Puerto Escondido and onto San Cristobal de las Casas

After a flight and a 2 hour bus we arrived in Puerto Escondido. This is Isabel´s favourite place in mexico (specifically the beach beside Puerto called Zicatela). We had intended on spending 4 days here but checked our calendar and decided on a fifth night.

After being in cool climates around Mexico city the temperatures were soaring here again, in and around 35 deg C at its hottest. The five days were nice and relaxing and neither of us got up to a whole lot. The town was nice and laid back and hasn´t turned into a real resort beach yet so still attracts the backpackers and surfers. It had recently been battered by a hurricane and by recently I mean 4 weeks ago. The government acted quickly and cleaned up the area. When we arrived there was only evidence of the damage if you were looking out for it.

The day after we arrived we took a surfing lesson. Isabel was pretty proud of herself as it was her first time out so far in the ocean making good use of her swimming. The lessons weren´t great but it was good fun to be out trying to catch the infamous waves on the Oaxaca coast. Back further up the beach the real surfers hung out catching much more massive waves. One of the days we just lay on the Zicatela beach watching with awe the power of these waves. Whatever the shape of the shelf the waves that form are extremely large. We also took it handy that same afternoon and lay about in hammocks which is a new found hobby of mine.

The only other activity we took part in was a day trip to Masunte... it was another beach. Unsurprisinly we lay around reading and... laying around. Hanging out on the beaches of Mexico is really tough work.Although it was very very hot so by that token it was sometimes difficult.

Puerto Escondido has a market every night on it´s main street. Most of the items being sold are more or less the same as we have seen everywhere else in Mexico at this stage. It added a nice atmosphere to the main street and it was also nice not to have every vendor trying to shove something in your face.

The area is nice and chilled out and obviously I thoroughly enjoyed the chilling out. I can imagine that Puerto wouldn´t be everybody´s cup of tea. It´s slightly off the beaten track, even though there are regular buses there all the time. Now after saying that I´m thinking that it is also an extremely popular place for those on the backpack trail. It´s well known for people to stay for up to months here but unless sand and surf are your things a shorter trip might be more recommended. We both liked it so maybe deciding for yourself would be best.

From Puerto Escondido we did what many many backpackers have done before us, we took an overnight bus to San Cristobal de las Casas (where I´m currently typing from). I´d like to clarify I wouldn´t completely classify ourselves as backpackers. Overall we are taking this trip a little more cushier than the average backpacking trip in my opinion. I guess some days we are some days we aren´t.

The town of San Cristobal is yet another picturesque place we have been too in mexico city. The hostel is as hostel as you can get. Really nice people (some that we met in Puerto) good staff and a great atmosphere to boot. We spent the day yesterday wandering around the town being led by the lonely planet and the map we took from the hostel. After all the sites which we weren´t honestly too bothered about we stopped for some lunch and stayed there the afternoon watching the opening ceremony of the olympics, which we could have done at home I guess. (Oh and it´s quite cool temperature wise here as we are up the mountains.) And then the heavens opened and said "Ronan, you´re Irish, you missed the rain while you were in Puerto, have some to make up for that". We got soaked and plodded back, dried ourselves and ordered some food to be delivered to the hostel (see not backpacky at all).

The day dried up today and we begun anew. Now I feel bad because without checking I have no idea where  we went today. We took a tour with 10 or so others from the hostel to a nearby river and canyon and took a boat trip around it for about 2 hours or so. The views were splendid and I took lots and lots of pictures. Probably won´t get a chance to upload them now... just checked and the name of the canyon was Sumidero Canyon. There´s a nice link for those of you who wish to expand your knowledge of Canyons in Mexico.

Tomorrow we take a bus early to Palenque to see some ruins and then overnight from there towards Cancun and Playa del Carmen. That sentence has put an abrupt ending to this installment, but I will write more next week.