Oaxaca Adventures: Lifeguard rescue on Zicatela

VW is gone :( our rental expired, and since we are headed to Oaxaca City there is no use in keeping it at $20.00 per day. We may get it upon our return, it depends on how much we spend in Oaxaca city! This cutie is for rent too, but Adrian barely fit in, and could hardly get out, let alone drive in it.

I've got my eye on a bigger Mexican rug for the living room.......one the dogs can't kick up so easily. The albrije (mexican wood carving) we bought last April may be read for pick up and payment as well, ouch.

Frederico's rental place is close to Zicatela, so we decided to walk over to our favorite spot "Grekos" for beer and to chill in their loungers. We had a great time learning some new Spanish words with our friend Sandiego. He is trying to learn more English, and we more spanish so it is a win/win. He came back to our table with his book of phrases he was teaching himself all written down in a ratty ring bound notepad, very worse for wear! I couldn't resist, I gave him our English/Spanish dictionary. This little 4 inch by 3 inch book could help him learn a lot, and we have 2 more here in our Casa.

Federales patrolling the beach in front of us

Our casa is in behind the second Palapa to the right of that huge condo. We can see the ocean on the East and South of us

The lifeguards at Zicatela are always on the prowl for people not respecting the waves and currents (right Eric!) and today they were ultra vigilant, the surf was really high and the undertow was unbelievable. 3 young guys were in front of us swimming in the surf and he shooed them closer to shore, but the guys weren't deterred, when the lifeguard moved on, they went back in at a different spot. Only this spot was a "rip". A Rip is where the water makes it's way back out to sea the fastest, kind of like a funnel, so the tow is impossible to fight. Well all 3 got in trouble, they were sucked out, way out. The lifeguard got on his seadoo and had to rescue them all individually. The last guy looked like he was going to drown, he was swamped over and over by the waves and it looked bad because the life guard couldn't go into those waves with his Seadoo. But the lifeguard saved his sorry ass.

It was pretty unnerving when the lifeguard stayed out there for a few extra minutes sweeping the area, we thought there must be another swimmer out there, but I think it is their protocol to stay out and ensure no one else was swept out. The way the lifeguard towed them in must have hurt like hell, the swimmer hangs onto some kind of handle on the seadoo, and he is dragged in, bouncing on the enormous waves. Yeow! Some Mom is not getting the most horrible phone call of her life tonight, thanks to the lifeguard.

We had lunch at the Burrito place finally! The Meat burrito was great, thanks Eric for the recommendation. After lunch we walked down to La Punta (the Point) where all the surfers were catching these huge waves. The walk was quite a bit farther than we had thought, but we need the exercise after using that VW for the last 2 weeks :) The surfers were awesome.

I have been having a ball finding some white stones here, in hopes of making a bracelet once I get back home, I'll have to find some one with a stone milling thingy, I think Paul Sargent might have one... :)