Thursday, December 9, 2010

Oaxaca, puerto Escondido and zipolite travels

After Puebla we went to Oaxaca (pronounced wah-har-ca) - capital of Oaxaca state, a city known for it's artisan goods and cafes. We stayed an extra night because I got sick, but this meant we were able to cross paths w our third Sydney roomy Julia - she is also en tour in mehico and and centro americano!! Lots of fun and we did way to much shopping for local
goods - Maya and Lizzie doing our best to support the oaxacan economy!!

Eventually we made our way to the coast - via a torturous 8 hr bus journey which wound it's way from inland Oaxaca to puerto Escondido on the pacific coast. Our bus broke down once and we literally drove along a windy road (a la road up to MT buller) for 4 hrs straight - complete with one vomitting passenger and pot holes galore! Joy! Finally made it and much to out relief - it was well worth it.

Puerto Escondido is a chilled out seaside village, full of surfers, backpackers and a fun nightlife! We came cross some friends of mine from melbourne staying in the same hostel - which made for a tequilla-fuelled dinner and a night out at the local salsa club! The beaches were also beautiful - they are known for big surf in June/July but the swell is pretty small at the moment apparently...we stuck to the swimming beaches which were amazing- so relaxing! Very warm too - I am trying to get rid of my ghostly moon tan, but proving difficult!

After two nights we made our way further along the coast to Zipolite - a hippie beach village...it was the most chilled out place Maya and I had ever been to...nothing in the town opens before 2/3pm, everyone is a hippy (or trying to be), everyone smokes pot (our welcome gift in the hostel was a joint from owner Daniel?!) and no one ever knows the time of day.  

It was amazingly relaxing though, we lounged about on the beach, met lots of cool people, enjoyed our 'welcome gift', read, lay in hammocks, I sipped coconuts (hippies told me the electrolytes in coconuts would purify and rebalance my sick body?!!), listened to some awesome live music and ate delicious whole fish (my one venture away from my gastro recovery staples of crackers, bananas and Gatorade...yummy!!)  We even met a lovely yoga instructor who taught us yoga on the beach.

Forgot to mention though that the zipolite beach is actually a nudist beach. So one morning Maya and I were reading peacefully on our balcony - only to hear some guy screaming and shouting from the beach below. Turns out he is completely starkers, frollicking in the shallows and dancing to the sun gods - having the absolute time of his life as he splashes about in the waves - clearly with some sort of herbal help!! Lots of other nudies about but unfortunately they were mostly old men which we found a tad disturbing...

Will try not to leave you with that image in your minds - instead knowing that we made it out of the hippie zone, and into the infamous Chiapas region to see the palenque ruins and San christobal town!

More on that next,

LiZZie
Xx

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