“Puerto Escondito...”

Two nights in Playa Ventura was nice and relaxing. We went on a nice long walk down the beach to a rock outcrop full of giant boulders stacked upon one another. Closer towards the water we heard a lot of animals making chirping noises from beneath the rocks...bats. So many bats. They were flying around all over the place which was kind of neat. We spent a lazy day on the beach, and met up with Barbara, a retired teacher from Winnepeg spending 4 months in Mexico. Every year she travels, but usually somewhere more exotic like Africa or Asia, but she broke her ankle in the summer and wasn’t sure she’d be healed in time to get a visa, so she headed south. She was a pretty interesting person that Denielle had actually talked to before in Playa Azul. After waking up early this morning, we headed out for Puerto Escondito.
It took us just over 4 hours to get to Puerto Escondito today from Playa Ventura, for 285km. It’s getting a little tiring having to slow down for all the speed bumps in all the little towns. Who puts speed bumps on a major highway every five minutes? Also 2 military checkpoints were encountered, only one of which we had to stop for and answer questions. This was the third checkpoint that we have stopped for, but all went well and we were on our way. We walked around in the heat for a while looking for a place to stay. It’s amazing how much hotter it feels once you get away from the breeze on the beach. The prices jump significantly around Christmas. We found a place up on the hill with a great view of the ocean. It’s crazy just how close the waves break to the shore.
For the first 4 nights we’re paying 25 dollars a night, and then it jumps to 60. Crazy. But we have a kitchen with a full size fridge, a hot plate and a sink, so we’re pretty happy. It’s still cheaper on average than a lot of the other places we have been staying. There’s a lot of little cafes with free wireless internet as well, but we can’t seem to pick any up from our room, so we’ll have to set up shop elsewhere to skype and whatnot.
From what I can tell from the last few hours on the beach, the waves are pretty scary, even though they’re quite small right now. Some sets are coming in head high, and very hollow. They call this place the Mexican Pipeline, as the wave is very similar to Pipeline in Hawaii. It’s pretty busy in the water. I hope that the swell gets really big so I can watch some good surfers. I’ve already seen two get barrelled today. Hopefully I can find a more mellow spot to get in the water so I don’t kill myself.
We’re here for 8 nights to take us right through Christmas, and then it’s on south to Nicaragua. We have to study our route through Guatemala and Honduras a little more. I’m hoping that we can do both countries in one day, as it’s only about 400km, but we’ll see. It all depends on the border, so we’ll probably end up for one night in Honduras.


p.s. check the previous posts as I´ve added new pictures

check the link below to see the map from mazatlan to puerto escondito.

link to map
Tyler.