Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido

Hey everybody!  I finally got a chance to update my blog after a long 6 days of travelling.  I’m currently writing this as our small group drives back from Puerto Escondido.  The drive from there to Puebla is about 11 hours, so I’ve got plenty of time to write.  (Hopefully I don’t make this too long)

Day 1:

Our trip was fantastic.  As I mentioned in the last blog, our trip started early Friday morning when my host mom, 5 other ND students left for the city of Oaxaca, Mexico.  It was about a 4 hour-long drive, and we arrived around 11am at Monte Albán, an ancient city in the mountains around Oaxaca.  We probably spent around 3 hours there.  It was incredibly beautiful up in the mountains, and examining all the different structures was fascinating.  I think I took well over 100 pictures there, but hopefully you can get a decent idea of it with the pictures I post here.

Great view of Monte Alban

Our group

After Monte Albán, we drove into the city of Oaxaca.  We got some café (coffee), explored some markets with cool handmade items, and then walked through the awesome museum of Mexican history and archaeology which was located in the same area.  It was built inside of a beautiful old monastery in the middle of the city, and was very well put together.  There was way more to see there than we could visit in the few hours we were there, but we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.  After leaving the museum, we spent some more time wandering the city before checking into our hotel.  After we were settled in, we walked to the Zócalo (main plaza) to find some food and see the city at night.  The plaza was decked out with red, green, and white decorations for Mexican Independence Day, and it was buzzing with activity.

Courtyard in the middle of the museum

View from the museum of the adjacent square

We stopped at this market, famous for its nieve, a type of slushy-like ice cream.

My first tlayuda, a crispy tortilla with beans, salsa, cheese, and other delicious stuff

Street performer at night in Oaxaca

Day 2:

Our second day in Oaxaca was packed full of different sites and activities.  Looking back, it might have been my favorite day of our trip.  Oaxaca was just an incredible city.  It’s fairly large, but small enough that you get some of the Mexican pueblo charm.  It’s nestled in the Sierra Oaxaca mountains and full of colorful buildings, so I just wanted to take pictures everywhere.  Also, there are a lot of cultural and culinary traditions in Oaxaca dating back to the many groups of indigenous people who lived in the area.  We experienced a little bit of all these things on our second day, and we were just incredibly satisfied all day.

The beautiful little courtyard at the hotel we stayed at

The start of my breakfast, Oaxaca's traditional hot chocolate and Pan de Yema, a type of sweet bread

Palace and church at Mitla, an archaeological site outside Oaxaca

Inside the palace at Mitla

One step of the production of mezcal, a traditional beverage similar to tequila.

We try some mezcal

Parade in Oaxaca

I found a Colts fan!

Some sights around the Zocalo at night

Day 3:
On our third day, we left Oaxaca early in the morning to head to Puerto Escondido (in Spanish, hidden port), which had been described to me as the surf capital of Mexico.  Three of the six of us ND students had surfed at some point before (I had a short lesson this past summer during my choir’s tour in Australia), so we were excited to have some time to surf and to just relax on the beach. Unfortunately, the drive from the city of Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido (both are in the state of Oaxaca) involved 7 hours of switchbacks through the Sierra Oaxaca mountain mountains.  I think we were all incredibly sick to our stomachs by the time we were halfway to Puerto Escondido.  What I saw of the drive was beautiful, but I spent most of the time curled up in a ball, trying to sleep and praying that I wouldn’t get sick.

That being said, once we arrived and got a glimpse of the beach, we all agreed: vale la pena (roughly, it’s worth the trouble/pain).  Naturally, we stopped for breakfast and coffee (this was common on our trip, Oaxaca coffee is outstanding) at a little café on the beach as soon as we arrived.  There, Sam and I’s host brother Luis met up with us to eat.  He has been in Puerto Escondido for about a week now working on some sort of architectural project.  He was really helpful when we were planning the trip, and it was great visiting him.  He’s hilarious, and really fun to be around.

After eating, we checked into the apartment we were staying in, changed, and then headed off to spend some time on the beach.  Sam and I took the opportunity to get in a quick hour of surfing.  Luckily, the board rentals were pretty cheap (100 pesos, or about $6 for two hours) and the waves were pretty good.  It is currently the off-season for surfing there, which is good, because it meant that we could go out with limited experience and not worry about getting crushed by the massive waves they experience in peak season (I saw some pictures/ videos, and they can be somewhat terrifying).

The time on the beach was a great remedy for our unpleasant driving experience.  It was only made better great end to the day, the rain held off enough for us to watch a beautiful sunset over the beach. 

Mountains on the way to Puerto Escondido

Our fist experience of the beach was a good one

                                 

Sunset on the beach

Day 4:

Day four started off with surf lessons at the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to go back with my camera and take pictures.  You’ll have to take my word when I say that the lessons was an incredibly wonderful experience.  I got some nice tips from our incredibly nice instructors and I got to drift around with my friends, looking back on a beautiful beach.  We even got a little cloud cover in the morning so that we didn’t risk getting too much sun.

After the lesson, we met up with Luis and my host mom for brunch (and coffee).  Then we went back to the beach from the previous day to swim and just relax on the beach for a while with some cocos fríos (chilled coconuts).  Afterward, we spent some time doing homework (gross), but it was in a café on the beach, so I wasn’t too upset about it.  Later, we changed and went out to dinner at this little restaurant that sold pozole, which is sort of like a soup with pork and a special type of corn.  It was incredibly good, and I helped myself to two bowls.  Absolutely stuffed, we headed back to our apartment and hung out on the porch before going to bed.  Overall, a really chill, relaxed day.

Surfers out in the water

The main strip of beach

Enjoying our cocos frios

Day 5:

Much like the previous day, we got up, ate breakfast together, and then went surfing together for a couple hours.  I caught one really good wave which took me all the way to shore.  One of my friends on the trip even got a good picture of it while she was taking a break on the beach.  I look like I know what I’m doing in the picture.  It’s great!  After getting ourselves sufficiently exhausted, (surfing is hard!) we grabbed some tacos (10 for 40 pesos, which is less than $2.50! I love Mexican food prices).  Then we relaxed on the main strip of beach for a little while before going back to the café from the previous day and doing some more homework.  We then went out for a big dinner, where I tried octopus tacos (they were great).  We went back to our apartment to pack and wait for El Grito, (approx.  “the yell”) the kickoff of Mexican Independence day (September 16)at 11:00 on the 15^th.  I don’t understand it super well, but I think people yell ¡Viva México! and typically begin celebrating with music and food.  We could hear a lot of music and there were some fireworks in the distance, but unfortunately we couldn’t see the fireworks because there were trees in the way.  Only slightly disappointed, we went to bed so that we could get up at 5am to head home for Puebla. 

Our boards being waxed before heading out

Sunset from the porch of our apartment

Day 6:

And here I am now, in our van heading back to Puebla.  I was super excited for this trip, and it ended up being even better than I expected.  I’m a little behind on some homework now, but it was definitely worth it.  Vale la pena. 

As always, I’ll have some more updates coming later, although probably not as long as this one.  Thanks for checking in!