank you and I paid him.  I realized that his "all you can eat" was indeed conditional on the all not going over the offered price for the recliner.

I've had an interesting relationship with pesos while we've been here.  The conversion rate is around 18pesos to $1 US so $600MX is $32 US for both of us for a day on the beach including breakfast and lunch but somehow after paying for things like taxi rides and meals in the center I found myself starting get annoyed when suddenly the price is $20MX higher for a taxi ride.  It is like $1.25 but somehow I'm not making the conversion any more, just reacting to the higher price.

Of course the cab drivers had a few things that they did that I had to learn about over days of using them.  The rate when we got there was $40MX from our house to the beach but a number of drivers were asking $50MX which was confusing and then halfway through our stay it was consistently $50MX.  I suspect this is the "tourist" price because plenty of locals use the taxis and I doubt they tolerate a lot of price increases.

The other trick is claiming that they don't have change when you don't produce the exact amount.

Our first trip to the Peruvian restaurant cost us $100MX but later in the week we did another trip and the driver said $150MX when I asked how much it was.  Anne heard the 50 but I just heard $100MX and so I gave him $100MX when we arrived and he put up a bit of a fight before letting it go.

I suppose having the right change for $40 and/or $50 for local trips and $150 for the longer trips to the further towns was the best approach.

We thought about renting a scooter but decided that the taxi drivers and the sudden speed bumps and potholes in the road made it a little unsafe.  Besides renting a scooter would be a daily cost more than the price of the taxi to the beach.

Further east of Central are two communities that have a lot more tourist activity - Zicatela - which has this long curved beach with impressive waves and La Punta which is a beach near the end of this long beach with a row of restaurants and shops and tons of people.  La Punta is where the Peruvian restaurant is.

Our next AirBnb rental is at Zicatela and they have a pool which should make it pretty luxurious.

On our last visit to Carizalillo a young couple started dancing on the beach - I swear that they had only just met but they got a good round of applause from everyone nearby when the music stopped.