Beach chilling in Puerto Escondido

Our last stop as a group, Puerto Escondido, is a little (pop 30,000) seaside town, popular with surfers and hippies. The heat and humidity here was really intense: in the middle of the day it was hard to do much other than lie in bed with the fans and AC on!

But what a beach! Our local, barely a 5 minute walk, was barely ever full, with soft white sand, blue-green water and great big waves that everyone and their granddad seemed to enjoy getting buffeted about by. The beach was especially magical at sunset, when the heat had subsided somewhat (still a balmy 28 degrees or so).

We found a cafe, El Cafecito, which became our regular: cheap but tasty, especially the crushed-ice margaritas, whose strength varies from "that's got a kick" to "are you trying to kill me?" depending on the whims of the bartender. I also had a michelada, which is a beer poured over something like a Bloody Mary. Was it tasty? I'm still not sure.

Having done and seen lots of things in every destination so far, we decided to slow down, and our days became: breakfast at Cafecito, beach, light lunch, siesta, beach, dinner and margaritas at Cafecito.

Though we didn't pack our days, Albert did try surfing (a good place for it), and the rest of us did a couple of sessions of guided yoga, with varying degrees of success. "I did ask if you wanted active yoga" chided our instructor, after a session left me gasping and streaming sweat, while Orsi looked serene and swanlike.

Sadly, at the end of 3 days it was time to bid farewell to our now-erstwhile travelling companions Albert and Orsi. We'll miss you on the rest of the trip!

-AlexRead more