Part II Agua Blanca

Since we so enjoyed our first trip to Agua Blanca, we decided to head there for Adrian's birthday. We pitched our umbrella on the beach just above the high tide line and chilled in the shade. The owner of the restaurant recognized us and asked us if we wanted a cerveza....Si, dos cerveza por favor. I love Mexico!

The beach was a bit busier than the day before, but interestingly so. What appeared to be a large extended family was playing in the low tide, and the males of the family were showing off by diving off the rocks into the water. Looked fun, but maybe a bit dangerous given their skill.

We finally decided to get something to eat, and went to the restaurant for lunch. Today I didn't ask what kind of fish it was and I got the dark fish instead of the white fish. Yuck, the dark fish is gross, everyone we've talked to say it is probably the sailfish that is caught relatively close to shore, where as the Mahi Mahi, or what the Mexicans here call Dorado, is caught a little farther out to sea, but is much fresher tasting and a nice white color. Adrian had the safe choice, breaded shrimp.

After lunch, and a quick swim, we headed up shore for a walk. The day before, we didn't go too far this direction, so this time we ventured farther. I was lagging behind, looking for rocks and Adrian called me up, he found 2 baby turtles! Unfortunately they were both dead:( But it does show that the turtles are still hatching in the area, maybe we will get to see some next week when we get back from Oaxaca city.

Dogs in Mexico are typically bags of bones, but in the PE area we have found the dogs to be very healthy looking (with exceptions of course). Not so in Agua Blanca. On our walk we came across a very cute dog, she came right up to us close to a rocky out cropping, licking our hands an cozying up against us. It almost appeared she was pushing us up the rocky area for a look. As we were exploring we found a tidal pool with about 8 or 10 dead sardines in it. With the pooch behind us...I decided to grab a couple and give them to the dog! She ate each of them in one bite. I think she was looking for help from us all along. Later on we figured they were probably some fishermans bait he had stashed for later! oh well, the dog needed them more...

On a rocky outcrop we found our own personal hot tub! I think in high tide this would be a dangerous place to be, but we were there during a very low tide and it was really nifty!

On our way back from our walk, the restaurant guy was out on some of the rocks picking something up or off them? We went to look, he had picked off 3 sea urchins to show the little Mexican kids (and the big Canadian kids).

I've been collecting rocks and shells on the beach since we've been here and playing with them at home. Here are a few of my creations, which will NOT be weighing down my suitcase on the way home :)

Manana Amigos!

Agua Blanca, about kilometer 172 on Highway 200

If driving on Mexican highways and all roads in general isn't difficult enough, throw in topes (Mexican speed bumps) and poor signage and you are in for a treat! We had Mexican drivers described to us as "Psycho defensive drivers" always waiting for an accident to occur. Passing on the skinny 2 lane highway, that has no shoulder only requires about 200 meters, sometimes less. I think Adrian insulted the local tourist info center lady the other day by saying "we can't drive to Huatulco! our car is really old". She replied indignantly "We Mexicans love old vehicles". Meh!

Yesterday we headed east of PE with the intention of visiting Agua Blanca (Water White), and then Puerto Angel beaches, of which there are several and is probably worth a full day trip. However, once at Agua Blanca, we didn't have the heart to leave. What an incredible and unique beach. There is a rocky outcropping that holds the water in tidal pools, some of them very deep and easy to swim in.

We were lucky enough to hit the low tide and the water was crystal clear and full of marine life. We actually witnessed some young men catching Lobster out on the rocks, I tried to ask them how much they would charge, but they weren't interested in figuring out what I had to say! They could have probably charged me double what they are getting from a restaurant if they had only given it a try. Our neighbours Frank and Mary would have had a blast cooking them up!

We met a very interesting couple from San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. They are originally from Philadelphia, but have lived full time in Mexico for 11 years. They love it in Mexico. They really gave us some interesting and valuable information about Mexico. But more research on that later.

They recommended the little Palapa restaurant where we were sitting beside to eat. They come to PE every year for 7 weeks or so, and they have been visiting his restaurant for years. Fish and shrimp is all that is on the menu, as that is that they haul out of the ocean every morning:) Junto Al Mar (close to the Sea) is highly recommended by us now too.

Today we are off to Agua Blanca again, it is the last day with the VW as we take it back Saturday morning before we go to Oaxaca City for a few days. We are undecided whether to rent a car again when we get back, but it has been a great way to see the area.....

Manana Amigos

Feliz Cumpleaños Adrian

Adrian has hit 50, out of the cold and snow of Calgary, what better present can there be, besides an iPod touch of course :)

We will be going to a great restaurant for supper, Los Tugas is one of the nicest restaurants in PE, last time we had a wonderful meal there. 

Other than that, we are going to go do some beaching

Hasta Luego mi amigas/amigos

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!