Puerto Escondido

Winter quarter is over and now we get to celebrate! For our week off we decided to go to Puerto Escondido on the Pacific Coast. We stayed in Puebla for the weekend to stay for the Puebla soccer game on Sunday. Sunday morning was beautiful and sunny. Kristina went to mass in the cathedral in the centro, and I explored Analco market. Then in the afternoon we went to the stadium for the game. We met up with Ellie, Rochelle and Yessenia and a few of their friends who have a private box in the stadium. Everyone was in blue and white Puebla jerseys. I should probably get one so I can show some Puebla spirit. The game was pretty fun, and Puebla won! The final score was 2-0! The fans get pretty into the action. One part of the stadium was a solid mass of shirtless screaming fans with waving blue and white flags. After the game we got our bags and headed straight to the bus station. We had a bit of time to wait until our 8 pm bus so we grabbed some snacks and then met up with Brittany and Kim. We got on our bus and prepared ourselves for the long journey. We met another intercambio student from Puebla who was sitting behind us. He had just finished his quarter at the UDLA and coincidentally had already met a few of the other girls from our group sometime in a club in Puebla. I tried to sleep most of the 14-hour bus trip, but the curves and jolts made it hard. We arrived the next morning at about 10:30 feeling a bit groggy, but greeted by humid coastal weather. Hopped in a taxi and headed to our hostel.
Our hostel is really tropical with a pool in the center courtyard surrounded by little palapa roof bungalows. The front lobby area has a pool table and couches with lots of retro American posters on the orange painted walls. The pool is shaped kind of like a bowling pin with a little bridge over the bottle neck portion which connects the front lobby area to the inside courtyard and back area patio and rooms. Our room wasn’t quite ready yet so we left our stuff in another room, put on our bathing suits and decided to walk out and find a beach. The hostel is located about a 20 min walk from the beach, but it was totally worth the walk. The nearest beach is the Cove. You have to walk down a steep set of stairs to get to the beach at the bottom of the overhanging cliff. The second we reached the beach we were accosted by tour guides who offer excursions to see whales, sea turtles, dolphins and more. As well as surf lessons available. They were not easily warded off, and came back multiple times throughout the afternoon to make sure we had not changed our minds. The beach was pretty crowded with little restaurants and umbrellas, not at all the sort of seclusion and deserted beach expanses that I am used to in Cabo Pulmo. The water felt glorious after the 20 min walk in the sweltering sun. A few of us ordered some tacos and guacamole while we passed the afternoon on the beach. Afterwards we walked back to the hostel. On the way I stopped at a mini super and bought some avocados, tomatoes and onions and to make some guacamole back in the hostel. Back in the hostel Kristina and I checked into our room, which turned out to be a massive two-bed suite. We only booked for a single bed to share, but I guess they overbooked. So we got an enormous room with a California king bed and a twin bed as well as a private bathroom and patio. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out until about 8 when we decided to go down to the main beach avenue to find some dinner. Got some tacos and then went to a little tiki bar/club later to dance. Then headed back to the hostel to crash after a long day (which began with a long bus journey).
Slept in really late the next day and then went down to the corner store to buy some milk and cereal for breakfast. We decided to check out Zicatela beach for the day so we took a cab back to the general area where we had eaten dinner. The beach was more like a stereotypical boardwalk beach with white sand and beach umbrellas everywhere. The waves crash too big for swimming and it has strong rip tides so swimming was prohibited. We just hung out under the umbrellas for most of the time trying to escape the ruthless sun. The waves were big and daunting, not great for swimming at all. Went pack to the hostel in the evening and hung out at the tiki bar for most of the night chatting with other people staying there. Met some people from Australia and talked to them for a while.
Day three we decided to go back to the beach we visited the first day. We all lay out in the sun a bit too long and received a range of minor to severe sunburns. Luckily I decided to walk back earlier than the rest and only got a bit of burn on my shoulder blades as opposed to the full-body burns the others suffered. At about 5 pm we met up with the hostel owner to take us to a beach where they release baby sea turtles. We crammed into the back of the “bus,” which was just a blue tarp-covered pick-up truck. We walked down to Playa Delphin to find the reserve. Unfortunately they were not releasing turtles that day, however the beach was breathtaking. We got there just as the sun was setting behind the lightly cloud-covered sky. It was worth it just to see the beautiful deserted beach and the sunset. We walked back in the dark to the main road and caught cabs back to the hostel.
On our last day we took a beautiful walk along a stairway that climbed between two beaches. The stairs wound around next to the water with lots of little bridges and small balcony points along the way. It was a really fun walk with lots of photo opportunities. The sunshine was abrasive even though we started our walk around 10 in the morning. We spent the afternoon hanging out in the hostel before catching our bus at 6 pm for the 15-hour bus ride back. I didn’t sleep as well this trip as there were two little children sitting in the seat behind me who kept pulling my hair and crying for a good portion of the journey. We got in at 10:30 the next day feeling a bit disoriented and very exhausted. All in all it was a great trip!