Santa María Huatulco

We visited a community co-op eco-tourism where they are trying to preserve the mangrove forest and all the associated flora & fauna by taking people on tours. Our boat weaved through the mangroves and saw parrots, herons, turtles & huge iguanas, which were orange due to it being mating season. We then landed on the island & were slightly alarmed when our guide started to lure a huge crocodile out of the water - it was over 4 metres long & there was no cage or fencing between us! We were really impressed with the efforts being made especially since a storm a few years ago destroyed 80% of the mangroves, so they even had a mangrove nursery which volunteers use for replanting.

After giving a few backpackers a lift back to town we headed down the coast to a beach which promised to be less developed and have calm seas for swimming and snorkeling. Oh boy did it deliver - San Agustín is a stunningly beautiful bay with commodores (rustic restaurants) strung along the sand and a massive shallow coral reef. Nothing much happens here, a few buses bring in Mexican families and a few gringos are boated in during the day, but by sundown everything closes down and there's just a couple of gringos in vans and the locals.

The biggest drama was sitting outside the van having breakfast one morning when everything started shaking - we were having an earthquake! We also realized that there had been one in the night which had woken me up but I had thought someone was shaking the van - I had even checked no one was trying to steal the bikes off the back!

We've been away from the coast for quite a while and as this is one of the most idyllic beaches we've stayed on. It's a perfect blend of little restaurants and locals living a happy life. The snorkeling is amazing and we had a fantastic experience watching mini explosions of fish mating, all the time surrounded by larger fish looking forward to some tasty caviar!

We had no choice but to stay as long as we could before our supplies ran low and we were driven from this fantastic hidden spot. Definitely on our 10 ten beaches in the world, and considering our itchy feet tendencies that's some list!En savoir plus