OÁXACA STATE - HUATULCO - GREEN PEARL OF THE PACIFIC

 

Our circular two-month route of Oáxaca state started in the beach town of Puerto Escondido, and so it ends in the beach town of Huatulco (except that we return briefly to Escondido to fly home).

The ADO bus trip was comfortable and uneventful.

Bahías de Huatulco is known for its pristine nine bays and thirty-six beaches.  In pre-Hispanic times, various indigenous groups utilized the bays for food, salt extraction, the harvesting of a marine snail to make a rare purple dye used in sacred textiles and as a regional first line of defence.

When the Spanish arrived, they established Santa Cruz Bay as a commercial port for trade with Peru and Asia.

Today, Mexico markets it as the anti-Cancun place to be, tranquil and uncrowded, with plenty of green space.  We have two weeks here and settle into an apartment in 'town', La Crucecita.

La Crucecita is a planned town, laid out in sectors.  We stay in sector M, a residential area known for its quiet and green spaces.  The building has a huge rooftop sitting area where we enjoy early mornings and evenings.  

In the green space across the street, we are reacquainted with birds from our days in Tulum.  Green parrots fly overhead; the large and raucous chachalacas sound off at dawn and dusk; the kiskadees skim the pool in the back, and the white-throated magpie wags its head feathers and sounds as jays do.  Flashes of brilliant yellow on black introduce us to a new bird: the yellow-winged cacique.

We can walk from Sector M to most places we want to go, and taxis are reasonable to go from one sector to another.

Walking is a bit tricky in some areas as the mature seed pods from the Elephant Ear tree litter the ground.  They are as big as the palm of my hand.  I have not seen these before, and am struck by their beauty.  On the left are the unripe pods still on the tree, and on the right is one lying on the ground.

This is a time of relaxation for us before heading home, so we mostly prepare our own food and don't go shopping for souvenirs or take day trips.  A blogger has documented much of that information:

Tours from Huatulco are many and varied, restricted only by interests and bank accounts, some going to Puerto Escondido and beyond.

Sector H, the town center, is a 25-minute walk.  The zocalo here is a shady, restful place surrounded by shops, restaurants with authentic food, the local Mercado de Artesanías, and Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de la Guadalupe.

The photos below are of the parroquia.  In 2000, muralist José Ángel del Signo painted the ceiling with the world's largest image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.  That and other images on the walls have been described as ''psychedelic''.

In this mural, the Virgin is pregnant with fetal Jesus, portrayed in blue.

From our apartment, we can walk to Playas: Santa Cruz, Entrega and Chahue.  

Chahue is beautiful and largely undeveloped.  The beach is vast and open, lovely for walking, but its undertow is so strong that swimming is not advisable.  It will likely be developed with big resorts and condominiums with big swimming pools.  

Playa Entrega is described as a family beach.  We spend half a day and are eager to leave.  It's very busy, with restaurants, people, and water activities with boats that come right alongside the swimming area.  At the taxi drop-off site, entrepreneurial locals have beach umbrellas and chairs that you can rent for a reasonable price, as there are no others on the beach.

Then we find Playa Santa Cruz.  This is the main beach and the transit zone for taxis to other beaches.   It becomes our happy place, so we don't even bother looking at the other six beaches.  The cruise ship port is here, and in the entire two weeks that we are here, not one ship comes in.

We go to the far end of the beach, away from the cruise ship dock.  We can sit all day at a chair and table, and the servers are happy if we order a drink every once in a while, or something from the menu to share - no pressure.  We are here in the off-season, and perhaps it is different in the main tourist season.  The tables are mostly empty; the bored servers love to chat and joke around; the sea is calm, sandy and warm ... perfect.

On the way to the beach is a plaza with places to sit, a cafe, some shops and on one Sunday, a market with goods and music.

RANDOM PHOTOS

In both Puerto Escondido and Huatulco, we see a lot of these Volkswagens called the Thing.  They are otherwise unusual.

 One of our favourite murals in Huatulco, especially liking how the roof is incorporated into the painting as a beach hat.

And the armadillo at the beach ...

We divide grocery shopping between the big Chedraui store near the apartment and walking to another sector where there are small local markets, including fishmongers.  

Mussels are so inexpensive that we have this simple, but deluxe meal twice: mussels, wine, and bread.

The beets in this market near the fishmonger are as big as softballs.

These are the only beaches in Mexico we have been to that rival the quality of sand and water in Southeast Asia. We would return for both the beach and more of Oaxaca City and the Central Valley.

PUERTO ESCONDIDO - AGAIN

Under normal conditions, it is a two-hour drive to Puerto Escondido.  It's another road with steep curves, lots of twists and speed bumps as well as pedestrians, stray animals and agricultural vehicles to deal with, so I ''gravol-up".  

The highway is torn up and under construction for many kilometres, so it turned into a 3-hour trip with ADO.

This time we stayed in the Rinconada neighbourhood.  It's further north than other places we stayed (and closer to the airport for departure), but we can still walk back to Zicatela.  We don't bother with any beach time, just lots of walking.

Our apartment this time is on the top floor of a house, again with a good-sized deck and this view:

In another direction our gaze falls on this unusual building that we guess is a vacation rental, but we never see anyone there.  Perhaps it's a private mansion.

Walking around brings the discovery of the Santa Madre Iglesia Catedral on the edge of the neighbourhood.  It seems cavernous, partly due to its open architecture:

On a pedestrian walkway over the highway on the way to Chedraui, this view is a treasure.  You can see Play Principal, all the way south to the curved tip of Playa la Punta.

Passing through Play Principal, all the hallmarks of a party are there - shelters on the beach, people picnicking, music, kids running around - and suddenly we realize it's a fishing derby.  It's hard to imagine catching a fish in this surf.

That's a wrap.  We enjoyed the couple of days back in Puerto Escondido and will finish with some street art that we missed seeing the first time around: