Arriving to Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca

Funnily enough, Oaxaca State in Mexico had been recommended to me by my Physio back in Sydney. I’d never heard of it until he came back from a holiday there and was raving about how great it was. For ages, I couldn’t even pronounce it (it’s wah-hah-kah). The state itself is the 2nd most southern state in Mexico and covers some incredible Pacific Ocean coastline. However, like our bus trip from Puerto Vallarta to Mexico City, any possible bus trip around here would be very long and tedious. We scored a cheap enough early flight direct to Puerto Escondido. As soon as we arrived at 8:30 am we felt the warmth of being back on the coast. Perfect! Our research had drawn us to this particular town as it was known as a surf beach with waves that catered to both beginner and advanced surfers. The main town was at the northernmost end of a 3.5km long sandy beach that stretched down to a smaller village called Zicatela. Along with our plan to find somewhere to stay a bit longer term, this would hopefully also be where we could get in some regular surfs.

The early arrival gave us plenty of time to find our way out of the airport. Being quite a small regional airport it appeared that the taxis had established a monopoly on the transport options from there. The fee for a simple 5-minute trip was ridiculous. We had read that if you walked out to the main road you could pick up a cheaper fare. Fortunately, once we got to the main road there was a taxi willing to offer a ride for a third of the first price we were quoted. We took the ride into the main street of Puerto Escondido and found a great little coffee to reset for the rest of the day.

We had booked a cheap cabana at a place down in Zicatela. As we’d learnt from earlier experiences, we had initially booked just for 2 nights. Our idea was that we would check it out and then decide whether to extend our reservation. It had a shared kitchen and was less than a block from the beach. Sounded perfect. A week earlier when I booked it, it had availability for a couple of weeks past our arrival so I was hopeful we would be able to extend once we’d arrived. Because we were arriving so early in the day I messaged the owner to ask if we could check-in once we arrived. The answer I got in return was simply “Check-in is at 3 pm”. From the photos, it looked like there was an outdoor area where we’d be able to do some work and hang out until then. So when we’d finished our coffee we grabbed our bags and made our way towards the Cabanas.

Fortunately, when we arrived there was a bench outside in the shade where we could set up our laptops and do some work. While waiting to check in we met the other people staying there and all seemed like this was going to be great. At 2:30 pm I decided to message the owner and let him know we had arrived and asked how we could pick up the key. This is where it all started unfolding. The owner replied that there had been a mistake with the reservation and that there were no longer any rooms available. Our issue was we had already paid at the time of reservation. So now after sitting and waiting for almost 5 hours, we find out that we don’t even have a place to stay. And this tosser is nowhere to be found and not answering messages or phone calls.

At about 7 pm, I contacted booking.com directly to explain the situation and seek a refund directly through them. While they were extremely helpful, and tried to find us an alternate room for the night, it was already too late and there was nothing we could do. Eventually, a gardener arrived at the property with the cabanas and arranged a tent in the yard for us to stay for the night. Being our only real option, we set ourselves up for an extremly restless sleep. Certainly not how we hoped to start our time here but I guess thats all part of the journey.Read more