Life's A Beach

One of the pleasures of travelling is the chance to experience unusual foods, and there's been plenty of opportunity in Mexico.

So far highlights have included mole negro (chicken in a savoury chocolate sauce) wrapped in maize leaves, cream of squash soup, several quesidillas, crunchy thick freshly cooked tortilla chips served with HOT salsa lime and salt, a cocktail of freshly caught octopus, pan de los muertos (bread of the dead), a chilli and pineapple paleta (pictured - basically an ice lolly made of pineapple chunks in a frozen chilli sauce - not nearly as nice as the strawberry version which includes whole strawberries in frozen strawberry cream - yum, yum, yum) and grasshoppers (which strongly taste like grass at the end of summer - which isn't surprising when you think about it). The grasshoppers were crunchy and to be honest after 3 or 4 I'd had enough - but they´re popular in oaxaca - fried in chilli and eaten on their own or wrapped in a tortilla with lime juice. You can even choose which size you want - small and crunchy or big and juicy.

Obviously with all the food alcohol is a necessity - after a few encounters with mezcal (fierce) I'm sticking to tequila, cerveza, capariñas and huge glasses of margarita on the beach (more of which shortly).

Anyway my time in Oaxaca has finally come to an end. After many many nights out with schoolmates in La Divina (a bar next to the Santo Domingo cathedral with great staff, a cool atmosphere and an impressive collection of girls' bras hanging over the bar) I had to prepare to leave.


The last day was a classic and probably the best I had in the city. We managed to sidetrack the teacher from giving us a planned translation exercise during the first class and then she agreed to take us to a bar for the second. There we decided to put our spanish to use by asking each other increasingly intimate questions about our personal lives. It's strange but speaking in a foreign language can be dangerously effective at breaking down inhibitions. Or maybe it was just having a bottle of corona at 11am.

Then went for a great lunch at a place recommended by another of the teachers (Cocina Magica - c/Macedonio Alcalá 203) which included a shrimp salad made with bits of Mexican fruit I´d never tasted before (hmmm - think I´m going to have to start watching the calories). Next played backgammon against Felipe in the zocalo, went to hear a trova (singer songwriter) concert at the city´s book festival, then headed
back to the house one final time where I packed my newly laundered clothes (clean pants - yay!) and said goodbye to several of my housemates (two of whom were also journalists). Bizarrely the Australian couple (Matt and Lucy - on the right) only moved in after I´d replied to a message they´d posted on Lonely Planet, saw my blog and then introduced themselves one morning at the school which they joined on my recommendation. Damn - should be on commission.

The trip from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido was 14hrs on a first class bus with a snoring 40yr old sitting on my left and a screaming baby in the seat in front. Neither prevented me drifting off to sleep after a couple of hours - unfortunately every time the coach banked to the right my head bounced off the window frame - so whatever sleep I got was pretty fitful. By the time first light came up I had no desire to sleep anyway - the view from the window was too good - miles upon miles of forest/jungle with a rich abundance of trees and birds interspersed with small villages where the beer adverts often looked as if they cost more to erect than the shacks the locals live in.

Arrived in Puerto Escondido just after 9am and decided to drag my increasingly heavy suitcase to the hotel rather than shell out for a taxi. Bad idea. The handle snapped, the fabric ripped at the bottom and it weighed a bloody ton. Cursing my ´brilliance´ I stumbled into Hotel Mayflower to be instantly cheered up.

The place is a traveller´s dream - a hodge podge mix of 18-30ish year olds from across the globe - if you read that as being mostly from Europe, N America and Australia (though there was an Argentinian girl there for a short while so I did get to practice some Spanish) -lounging around hammocks, a billiard table and a variety of terraces.

The beaches here are lovely. The town is still at the very early stages of establishing itself as a tourist destination meaning there is still tons of space on the beach, prices are cheap and the atmosphere is very chilled. It started becoming popular just over a decade ago when surfers discovered Playa Zicatela had the perfect pipeline to create curls they could ride or body board - which basically means the waves are big.

The currents mean non-surfers can only wade in the shallows on this beach unless they want an impressive view of the town from a couple of miles out to sea before the rip tides finally drag them under. However the waters of Playa Principal and Playa Marinero (a 20min walk along a wonderful exposed path carved into/adjoined to the cliffs) provide more than enough opportunity to swim or at least bounce up and down in the sea.

During the day theres not much to do except sit back, chill out, watch crabs crawl over the rocks, huge wingspanned birds fly overhead and crazy tourists fall out of the sky (there´s a skydiving centre nearby - looks fun but to be honest it doesn´t mix well with the finger licking king prawns cooked in garlic served at Lisa´s beach bar - OK, OK the diet starts here).

Since arriving I´ve met 3 people I´d met earlier on the trip in Mexico City and Oaxaca which seems weird bearing in mind how huge Mexico is, but I guess proves many people follow a similar trail. I guess this will change when I fly up to the north of the country next week.

Running out of things to say now - and it´s cooling down outside (it was HOT HOT HOT earlier) so time for a shower and to prepare for the evening. Just time for a last quick word about books.

After stocking up on new title in Oaxaca - and then discovering it´s now near impossible to carry all my bags - I´m racing through the collection at the moment. Finished Middlesex in Oaxaca - highly recommended, never thought a book about an American-Greek haemaphrodite would be so gripping - thanks to Miriam Lea for the gift as I´d never have chosen it myself.

Also read ´The Wisdom of Crowds´ a ´Tipping Point´-type of book which claims that given the right circumstances large groups of the public should always deliver more accurate predictions than a collection of experts (interesting anecdotes but some of the claims seemed a bit shaky), ´Like Water for Chocolate´ - an amusing and brief story of a love affair set about 100yrs ago in Mexico which is interspersed with traditional recipes, kind of Garbriel Marquez-lite - and am now half way through ´China Inc.´which is a fascinating and well written account of how China has become such a huge economic force and what consequences it has for the future. Mind expanding stuff.

OK been here WAY too long (does anyone ever make it to the end of these posts anyway?) - time to go back to my room and discover if the bloody big creature (lizard/spider/scorpion/rat???) that jumped out of my rucksack and disappeared under the drawers is still there - more in a few days time (I hope!)....