Highway 200 Road Trip!

Our destination today was Lagunas de Chacahua, a National Park here in Oaxaca state. I can only tell you, it has nothing on Banff! I'm sure the Lagoon is beautiful, but the set up to get the boat tours is chaos. No one speaks english, which isn't their fault, this is clearly a spanish country and we don't speak the language. With our broken spanish we did get the message that the cost for 2 people by boat is 800 pesos (down from the original quote of 1200 pesos). That is 64.00 for a boat ride with a non-english speaking tour guide. Nope didn't do it.

We did check out the local beach which was called Cerra Hermosa, not really swimmable, but the nude guy didn't agree...funny how Adrian always spots the nudists, with my eyes, I keep thinking they have skin colored trunks.

On the dirt road to Cerra Hermosa, we came upon this sign:

CAUTION Zone of the Crocodiles

We didn't swim here... and it wasn't just because of crocodiles, ewwww!

For some reason we keep getting stuck behind livestock on these back roads.

Once back on highway 200 we continued West, or as some people like to think of it, North. Take a look at a map and let me know what you think. The highway is very skinny, but it is pretty smooth and I'm sure we might have hit about 80 km/hr at times. 

As hunger hit us we decided to find a restaurant at the nearest town of San Jose del Progreso. A nice little place serving beef tacos and topas (spanish for sandwiches).  Le Cuenta (the bill) came to 52 pesos, which is $4.10 CDN and add a 40 cent tip..... cheapest meal ever.

The place looked clean and the cook/owner was friendly. Another patron in the place spoke english and translated for us a bit. Mostly by letting us know our next destination was not reachable as the road was closed for some reason. The guide book raves about Pinotepa Nacional which is about 145km from Puerto Escondido. The Market there is supposed to be great. Probably another demonstration closing the roads off, last week it was to the East of us toward Huatulco, some neighbours in our villa had to take 2 taxi's to get back to PE from Huatulco one on each side of the demonstration.

So instead of trying to beat it, we turned around and headed back. One short stop in Rio Grande to look for fruit. I found a Papaya for 3 pesos, roughly 24 cents. 

A little further down the highway we saw a sign "Playa 1" so we took this little dusty road to a deserted beach, the water didn't look clean, off shore there seemed to be a oil rig, and to the East there was some sort of plant that had pipes into the water, either sucking it out, or pumping something in.

Hasta Manana!

On our way back we stopped at Roca Blanca for a swim and a beer, watched the fisherman catch long needle fish and Dorado right from shore.

HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

For my wonderful Mom, Happy Birthday! We will celebrate when Adrian and I get home!

Here is your birthday card! Personally crafted in the Zicatela Sand, washed away by the waves about an hour later :)

XOXOX

The long, dusty, bumpy Mexican road...

This morning we drove Eric to Huatulco Airport in the VW. Since the airport is about 90 minutes away and very close to Bahia San Agustin, we thought we may as well visit one of the most raved about beaches in Oaxaca state. . Bahia San Agustin is the most westerly Bay of the 9 Bays of Huatulco. It is a spectacular bay famous for it's snorkeling and fishing. No waves at all, and a coral reef steps from shore.

However before you enter paradise, there is a price to pay; 14 km of dirty, dusty, rutted, bumpy, winding road. This 14 km took 35-40 minutes to drive in the Beetle. Poor beetle got beat up pretty bad :(

Along the road there are farms of Papaya, coconut, pineapple, and banana. I'm sure we missed other crops we just didn't know what we were seeing. 

Papaya trees

After finally navigating the worst of the bumps and dust, we came to the Bahia (Bay)! Settling on a Palapa restaurant that was the busiest. We have found that the restaurants with the most patrons usually has the best food and service. The "Mar Y Luz" was no exception. Fidel and his staff were prompt, courteous and down right nice! They recommended two specialties, #1 the pineapple stuffed with shrimp cocktail and covered with melted Oaxacan cheese $250 pesos. We have been wanting to try this, but again we did not. We tried special #2 Four varieties of shrimp on one platter with rice and veggies. Garlic shrimp, Butter Shrimp, Battered shrimp and Shrimp Diablo (devil). We shared this for $250.00 pesos.

Shrimp platter yum!

We ended our day at Bahia San Agustin with an hour or so of snorkeling, then a walk down the beach. There was virtually no one else there, with the kids in Mexico going back to school this past Monday the tourista season is over until Easter. 

On our way out of the Bay, we stopped to take a shot of the signage and the VW:) Ending our commute, we got stuck behind a slow procession of cows coming home after a hard day grazing.

Hasta Manana mi Amigos!

Eric's last Beach Day

We spent another day at Zicatela beach today, we had a hot one in the sand and surf. We tried to eat at the burrito shop again, but they closed before we got there...manana (tomorrow).

We met a couple from Vancouver over a week ago and we saw them again today. They own a house here in PE and come for a couple weeks at a time, one is a Doctor the other owns a nursery. Randy's mom has had a house here for over 25 years, before they had paved roads in town! At that time they didn't even have development on the main strip at Zicatela which is the main draw to this town now.

So tomorrow we will drive Eric in the VW to the airport and then Adrian and I will head over to San Augustin. Apparently it is the most beautiful beach in the Huatulco/Puerto Escondido area. Somewhat hard to get to, take a left at the airport on a dirt/sand road, drive 14 or maybe 16 kilometers (it doesn't matter which, our car doesn't have an odometer) and look for the water.

We have the VW for another week! we figured we will use it until we go to Oaxaca city on the 16th. Travel as much as possible out of PE area while we have the wheels.

When we were in Huatulco in April we had to decide whether to go to the coffee plantation or to St. Augustin, we made the wrong decision and headed to the hills :) that is another story for another blog!

Pictured below is the most expensive drink we have ever purchased in Mexico. a 100 peso ($8.00 CDN) Pina Colada! I had 2...

A Zicatela vendor:

More adventures tomorrow.....bon voyage Eric!

Zicatela; the Mexican pipeline

Today we spent our first day on Zicatela beach. Zicatela is one of the most famous surfing beaches in the world. On any given day it is given the designation of 3rd or 4th "best" surfing beaches in the world, see the link to Mexican pipeline in my last posting. Zicatela is bohemia. Surfers dudes, dreadlocks, anything that would remind you of the bohemian life style you will find. The food on the boardwalk is pretty good, today Eric had an amazing mixed meat Buritto. Rice, meat, veggies and cheese with great home made salsa...mmm....

The most comfortable chairs in Mexico are on Zicatela, which will keep me coming back! Our asses suffer here in Mexico as most chairs are made of plastico. When NAFTA was signed, Mexico could finally get as much plastic as the rest of the world, and they love the stuff. Down the main streets, there are entire stores dedicated to plastic goods!

Right now, an American/Mexican team of people have set up shop for a skydiving experience, for $250.00 USD, you can tandem over Puerto Escondido and the ocean, and land on Zicatela beach. This has been going on for the entire time we have been here (13 days) but it looks like they were packing up today, so what a great day to finally be there to see them land.

Animals of all kinds roam free in Puerto Escondido, as I'm sure is the norm in all of Mexico, some are owned, others are simply survivors. We have adopted a survivor. "Gato", mexican for Cat, is the new van Sluys family member, she comes and goes completely on her own. Adrian said not to feed her or she'll keep coming back, I say who cares, we'll eventually leave. She can pretty much get into our house at will, we don't have a glass window or solid fitting door at all. Adrian thinks we should take it home for Sarah to take care of:) She's a little wild, she wants a pet, but she bites you if you do :( women!

Today she watched us Barbeque hamburgers on a REAL barbeque. We bought charcoal, or what they call carbon at the market. It was much easier to light than we thought, and it cooks even and hot. Next time we will try Mahi Mahi!

Roca Blanca (Rock White)

Yesterday we headed out of town in the Beetle! Brave huh? The roads are quite narrow, and Mexicans drive with a fury they have for absolutely nothing else. Mexicans are NEVER in a hurry unless they are behind the wheel :) Adrian is getting quite comfortable in driving the car, gearing up and down over the topes, or reductors as the speed bumps all up and down the highways are called. They are usually placed before and after you enter a village or school zone, or somewhere where people are close to the road.

On to our Adventure on the open road, to the town/beach of Playa Roca Blanca (Beach of the white rock). The trip is about 40 kilometers and takes about 45 minutes. We were told that the turn off was at a taxi stand outside of a village, turn right, go 5 blocks, turn right at a sandy road and just keep following it, and we got there easily. As with all the beaches here, there is restaurants that stake their claim on part of the beach and you must purchase beer, food or pay a fee to sit. You can sit there all day with a beer if you want, they don't mind.

The beach was amazing, miles and miles of sand, and only a few people. We had a great lunch, Adrian had Shrimp Tostados, Eric had Garlic Shrimp and I had a whole grilled white fish, eyes, fins, teeth and all. Great food!

The waves here were crazy, Eric and Adrian braved the waves and had a great time trying to body surf. Eric got tossed a few times, and so did Adrian.

Today we went to Manzanillo beach, it was not a beach we would return to. Very crowded with chairs, and people, good food vendors though, had plantains, ice cream and peanuts. Tomorrow we will head to Zicatella, the home of the Mexican Pipeline. I don't think it will be this radical:)

Beaching it in PE

For the last few days we have been entertaining Eric by taking him to the beaches in the area. We have taken him to Playa Carrizalillo and Playa Bocacho Club.

We are told it has been unusually hot here, typically the temperatures for January are around 26 degrees, but we have yet to have a day under 30 degrees.

Since Eric is here, and his legs are much longer than mine, he gets to ride shot gun in the Beetle. Let me tell you, the backseat is MUCH hotter than the front! I am kind of hoping for a day of 26 degrees, but the temps are about to get hotter. By next weekend we are supposed to be getting 33 degree days.

Here are a few pics from our trip:

Our Home for the next 5 weeks

Roof top Palapa ie. Living room:)

Breakfast!

My Yoga on the Beach

Adrians Yoga on the beach

Carrizallilo Beach

Day 1 Eric

Eric at Bocacho Beach