January 29, 2017 – Puerto Angel, Zipolite, and Mazunte.
It’s been a while since our last post. We’ve gotten more involved in the social scene here, which means volleyball three times a week, Deb’s yoga sessions and Spanish classes, our bird-watching (birds are social), and a few other things. Or maybe we’ve just been procrastinating! In any event, we’re both starting to feel the need for a bit of adventure in our lives, so we’re going to visit Deb’s good friends in Zipolite! There are several ways to do this, but few of them are straightforward. The closest bus goes to Pochutla, and then you have to take a taxi or collectivo, as the road down to Puerto Angel is too twisty-windy for a bus. Too windy for a Mexican bus driver? Yikes! So I did the smart thing and rented a car, which will allow us to explore the place properly.
This is the third rental agency I have used here, and a very carnivorous bunch they are. I rent on the internet from the rental company, which generally results in an all-in cost of $20-$25 Cnd., or 300-400 pesos. However, the locals simply refuse to honor my existing 3rd-party, collision damage waiver, etc, so no matter how much I hold my breath and kick my feet, I am going to pay 900-1100 pesos ($55-65 Cnd.) Once I got that through my thick head, it got easier. The only big difference is what kind of car they will have, and how hard they will try to ding me for ‘damage’ to the car when I bring it back. If you’re ever down here, rent from Hertz at the airport. Best price, good cars, very professional service.
Not to mention that getting your car is an adventure! The cars are at the airport – and you are not. You COULD hire a taxi to take you out there for $10-12, but where’s the fun in that? The proper procedure is to get the local bus from in front of our apartment (5 pesos), get off at Centro in Crucecita, walk across the street to another bus stop, get on the local bus to Santa Maria (9 pesos), get off at the intersection to the airport, walk in 400 metres, and pick up your car from the rental desk. Except…the car rental desk is on the ‘arrival’ side of the terminal, and you…Can’t…Get. ..There. I know this because a very large man with an assault rifle explained it to me in excellent Spanish. The good news: because I had rented the car on the internet, I had the rental agreement on my phone, and once the VLMWAAR walked my phone into the rental people to confirm I wasn’t a Canadian terrorist trying to infiltrate the airport, I was allowed to swim upstream through ‘arrivals’ to the rental desk. Later, I found out that there is a little McDonald’s takeout window on the side of the terminal where you can do the dirty deed without going inside, but did anyone explain that in advance? Noooooo.
In any event, I was back in town, Deb loaded up, and ready to go by 10 am. The highway to Pochutla (Poh-chewt-la) is in good shape, but most of it is very windy, 60-70 kph is a good average speed. About half of it is a 2-lane highway that everyone treats as a 4-lane because the shoulders are wide enough and everyone pulls over to let the faster vehicles by. The other half is really, really 2-lane, and when (not if) you get behind a bus, semi, or farm truck, you are down to 40 on the hills and there ain’t no passing. So, just relax and watch the world go by! The road down to Puerto Angel is definitely twisty, lots of curves down to 20-30 kph, but the pavement is good, it’s only 10-15 kilometres, and eventually we got there.
Puerto Angel (Pwert-oh An-hell) is a cute little town, perhaps 2 blocks by 5 blocks, all tucked into a very pretty little bay. The beach is right downtown and shared with the fishing boats; there are locals catching fish with hand-lines off the dock, and it’s all good. I think we could stay there for a while, but long-stay would be a bit much as there isn’t a lot of ‘amenities’ there….
Puerto Angel beach and harbor, with a pier on the left.
…and from the end of the pier.
Onward to Zipolite! (sip-o-lee-tay) Except it isn’t marked with like a sign or anything, that would be way too easy. Somehow, Deb picked out the right turnoff, or we’d probably still be driving. Then came the fun part. When I asked for the directions to the condo, it turned out to be ‘look for this restaurant and turn left, it’s on the beach’. After much peering, we found the restaurant, but the rest of the directions simply didn’t work. Somehow, by luck, we found out that we were supposed to turn left BEFORE we found the restaurant (don’t think about that for too long), and then everything worked. The girls have a nice condo at ground level right on the infinity pool, which looks out on a beach full of naked men. OK, now I know why they stay here!
Their lovely little pool looking out on the beach.
Pretty soon, it was time for Comida, so we all headed downtown to a place that the girls liked, which turned out to be very good. Zipolite is perhaps 4-5 blocks long and stretches 3 blocks back from the beach, but the restaurants, hotels, and shops are pretty much all on the first street.
A very pretty group of ladies on a very pretty little street.
We found their theatre, the Firefly Theatre, with a listing of the upcoming movies and events. The place is very laid back and definitely catering to the younger surfer and bohemian crowd, which is OK. We can pretend to be young bohemian surfers for a couple of hours.
Zipolite Beach.
Then it was time for a walk on the beach. Zipolite has an excellent walking beach, perhaps a kilometer long, with surfing down at the south end and calm swimming at the north end. The north end is also the nude beach, which makes sense as piloting a surfboard through ten-foot waves with your unit dangling in the breeze is probably not Work-Safe-Approved…
By the time we got back to the condo and the ladies had recovered their equilibrium, it was time to head on down the road. The next beach community along the road is San Augustinillo. (Awgo-steen-eel-yo) It’s pretty much built along the highway, with a very pretty beach, and we were just in time for the sunset, more or less. The cobblestone street is really narrow, and no buses will stop. The single road through town curves and turns with bougainvillea spilling over iron fences & front gates. Last year, the hydro wires were relocated below ground, giving nicer viewpoints. There are a few restaurants, but the only time the groceries can arrive is in the middle of the night because of the narrow streets.
Sunset at San Augustinillo.
This is San Augustinillo, the beach is on the left.
Then came Mazunte, which is home to a turtle rearing and releasing facility.
Always room for one more!
We never made it down to the beach because the streets are really narrow, people are everywhere, and there’s absolutely no place to park. Deb snapped the photo on the way out of town.
Looks like a pretty nice little town, and the turtle place is definitely worth a couple of hours, but sadly, it was too late in the day for us, and time to get back to the main highway for the one-hour drive in the dark back to Huatulco. I was nervous about driving back in the dark as my night vision is pretty much a thing of the past, but I thought, ‘What the heck, how hard can it be?’ It was hard. If you don’t know the road, it’s almost impossible to pass the slower vehicles, and if you don’t, you just create a parade of impatient drivers, and tailgating is mandatory, and it just all really sucks. I’m not doing that again.
Eventually, we got home, and we soaked our anxieties away in a nice bottle of wine. So, very nice little communities along a stretch of beautiful beaches, a very nice piece of the world indeed!
Remember, to view the photo’s click on them & they should enlarge. Let us know if they don’t. Ciao…