Disco Friday in Mexico and the homestretch before Christmas in Canada

We've had some great snorkeling in this area... one day when we were snorkeling to the neighboring beach, San Agustinilla, a one metre spotted tiger ray swam below us. 

So cool!  A few minutes later a giant school of fish swarmed around us several times. Was great!

Waking up, or maybe I should say, being woken up, has been interesting in Mazunte!  Usually at around 04:30 the first roosters start to crow...not just once of course, they have to answer each other and continue for quite some time.  This early morning wake up alerts the dogs that it is time to bark to the sunrise. When you are finally asleep again, the 06:00 church bells chime 6 times. Then they play some sort of Christmas tune that goes on for several minutes. The church bells ring on the hour all day until 10 pm. Great during the day, just not in the morning!  

These are all kind of regular occurrences but this one morning took the prize...at precisely 05:00, two loud bangs, probably fireworks signaled another very early wake up call. Then, a band started playing. It consisted of VERY loud drums, horns and pipes!!!  It turns out that on this day, Dec 8, is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a celebration recognized by Catholics. The music lasted about 45 minutes...just long enough before the 06:00 church bells rang again!  Ha, the experiences we are having....

Our trip from Mazunte to Puerto Escondido was just great!  We stood out on the road to get our collectivo, or local bus, to the highway when a Canadian fellow we had met earlier in the week stopped in his little VW bug and asked if we wanted a ride. Of course we did!  Then, at the drop off point, another new US friend came to talk to us... such a small world!! 

It's quite a shock being in Puerto Escondido, a big city compared to where we have been for almost a month.




Looking at Playa Principal at Puerto Escondito.


And, of course, there are pelicans waiting to be fed by the fisherman.


There's a wonderful hour or so walk to the neighbouring surf beach called Zicatela.  Great 
rock structures en route...




More pelicans.


Do you see the faces?


Famous hand sculpture facing Zicatela Beach


Zicatela Beach - famous for its surfing.

We've been checking out the local nearby beaches Manzanillo and Carrizalillo and their smaller sizes are much more to our liking. 


Saw a huge turtle in this bay


Manzanillo Beach

The pathway en route along the water to these beaches, reminded us of the Stanley Park Seawall except that it is sculpted out of the rock and winds its way up and down stairs. Quite amazing!




Looking towards Zicatela Beach on the right ...

We ended our last night in Mexico being sung to by a Mexican crooner, in the style of Frank Sinatra and Michael Buble at the beach hotel bar (Rincon Pacifico) where we've stayed the last few days (the hotel, not the bar).  Many songs later, and drinks and mezcal, it was time to say Adiós to the half dozen guests and get organized for the return.  We are packing up for our 12 hour travel day tomorrow via Mexico City, Dallas and Calgary where we get to spend a few days with the kids.

                          Adios to all of you!  It's been so much fun!!!

Just to say a word about the grind of travel... it's almost always the same.....find the bus for out of town, arrive at the next destination, find a place to sleep (we went without hot water for about 3 weeks), places to eat and drink (the drink part was generally not too difficult ) where to get local transport, a place to change $$, things to see and do, and repeat.. . while it might seem a grind or hard, it' s the hard that makes things interesting. We've met great people along the way, locals and travelers. Our day starts without much of a plan...where to get breakfast and after that always seems to take on a life of its own. Grateful for the chance we have to do this...before the retirement home calls our name.  

Have to say, this stretch of the Mex-Pacific coast is fabulous!  People, water, coastline, all amaze and delight.  Small 'funky' towns with wonderful, kind locals makes one see why people who can, end up staying down here!


PS- the disco, 2 doors down, is running full blast....

It's been another fabulous trip with wonderful experiences, people and sites. We hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures as much as we have enjoyed sharing them with you. Thanks for sending your comments along the way...

We will not be sending Christmas cards, so please know that we are thinking about you during this festive season! Feliz Navidad!!!

Much love, always,

Yvonne & Shayne

The beaches....way down south...Zipolite, San Agustinillo, Mazunte.....and more ...

......are fabulous along this coastline.

Zipolite, San Agustinillo, and Mazunte, along with all the little bays around them are spectacular.


 Standing on San Agustonillo beach looking back at Mazunte.  This is where we
snorkelled to and from for several days.  Took about 45 minutes.  So fun!



No crowds, quiet beaches, hot sun. 



All makes for a kind of seductive formula to stay put, rather than move on. 

Swimming among all the little off shore islands has been a treat. Warm, clear waters and tons of fish and...



These jellyfish were only about 3 cm long.  


A little tunnel at San Agustinillo.

Saw a spotted ray in abt 20 ft of water. Just cruised on by..  Schools of fish swarm around us.

- the small bay of San Augustinillo is a favorite, while our place Posada Ziga on Mazunte beach is the best place to eat, drink and watch the sunset. 


Fish tacos or pescadillas!!  Yum!

We even have our own penthouse deck to watch the sunset and the stars...  


Our private perch.



We do need to move on to Puerto Escondido as we fly back to Calgary on Sat Dec 13. 

Wondering if Puerto Es will be as great as the beaches we are on now? 

Might head there soon.  Next week is the feast of Gualdalupe on December 12.

 Sounds like a party and a good excuse to have a hangover for the Sat flight home. Haha.  

Adios Shayne y Yvonne

Zipolite, Mazunte, San Agustinillo ......and drink more for better understanding...Swim little tortuga!

Our final days at Zip have been great but it is time to move on... Yvonne finds the surf a bit hard on her knees and she doesn't like having sand in her suit every time she gets out of the water...

We've had a great time here in Zipolite, especially getting  to know the people at the bar on the rock. Artist Fred Peters showed us albums of his art work. Wow, wish I had the money to buy one!  He's so talented!

Good-bye Zipolite!!!

About 15 minutes up the coast from Zipolite is the next beach town called Mazunte. It is much smaller than Zip but quaint and lovely too.

One of the main streets in Mazunte.

This morning when we had breakfast in town a fellow just placed 2 fish on a table that he wanted to sell. The largest one was a 30 kg sailfish and the other was an 80 cm mahi mahi. We'd never seen these before... the sail on the sailfish was very interesting to see especially when he stretched out the sail, plus the long snout!  This one was almost 2 m long and was considered to be medium to small in size. Ha!

 We found a room for $35 right on the beach at Posada Ziga.  A new experience here was the mosquito netting that we have never had before. For those of you that have never experienced this... this is how it works... Imagine a 4 poster bed... Tied in an x from the top of the post to post is a string. Then tied to the center of the x is a gauze cloth that then drapes over all the four posts to below the mattress with one opening to get into the bed.  It seems to be effective as we had no mosquito bites in the night.

 

Most nights we would go to our upstairs patio and watch the sunset or just sit to cool off.  What a view!!







Mazunte is also famous for the location where "Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, visited Mazunte. The purpose of her visit was to get Mazunte to provide The Body Shop with natural organic materials for the production of their body supplies. However, after some time, the people of Mazunte realised that they too could own and operate their own cosmetics store and of course, families working together is better than one doing it alone, they joined hands and started a cosmetics cooperative."

We've had some good snorkeling here, but as in many of these areas the surf really churns up the clear snorkeling view so I haven't had much luck with underwater photos.
 Drinking and snorkeling is way safer than driving after a few beers. 


We've started swimming to neighbouring beaches, rather than walk the road or take a collectivo. Most of the beaches are around the next point and that means a bit of a snorkel, looking at fish, getting into deep water (abt 10 m plus}. We stick some drink $$ in à baggie, take sunscreen, sunglasses and are good to go for the day. Just have to watch the tide etc and head back before dark. Lots of swim time, way offshore and lots to see under water.

Looking back at Mazunte.

We were lucky enough to hear about a turtle release that was going to be happening one early evening at a neighboring bay called Ventanillo. 






So, off we went in a taxi for 10 minutes to this 20 family village whose members seem to be the protectors of the local turtles. We understand that in the 70's the turtles were so severely hunted that they almost went extinct!  With the banning of turtle hunting they have made a remarkable comeback. When 3 species of turtles come ashore, these villagers take the eggs and move them to a gated area where they re-bury the eggs at 70 cm and tag the hole with the name of the turtle and when she laid her eggs. 45 days or so later they check them to see if they are hatching. 


Protected turtle area. 

Once they are ready, they release them, which is what we were a part of.  We did have to pay 30 pesos each ($2), and the money goes for some of their expenses, we hope!  These little guys were about 4 cm across... it was great releasing them on the sand and watching the waves push them back. We clapped when they were finally successful!! Ha!

.....drink more for better understanding....So, after the success of our little turtle release...Shayne called his little guy (he thinks it's a hombre) Thomas! Go Thomas and away he swam. Brought a tear to the eye..... 

we then decided to do the crocodile tour in the lagoon. After talking with a local about it, we thought we had it all figured out. This was to be a pretty good adventure into the local jungle lagoon to see some wild crocs.  

We'd be able to see some salt water crocs in a lagoon while we paddled canoes. Nope - instead, we spent half an hour being paddled around, looking at jungle foliage, iguanas and birds. 

But, no crocs.  We stopped at a mangrove island and were shown several fenced areas. One did contain a croc. It looked to be alive - but, made no attempt to move.

 Another pen held several dozen baby crocs. 

Other pens held a monkey and deer! Yes! We came all the way down to Mexico to see deer! After that we sat under a palapa and had a beer! Finally, back in the boat and headed back to our starting point. 

As we got out, there in the shallows was a real live, baby croc. .drink more for better understanding... Wise words

Leaving the turtle/croc area we took a truck taxi back to Mazunte... now that 

was crowded and fun as we had to climb up several steps and over the hatch of 

truck that had two benches in it.  It was too crowded for us to sit, so we had to

stand holding on for dear life as the truck swayed back and forth going up a windy 

mountain road.  People would pound on the hood, wall or floor to indicate they

wanted to be let off... we couldn't stop laughing!!!

We found an almost perfect beach at San Àgustinillo. Small, quiet with many small rock islands off shore. It has a stretch of beach with little development. 

Punta Elefante - the point looks like an elephant.

We may end up staying there for a few extra days rather than head into the larger center of Puerto Escondido where we fly to Calgary from. Dec 12 in Mexico, the day before we fly home is a big religious holiday to do with the virgin Guadalupe. Supposed to be parades, music etc. 

Should be interesting! Until next time. 

Adios!  Shayne y Yvonne