After partying constantly for Dias des los Muertos, eating mucho moles, shopping for chocolate and rugs, hanging out on the Zocalo and all sorts of other activities, it was time for some R and R. Little did I know I was about to find one of the nicest spots on the planet.
We took the all night first class bus from Oaxaca to Puerto Angel. This is a great way to go; very comfortable bus and you save $$ on a hotel. We shared a cab from Patchutla down the hill to the small fishing village of Puerto Angel with Deiter and Mikey, two lovely German folks from Hamburg. They had information on a beachfront hotel, called the Cordelia and this was where we ended up.
What a wonderful place...right on the Playa Pantheon (Cemetery Beach) and it indeed has a cemetery on the other side of the street. The hotel has about 10 rooms, all with views of the town, the bay and the beach. We found the staff a little surly, but the charm of the place made it more then tolerable.
The Cordelia has a wonderful restaurant and the best thing is that the tables are right on the sand. There is something unworldly about the tactile experience of your toes in the golden sand while your finger surrounds a cold cerveza. The restaurant not only has cold cerveza, but the freshest fish you can imagine; Dorado (Mahi Mahi), octopus, prawns and tuna. Caught in the sea that morning.
The bay at Playa Pantheon has great swimming. No waves to speak of and clear water. There is great snorkeling on both sides of the beach. We saw huge schools of small fish that the fishermen here catch for bait. There are also large schools of fish with yellow tails, I have no idea of the name. I even saw a couple of eels, about two feet long each, battling it out over some little tunnels in the coral.
The fishermen here have an interesting way of bringing their boats up on the beach. Basically, they just gun the motor at maximum throttle and drive the boat up on the beach. I couldn't believe it the first time I saw it, but they do it all the time. To get the boat back out on the sea, they call over their buddies and just push it out. Once I was standing there taking pictures and they were a bit short handed, so they called me over to help push the boat out. In the lower picture, that's me at the front.
The second day we headed west a few miles to check out some beaches. There are four right after one another; Zipolite, which is a New-Age yoga and surfing beach with huge waves; St. Augustinillo, which would prove to be my favorite beach on the planet; Mazunte, more famous but not quite as charming, and La Ventanilla, a nice nature preserve with a lagoon that harbors 10 foot long crocodiles along with other odd creatures.
We wanted to relax for a few days on one of these beaches and finally settled on St. Augustinillo. There is a wonderful little hotel there called Mexico Lindo. Fausto and Leila have six rooms in a 2-story cabana, right on the beach. You step out of your room and you are in the sand.
I could have stayed here for a long time. I have never really considered myself a beach person, but I could change that for this place. Along the beach are several small cabana hotels; each hotel has maybe 5 or 6 cabanas.
The beach totals about 1 kilometer long, but half of that isn't built on. The ocean here has pretty good swimming, although the waves can come in a few feet high, which makes it fun for boogie boarders, and it's shallow enough, for folks who just like to bob in the waves.
Like the Cordelia, the Mexico Lindo's restaurant is right on the beach. You still get the "toes-in-the-sand-while-drinking-a-cold-cerveza" experience here and also they have great fish. My big find was fresh octopus, fried with butter and garlic.
The big event of the two days here was an early morning boat ride with Efren, the boat owner, and Fausto, the hotel man. We went out about a mile from shore to look for turtles and go snorkeling. The turtles were everywhere. Every few hundred yards, you see one bobbing on the surface, where they like to hang out. We even saw a couple mating, which apparently they do for 24 to 48 hours at a time. Soon we came upon three pods of dolphins, but could never quite catch up to them to get a good look in the water with our snorkel. At the end of the three hour tour we came upon two whales, not sure about what kind. Again, we followed them down the coast, but they would always outsmart us so we couldn't get good look underwater. These were the first whales of the season and all the locals were excited.
We headed back to Puerto Angel for our last night and spent some time in the town. Lots of folks were fishing on the pier and one young lad was showing off his Dorado...
There were also a bunch of cute young girls who were flirting with some young lad and were very happy to get their picture taken...
On the last day we had a very interesting experience. Amy wanted to see this old town near the airport, Santa Maria de Huatulco. So we arrived at the airport three hours early to check in and then took the bus up to Santa Maria. As we were walking around this very small town, we came upon this fellow and he asked if he could help us find anything. Turns out, his name is Kevin Berney and he grew up in Palo Alto, where Amy grew up. They knew some of the same people (they are two years apart) and had a lot to talk about. Talk about a small world! We took Kevin out for a coffee (he is a tour guide to the local coffee farms) and Amy and he talked over the good old days...
What a great two weeks it has been. I would highly recommend both Oaxaca city and the beaches of the Oaxacan coast. Cancun it ain't!
No comments:
Post a Comment