Our adventures started off heading to a place roughly an hour (on public busses) North of Puerto Escondido to the beachside village of Roca Blanca.
We arrived in the darkness and with a bit of walk ahead of us we were lucky that a truck stopped for us and offered a lift where they then explained that they own a restaurant/hotel on the beach where we could stay – now this worked out very well for us as nothing else was open. Lulu even let us put up our tents and camp for free just as long as we ate a meal or two at her restaurant – done deal!
José and Lulu left us to go home so we were on this beach by ourselves, very unprepared. With just some snacks to keep us going we found some coconuts and a machete and had dinner before chilling in the hammocks and watching the stars.. (Restaurant Y Mariscos in Playa Roca Blanca)
Again we scored, Lulu and José cooked us the best seafood I have ever had over the next few days that we stayed there. José would go out and catch the seafood for us then and there and Lulu would serve it up in the most incredible ways. We were in foodie heaven.
We entertained ourselves by playing cards, exploring the beach and surroundings and paddling out to ‘Roca Blanca’ on the surfboards (there was no surf!). The stars were absolutely incredible here and it was like a dream having a camp fire and falling asleep whilst gazing at the many many stars that lit up the sky, as were the sunrises spent in the hammock on the beach..
Lulu and José were amazing hosts and they made it a rule that if I wanted to eat, I would have to ask it from them in Spanish – this helped my Spanish a lot and they had much amusement teaching me.
After the lack of surf we got a lil impatient and decided to move on towards Chacahua National Park. Stopping off in Cerro Hermosa (no waves again) for lunch of fresh oysters and a few cards games, we continued on arriving at Chacahua via bus, boat and then in the back of a pick-up truck. Mission but an interesting one.
We decided to splurge out a little and pay for a cabana where we hung out watching movies after a massive feed at the restaurant.
The next day we set out for some more exploring covering almost every part of the town and the beach and yet again, eating some incredible food. It was hot. Very hot. ‘Bolis’ ice blocks to cool us down and in the shade playing cards (lack of surf, again).
The next day we got up super early to try our luck ‘across the river’ for surf. This is where the boys finally got to go surfing. I went for a run along the beach dodging the turtle tracks and nests along the way. Finally I was doing some exercise!
I went for a swim and chatted to the boys and some other boys who were out surfing – they were Kiwis and Cali boys!
Got talking to them and they said they were heading down to Puerto Escondido in the coolest van (Vanzilla) that I had seen (complete with a bed, chairs and about 15 surfboards!). I took a look at the cash that I had left and by the time I paid for my tab there was pretty much nothing so I said goodbye to the French Canadian boys and grabbed a lift with the others back down to Puerto.
Turns out that they were meeting a few girls in Puerto that had also been traveling with them and I had met one of the girls in Puerto before. Good start to what was my ‘Mexican family’ for the next few weeks over Christmas and New Years.
We arrived back in Puerto and had a big party night before crashing at the ‘Mondala Hostel’ in La Punta and then the girls (Aussies) had managed to organise the most incredible penthouse apartment over the Christmas period – score!!!
As it was busy season and we fit nine of us in what was supposed to sleep six – it worked out cheaper for us + I don’t think I could have ever stayed somewhere so amazing if it wasn’t for them!!
We created quite the international ‘family’ (Aussies, Kiwis, Californians and occasionally a few Mexicans) and spent the lead up to Christmas in search of good waves around Puerto Escondido, cooking our amazing ‘family’ meals (with fresh foods from the Mercado Benito Juarez), fun volleyball games and messing around (couples yoga) and enjoying them on the balcony with the best view in all of Puerto and got to check out the phosphorescence once again.
It was a mix of party nights out along the strip of Zicatela and movie nights in with everyone. We were as happy as could be.
With Christmas around the corner we arranged a ‘Secret Santa’ amongst us all (nine of us in total) and planned a massive Christmas Day feast.
And a feast it was, we started the day with a dip in the ocean and back to the Kiwi boys cooking us the most amazing crepes for a big brekky. After our amazing brekky we all opened our presents which we all took great pride in picking out that right gift for one another.
Fun times down the beach again before it was time to prep for lunch – now this was a feast!! We had an amazing salad, baked fish, ceviche, sweet potato followed up by a delicious pumpkin pie. Now we were stuffed.
The Aussie girls also bought a car during this time (Jzilla) which we all planned to drive down to El Salvador together in time to bring in the New Year. We even arranged a house for us all to stay at – exciting times ahead..
Of course buying a car meant dealing with typical ‘car’ problems, finding a spare tyre, kitting it out with the necessities and somehow managing to smash the back window the day before we were due to leave.
Stocking up on the infamous Mexican ‘mezcal’ and saying our goodbyes to our Mexican family, we were off on our road trip. I was finally leaving Puerto Escondido for good!
Six of us in the car and we were off, first stop was Hualtuco – we had strict rules that we were not to drive at night at all and due to the smashed window in the back, we had to be very observant of our belongings. We did manage to fit roughly eight boards on the roof though.
