Puerto Escondido – Week I
First, my bag was found and delivered to my apartment the day after it went missing – a huge relief. I will rethink my carry-on packing to come up with a better plan. At least I can take toiletries onboard now that I have left the US.
I am currently sitting on my second story deck adjacent to my studio apartment. The sun is setting beautifully over the Pacific as I write. This is the first good sunset I have seen due to cloud buildup each day over the water. Although it is very cloudy each afternoon over the inland mountains (Sierra Madre del Sur) leading up to Oaxaca, we only received a few seconds of rain yesterday evening. I am a couple of hundred meters above Playa Zicatela, the main surfer beach in the area. This is a beautiful beach, but I would not think of swimming in its extreme surf. The waves form pipelines and watching the surfers from all over the world is fun. A kilometer up the beach (west) is the harbor town of Puerto Escondido where I swim each day with fun waves, but nothing that is going to break my neck. Zicatela’s pounding surf is relentless and I always hear it from my room. It is no wonder why I have been sleeping so well. There are roosters in my neighborhood – a mix of locals and small hotels, guest houses and apartment complexes for gringos – which love to “sing” around 2 AM or four hours before sunrise, but the surf lulls me back to deep sleep.
Weekdays have mostly been spent in Spanish class, working on Spanish and investigating town. I am struggling with Spanish, but I will get as much as possible out of class. I am studying at Instituto de Lenguajes in Puerto about an eight minute walk from my apartment for four hours each day. I have two teachers, Ricardo and Irene. I remember why I didn’t like Spanish class in 8th Grade – I can’t roll my Rs. Given my name and my two teachers’ names, this part still isn’t fun, but I will accept that I sound like a foreigner.
Yesterday, I went to the town’s mercado where the locals shop. That part of town has a lot of businesses on the ground floor of each building as well as a whole covered stall area where there are sections for meat, fish, cheese, fresh produce, dried goods, flower, etc. purveryors. They also sell clothes, shoes, innumerable other goods and there are prepared food stands. I have heard so many stories of folks coming to Mexico and getting sick over the years, I have been pushing myself each day to see what does it to me… if anything. To be fair, the general concept of serving purified water seems to be very prevalent here. I ate at a stand yesterday and had wonderful enchiladas mole de pollo served with lettuce and a few glasses of water. No problemo. I have had numerous salads and they all passed through without incident. I understand it can be more of a problem during the wet season and that I should use Microdyn to clean any lettuce or such purchased from the mercado vendors. Seems reasonable. I know a lot of you have asked what weird things I ate in Africa and I was almost embarassed to have nothing too exciting to report. I know you were all disappointed. I understand they sell fried grasshoppers at the market, a Oaxacan delicacy, and I will report back if I get the chance to try one. A gringo from Denmark told me they taste like fish rather than chicken. Speaking of fish, it has all been wonderful and the mercado had a lot of products from the sea including octopus.
Brian, owner of the language school, asked if I wanted to join them today for an excursion to do some rock-climbing. I said yes, but I kind of dreaded that he asked since I am trying not to say no to anything and I am not a big fan of heights. Two other couples and myself joined Brian and Pablo and we drove up the coast at 6:00 AM around sunrise. We went to Blanco Roca and hiked the beach to a rock outcropping. I did two climbs on the cliff over the pounding surf and thoroughly enjoyed the thrill although I was quite challenged by it. There were a lot of birds and dogs (dogs are everywhere around here – and I do mean everywhere) around the beach and we saw fish “surfing” in the breaking waves as well as pelicans and other birds gorging on them. As well as a healthy dog and chicken population there are also iguanas (black ones which would make a good horror flick theme) and geckos. In fact there are ten geckos above my head on the ceiling and wall right now. In Hawaii this would be considered very good luck and I think that each evening when I see them come around to eat the insects. How does a gecko hang upside down from the ceiling? After the climbing and taking a swim, we had lunch at a palapa – open air hut – on the beach which included fresh whole fish, tortillas, salsa, rice and avocado. And cervezas! A fine day it was here in paradise.
I plan to go to Oaxaca where they have been rioting next weekend to see the famous colonial-era sites and the pre-Columbian ruins of Monte Alban and take in the Oaxacan culture. Locals say to go and I have heard the same from tourists who were just there so it looks good for Friday. The adventure involves a seven-hour drive through the Sierra Madre (peaks over 12,000 feet), but I am sure it will be beautiful. I’ll stay safe from the radicals and federales. The drive will be a good primer for what Central America will throw at me and Oaxaca will be my first Latino city. Many, many more to come. I have some notes about flying into the world’s third largest metropolis, Mexico City, but I will save them for when I actually stay there in early December. I currently fly back to Mexico City on a Monday, but I may change that to Saturday so that I can see the bullfights on Sunday. I was hoping to spend another weekend driving up to Acapulco to see the infamous cliff-divers and enjoy the resort area, but my Latin America expert friends, the Fiorillos, as well as locals around here tell me it is a polluted has-been resort area. I will save the cliff-diver viewing for a day when I drive the whole Mexican Pacific coast – now that’s an adventure I look forward to doing! So, a great week in a great country… the rest of the month will be FUN.
Tags: Central America, Mexico, North America, Travel
vagabondrick
Rick,nrWith regards to the Geckos, according to my 7 year old’s big book of reptiles, they have millions of very fine hairs on the bottom of their feet, so it is kind of a velcro thing. Hope that helps and I hope you have another great adventure. Mike