Pretirement

posts have been a little thin lately, eh? sorry to be boring, but i’ve been out having adventures. mostly adventures you can have without leaving the beach, so they’ve been relaxing adventures. but it’s time for a full post with all the trimmings just like mom used to make.

er, when did i get here? last saturday? that’s ten nights. somewhere between 50 and 100 people have passed through here in that time. you get stuck. there was a surf competition called mexpipe going on when i arrived. the waves were bad. but every morning you could get up at ten and wander down to playa zicatela, sit in the stands, have a beer and watch the pros. i picked up some tips from watching them. like i learned that it’s very cool to ollie up to the lip of the wave and ride that for a second. if i need more points in my next competition maybe i’ll throw in one or two of those.

the last two or three nights of carnaval, there were samba floats going through town. there was a beauty contest where lots of boring speeches were given and the girls had to dance three or four times for the mexican judges to decide which one was better. also, two completely average looking mexican douchebags competed for the title of “El Rey Feo”. one of them was chubby and wore a ridiculous straw hat and in my opinion was the better of the two. mexican guys really seem to like the straw hats for parties. what’s that about? i want one.

there were some parties on the beach and a couple nights of reggae concerts under the stars. i was confused when they took down the stands and the stage. i hadn’t really thought about it, but i assumed there was always a stage right on the beach.

instead, all there is on the beach are umbrellas and ramadas. plastic tables and chairs are standard, but the best places scour furniture catalogs for the laziest, most reclining furniture possible. there are a few covered in bean bags, hammocks, and little pillows. micheladas are a standard drink here. it’s beer – maybe corona or pacifico, but it’s up to you – in a glass with ice and lime and chile or salsa, with salt around the rim. like a bloody mary for beer. they don’t go very well with the pancakes, which everyone seems to be able to make perfectly here, but they wash down a cheeseburger like you wouldn’t believe.

this is a stupid place to learn to surf right now – well, maybe always, at least you can’t really kill yourself now like in november – but i’ve been going out most days with a rented board. my shorts don’t fit perfectly because my weight is down, so i had a sunburned ass from sitting on the board waiting for waves.

i broke my cheap acapulco walmart sandals dancing my first night here, so i went without shoes. i’d need another two weeks to get them good and leathery, but we’ll work on that in the yucatan. conni’s plane gets to cancun friday afternoon. so i’m taking the overnight bus to san cristobal de las casas. it’s historical and cultural and stuff and supposed to be interesting. i’ll spend tomorrow night there and then take another overnight to cancun. then conni and i are traveling together for two weeks! we don’t have an itinerary, just a list of cool places we’d like to see. i’ll probably have to wear shoes for some of them, which isn’t that great, but otherwise i’m excited.

i’m going down to the beach to see who’s around and catch my last pacific sunset for a while. there’s some photos up finally and you can try to view them here. they’re not organized but i’ve taken out all the naked ones.

sorry, i want to tell a great story or something but honestly there’s a parade outside and i can’t be asked to organize my thoughts. if you want to send me a text, my mexican number is 777-224-1119. i don’t remember mexico’s country code but i think it’s on the internet somewhere.

oh god, they’re all doing samba, ok here’s the deal, i posted something on the bootsnall forums that says where i am, so i’m reposting it here because it’s all written.

well, i’m an expert now. puerto escondido is full of surfers and others who just generally love the beach, and they’re all sure that there’s simply nothing up the coast until you hit san blas. that’s the consensus among backpackers here as far as i can tell. here’s what i did.

two nights by myself in acapulco. very boring by yourself. very resort-ey. k3 is the hostel there, right in the mix with all the highrise hotels. i can’t say whether that’s a nice place or not.

one night in pie de la cuesta, just around the western headland from acapulco’s bay. it’s chill there, relaxed small town twenty minutes from acapulco. there are quieter, cheaper, less touristed places, but they’re not twenty minutes from acapulco. the current is strong right now. you can swim but it’s not that great because you keep getting washed down the beach. there are two ships wrecked there since a month ago. one of them’s a ferry. you can climb all up in it. it’s smelly and old and dangerous. i’m putting it on my list of cool places you weren’t supposed to be in just ahead of abandoned hospital.

next place i stopped down the costa chica was marquelia, two hours south towards puerto escondido. that’s where you get off the bus. the better known beach there is playa ventura. i didn’t go there but a backpacker in cuernavaca recommended it, saying it was nice but maybe a little too boring on the weekends. he was also by himself.

i didn’t make it to ventura because playa volcana was much easier to get to from marquelia, where the bus station is. if you really want to go to ventura, i don’t think it’s more than a combi or two from marquelia, and anybody in town can tell you how to get there. but volcana is five minutes down the road. it’s a tiny fishing community. in two nights there (i stayed two nights because the combi driver offered to take me to a rodeo the second day. it didn’t happen and i feel a bit cheated out of what could have been an extra day here in escondido) i saw no tourists except for a group of forty retired people from mexican city.

food is a bit expensive. 60 or 70 pesos for fish a la diabla, or however you want it cooked, but it’s going to be fish. on the other hand, the owners of a restaurant let me hang my hammock for two nights in their ramada free of charge. and when they noticed that i didn’t buy dinner from anyone my second night, they offered to share their family’s meal with them that night. i declined and was asked to explain why my government makes it so difficult for mexicans to come and work. interesting place, like i say i was a little bored, but if you want something out of the way, go for it.

bored as i was, i went straight to escondido, but there’s another decent sized town somewhere in between. patineta nacional or something. *that’s definitely not the name, but it does start with a P and end in Nacional and it’s along the highway in southwestern oaxaca*

right by puerto escondido there’s also a couple quiet places. zipolite and mazunte. my guide book specifically says that mazunte is currently some kind of backpacker hot spot. here i haven’t heard anything about it, but everyone seems to love zipolite. if you want a place that’s convenient but small enough that you can have a fire and some beers on the beach, that’s where to do it.

or go to puerto escondido! i love it here.

wow, i wasn't ready for all the support i got for my broken heart letter. thanks! i'll try to rack up a couple more. my heart's doing much better now, but sadly my ass has regressed. they say immodium is ... [Continue reading this entry]