Playa Mermejita, Oaxaca

From Mazunte, in the opposite direction to San Agustinillo is Playa Mermejita. Only a short walk over the hill from the main bar strip of Mazunte and there was this raw stretch of beach with a handful of palapas and really not much else.
Jehan, our Canadian neighbour at Posada Kaly had mentioned a few times that we should head over there for sunset one afternoon. Mermajita and the point of the headland were well-known sunset spots so it was certain we would head over eventually to check it out.

Probably worth at this stage explaining a bit about our Posada Kaly Neighbours, Jehan and Robbie. These are the guys who had welcomed us to the balcony on our arrival and had become quite a part of our San Agustinillo experience.
Jehan is this mid-fifties guy who has never let go of his hippy backpacking days. Despite now living in Toronto he still spends a lot of time around Mexico. With long unruly grey hair on top and shaved sides, he clearly loves the social side of what happens around Mazunte. Every chance he got he was inviting himself along to what we were doing.
In contrast was Robbie - a late-fifties property agent and broker who lived in New York City and had brought his work with him to Mexico. While he was stoked to be spending a few weeks of NY winter in the sunshine, he would spend every day set up on the balcony either on his phone or laptop dealing with some problem.
This had been their annual meet-up for a few years so it wasn’t as much of a clash as you’d expect. However as our time went on it was clear Jehan was getting bored and was constantly looking for something to get others involved in.

On the afternoon of the full moon, we followed Jehan’s advice and went down on the promise that we would see the sunset and moonrise simultaneously. Not that I wanted to be right, but my logical brain didn’t really allow for the moon to also rise over the water as he’d promised. With a fair-sized hill directly opposite where the sun would set over the water I was sceptical. As he’d been there before, and was adamant this was the case, we packed some beers and found our way to the beach in time for sunset. As we watched the sun disappear our attention turned to where the moon could be. Needless to say, it was quite a while before we saw the moon. Still a great afternoon out nonetheless.

Not to be disheartened, it was almost the next day that Jehan was suggesting another sunset adventure. This time he was claiming that there was a back way to the Headland, which went a big loop around via Playa Mermajita and tracked back along a few small coves. Besides the adventure, the appeal of this way was that it bypassed the point that security checked people’s bags for beers.

Willing to give him a second chance we set out on another sunset adventure. This time it was a resounding success! We passed around the rocks of a small headland onto the next beach which presented a clear track over the next headland from there. After a short walk through some shrubs we dropped straight onto Playa Cometa - the beach directly under the headland, Punta Cometa. We had packed some beers and a thermos of pre-batched Mezcalita (Margarita but made with the more local form of alcohol made from the Agave cactus, Mezcal). With his “take-everywhere” frisby we played a game while enjoying our drinks and then set up for the main event.

Talk about the perfect day for this hike. The sunset popped!! With just a sliver of space at the horizon between a blanket of clouds the sky lit up incredibly.

We had set up on a log of driftwood and all had our stuff laying around. The waves had been fairly dumpy but hadn’t come close even once at this stage. Just as the light started to fade, a massive wave washed over the lip of sand and through our picnic! Suddenly there were thongs, cans, and bags getting washed back down the beach. And by annoying fluke, just as this happened some police came onto the beach to check that no one was leaving a mess 🤦‍♂️.

As Jehan played dumb about understanding Spanish, and Jessie rescued the bags, I set off chasing empty cans and escaping thongs toward the next crashing wave. Like something out of a Charlie Chaplin movie I’m sure if someone caught it on video then it will be on YouTube with some Benny Hill music playing.

Anyway, we saved everything except for one of Jessies slides which will hopefully make it back to shore one day. Besides that, What a great adventure. Well done, Jehan! Saved yourself with that one 😆Read more