Mazunte

We had an 8 or 9 hour ride along winding roads through mountains to the coast to our final stop.  Surprise, we are staying in Puerto Angel, a port town close to the beach towns of Zipolite and Mazunte, where we were supposed to be staying.  The dive hotel here is the only accommodation for miles due to the Easter holiday and an obvious failure to book ahead by the tour company (Intrepid Travel, who has agreed to a partial refund of the tour price after a month to review my complaint).  I’m pretty low maintenance, but I have my limits and this hotel went below them.

In the morning we had a ceviche cooking class while drinking beer to keep cool.  Fish chunks are marinated in lime juice for 20 minutes, then added to onions, tomatoes and a few other things for this dish.

We caught a taxi to Zipolite, stopping to check out the nude beach, yikes sorry that turned out way nuder than it looked when I added it, then jumped in a truck collectivo with people piling in all the way to Mazunte.The towns aren’t far apart but the winding roads mean a half hour journey.

Mazunte is an undeveloped hippie type beach town with a beautiful beach framed with gigantic rocks. It’s filled with earring and tshirt shops, and cute little restaurants and bars.  There’s also a turtle conservation centre.  There are  eight types of sea turtles, and all but one of them are native to Mexico. We spent some time there, stopped for a drinks, then watched a bunch of guys playing football (soccer) on the beach.  Most of the tourists here are Mexican.

Very early the next morning our fishing expedition left from the bay in Puerto Angel.  We learned that Pepe the tour leader had never had a fish caught with his groups here.  The lone fishing pole was almost forgotten, but Ulysses the 11 year old son of the boatman ran back to get it at the last minute.  I was closest so as we motored out to sea I was asked to hold it so I said sure.  Not much later the line was pulling so I squealed a bit, Ulysses helped me with the reel, and it turned out to be a fine skipjack that could have been used for ceviche! 

The real point of the boat trip was to see humpback whales.  We found a couple who breached many times as we followed not too close by.  And we found a deserted cove where we jumped in for a swim.  We could also have jumped from a rock but instead watched Ulysses do that.

Back at the hotel I crashed for a couple of hours, then went to the beach where we settled in at a shady restaurant.  I went for a dip to cool off, and was pulled out by the tide then dropped in the sand, almost losing my suit!  The beaches around here are not great for swimming.

For dinner that night we taxied to Zipolite, where now everyone we saw was clothed.  We were dropped in the street and left to walk along dark trails to suddenly come upon a really cool open air restaurant with amazing food.

Back at the dive hotel, all I want to do is sleep, the heat is exhausting.

The next morning we had a 1 1/2 hour taxi to the tiny Puerto Escondido airport for return to Mexico City, an hour and a half flight.  The city is covered in a haze of smog as usual.

And back to Canada where this morning at home, April 1, it was -29 with windchill.  I might not mind that now but only for a day or so!