Puerto Escondido and Surrounds, Oaxaca

We finally made it out of zipolite (but didn't go far).  And...it was only 2 weeks later than we thought we’d leave.  Jen finally caught the mechanic grabbing his morning beer and made sure he was swinging by in the afternoon and that confirmed yet another day sticking around.  We don’t mind, it was quiet and peaceful and we aren’t sure there's anywhere else we could live for cheaper.

The mechanic and his mexican colleague show up late in the afternoon and have a look at the bus.  Run through the same drills i’ve been doing for weeks and that every other mechanic has done.  He gives us the second opinion that we hoped he wouldn’t- the head is starting to wear and will need to be retooled at some point.  He also tells us that we are likely fine to finish our journey (as long as we don’t mind not knowing where it might happen to need retooling).  We make a mental note to consider doing the work before leaving mexico but still have to figure out how much time we have have left in mexico first...    When we crossed back into the country from guatemala they issued us new tourist visas.  We get to stay for another 180days (and are certain we could easily do just that).  Problem is, they neglected to update our vehicle permit- meaning that E doesn’t get to stay.  Unless we can figure out a creative way to get the permit renewed, we have to be back at the border and back in guatemala by valentines day.  Not a huge deal, except our hearts were a bit set on driving further up the pacific coast first.

We are now in Puerto Escondido, home to some of mexico’s biggest waves.  Not currently as it’s low season, but the occasional thunderous boom from the direction of the water reminds us how epic these waves can get from time to time and we can only imagine what it must look like in high season.  We drove through town and grabbed a taco (our most expensive in mexico) off the main tourist beach, and as we suspected- it was all a bit too much for us. We enjoyed the taco and OJ, but discussed making it only a day trip and heading back to calmer points south.

Luckily, someone pointed us to a camping spot at La Punta (the southernmost point of the bay Escondido fills) and we drove down to check it out.  Definitely more our style.  You can see the bustling energy of Escondido down the other end of the beach, but over here its quiet, calm and quite a bit cheaper.  It definitely feels the tourists, and you can sense things coming this way rapidly.  The backpackers and tourists all trying to figure out a way to stay are opening tiny pocket bars, coffee shops and sushi joints anywhere they can find a little nook that they think will hold their dream.  We enjoy it, and it gives us plenty of places to stop (and eat) and talk with them about their space and their dream as we walk around town.

We don’t have the benefit of the wind tunnel effect we had in zipolite and have become really aware of just how hot it is this week.  104 inside the bus this afternoon and it had to be higher in the peak of the day.  Hard to imagine our friends snowboarding this weekend and drinking a steaming apres drink.  We can barely get the frig to run strong enough to make us cubes for our evening tequila toast, and we are sweating 24/7.

We did work up a sweat in the right way this evening however.  As we returned to our campsite along the beach we managed to weasel our way into a locals' volleyball game.  Not a huge window to play in between the unbearable sun and encroahing darkness, but we lived up every second of it.

Tomorrow we head in to the airport to see if customs/immigration can do anything to help with our vehicle snafu.  If not, we point back south and wander our way back to Guatemala.  Not exactly how we planned it, but that's okay- we hear they have beaches there too.