Life's A Beach

We left the beautiful city Oaxaca - probably our favourite in Mexico as it's stuffed full of old buildings, artisan wares, and incredible eateries. Before we could leave I had to make a mad charge to an artisan market on the far side of town to buy a painted jaguar head, which we both wished we bought the day before.

We headed pretty well due south, aiming for the beach. Progress was a little slow as we had to stop at every major artisan market on the way, buying some beautiful black pottery that only comes from one small area. We also visited an incredible workshop where the guy has won awards for his wonderful wood creations. Although they were a bit out of our price range, the family was lovely and gave us a guided tour.

Despite the early crazy traffic (standard fair for a large Mexican urban area) the road was pretty decent and we made good progress before we hit the hills separating us from the coast. We were fairly tired after quite a wild night (in a club mixing a live band, singer DJ in a cacophony of noise) so we stopped off at a little mountain village for the night. Something was pretty weird about the place with a lot of very grungy travellers, which we haven't seen anywhere else on the trip, but we had a quiet night parked up at the town hall with fantastic views across the valley. We later learned the place was famous for its magic mushrooms, which explained a lot of the glassy eyed gazes!

The next morning we lost over 2,500 metres in a windy 100k or so, and despite being in first gear a lot of the time the brakes were smelling pretty toasty. We stopped for an early lunch at an Argentinian parrilla (grill) place for fabulous lunch then cruised into the surf town of Zipolite. The waves were 12 foot plus at times and a huge undertow meant you were taking your life into your own hands if you ventured into the water, so we spent a lazy couple of days relaxing by the pool and on the beach.Read more