Puerto Escondido

We didn't want to spend much time in the crazy city so we decided to take another night bus onto Puerto Escondido. The ride was awful, so many stops, there must have been hundreds of speedbumps that the bus used its squeally breaks over, it was a rough road with sharp turns, and the driver had the air conditioning jacked. Consquently we did not get very much sleep.
We arrived around 8:30am, put our bikes back together and started out on the search for a hotel and shower. We didn't go far as there was a really nice hotel, Hotel Vista del Puerto, just across the street. The wonderful thing about travelling in the off season is the prices. We paid 250pesos instead of the 650 they normally charge. For food we walked about a block and came to a wonderful restaurant filled with locals. The prices were great and the food was excellent. After that it was time for some much needed sleep.
Later in the afternoon we wandered around town and ended up in a big street market. But it wasn't really crazy which is a nice change from the usually packed streets. They seemed to have everything you could want, so I bought a new watch (hopfully it is as water resistant as they say) and Rigel and I each got goggles for swimming. We bought these very ordinary items at this crazy outdoor/sports/shooting/self defense/camping store. It had everything from watches to tents, t-shirts, and swimming gear to pepperspray, knives, guns of every size, protective clothing, and crazy apparatuses that shoot little silver balls. Its the everything store! And it was so small, maybe 20 feet by 10 feet.

in the mercado

Because we were having such a good time, and Erin was still under the weather, we decided to stay another night. We went back to that same restaurant for breakfast then wandered down to the beach. The beach was about 2km from the post office where we stopped to mail a backup of pictures back to Manitoba. Erin, long frustrated with the hodge-podge bundle on the back of Rigel's bike eyeballed a solution in a duffle bag for sale at one of the many street vendors.  Between that and new shorts for Rigel, we picked up quite a few things!

The beach was beautiful, though jammed full of small tour boats.  There were many families at the mostly still beach.  Most noticeable, however, as we walked in the water along the shore was the generous amount of gold flecking in the sand and sea.  Was it real gold in micro thickness flecks?  If so, there's a lot on that beach!

On the way down we met a couple of fellows that have been dogging our steps and will, it seems, continue to do so for some time. Though, not if it were not for our use of the bus of late. We checked with the bus company and we will have to catch one from San Pedro Pochutla if not here. And we intend to visit some nearby beaches first as it seems people in the region are a lot friendlier than they were further west.  With that we settled in for movies and blogging for the evening before a planned ride for early the next morning.