ChrisJenTravel.com – Honeymoon Trek

After five days in Puerto Escondito we had settled into a nice routine, but, again, we knew we had to keep moving. Also, we felt like, since we had mostly hugged the coast so far, we may have missed out on some of the Mexican culture in the inland cities. We decided to visit the city of Oaxaca to the north to explore some ruins, see the 15^th century architecture and visit the nearby village of El Tule, which is reportedly home to the largest tree in the world. The map indicated Oaxaca was only about 100 miles away as the crow flies, so we took off without checking the guides closely, expecting a two hour drive at most. A gas station attendant told us the trip would take 4 hours but I doubted it since we should make better time than the buses and pickup truck cabs of the area.

Just outside of town, however, the road quickly turned mountainous, rough and very windy. We tried to make good time but the conditions just wouldn’t let us. Besides the bumps, the road would turn sharply in one direction almost in a full circle, then back the opposite way just as far. After an hour we had only gone about 20 miles! I was frustrated and continued to drive faster around the curves until with all the twisting and jerking from side to side, Jenny was really ill. When we pulled over for her to get sick, we were passed by a pickup truck taxi so full of people there was a guy actually standing on the back bumper hanging on! We started to realize how long the drive might take. Jenny tried driving to help her stomach but that just made me feel sick. [read on]

We’ve been slow again on updating the site, which seems to happen whenever we settle into a town we like. First, we don’t have any good “road stories” since everything gets easier, and second, we end up having too much fun to go sit online for hours uploading pics and entries. Such is the case with Escondito. I’d heard of it as an epic surf destination for years, with huge barreling waves that rivaled Hawaii, but we didn’t know much about the town. We were happy to find a town large enough to have all the amenities we needed with a small surfer’s village-type tourist strip set just apart from the rest of town near the main surf beach. Although there are decent hotels, restaurants, shops, food stores and internet/phone cafes, everything was priced for traveling surfers – meaning cheap. How cheap? Well, we found a 6 person spacious room with hot water and cable for about $27 a night and full meals (think huge plates of spaghetti or burgers with fries) with a free beer or drink for about $3.60, while watching the sunset over the ocean, surf videos and great music.

We also found nearby picture perfect bays with clear turquoise water for snorkeling, lined with thatched roof umbrellas, Adirondack beach chairs and small food stands serving oysters, ceviche (fresh fish), plantains and beers. You can spend an afternoon there and feel like you’re on a five-star vacation in Jamaica for a few dollars. [read on]