Bernie's Travels: The Oaxaca Coast

From the city of Oaxaca (pronounced “wahawka”) I traveled west to the Pacific Coast of Mexico, still within the state of Oaxaca. There were a couple of resort towns along the Oaxacan coast but I avoided those for tranquil and funky nature of a few other beach towns. From Oaxaca I took a night bus that winded through the mountains and made it to a small fishing village called Puerto Angel a little before sunrise. I was tired, but it was great to see the fishing docks at sunrise. The town slowly began to come alive and soon I was off to find a place to stay for the night. Puerto Angel is a nice town but there were three other communities up the road that were more appealing for the beach and social scene.

On the way to see the other communities there were a couple of things that stuck out. One of which was the natural gas truck that plays loud annoying music early in the morning to let people know that it is passing. Kind of like an ice cream truck. In most of Mexico, even in the cities, there are no public gas lines so people generally have tanks of gas for cooking and heating water. You see and hear these trucks everywhere.

I stayed in the first town I made it to, called Mazunte. It was a very relaxed place with a beautiful beach for swimming. The first night I fell asleep very early and ended up waking up for the sunrise on the beach. The place I was staying in wasn't particularly nice, but the surf came all of the way up to the second story deck which overlooking the ocean. It was another beautiful place to see the sunrise.

Besides the beach and chill atmosphere the other attraction in Mazunte was the Turtle museum and research center. Ironically Mazunte, and this facility in particular, was a place where up top 50,000 sea turtles were killed a year. The sea turtle is now protected and the turtle slaughterhouse has been converted into a museum and research center ironically dedicated to the conservation of sea turtles.

From Mazunte, which was a little too relaxed and a bit boring being on my own, I decided to travel down the coast to see the other beach towns. After passing another very quiet town I made it to a great place called Zipolite. There it was also relaxed, but had a little more going on. I stayed in a beautiful place right on the ocean. Through my mosquito net I could see the sun filter through the fronds of the coconut trees and hear the crashing waves around the clock. All for 8 dollars a night.

Zipolite was a cool beach lined with thached-roof cabanas and pounding surf. The currents here were powerful and dangerous but the waves were beautiful. I'm a decent swimmer, but still felt the strong undercurrent carrying me out. With the strong currents and at times large waves surfing was very popular here.

In Zipolite I found plenty of friends. With one group I enjoyed a delicious fishfry and with another group we went out for a beautiful seafood meal. The beach was a great time.