Bus To Oaxaca Pacific Coast Beaches

SATURDAY, MAY 12, 2012

Bus To Oaxaca Pacific Coast Beaches

Playa Cometa, Oaxaca Pacific Coast Beach near Mazunte

 Oaxaca Beaches:

· Huatulco

Huatulco is a relatively new resort area created by the government from the nine bays and 33 beaches in the area. The town of Crucicita is a tidy little place and offers an ADO bus terminal, a second class bus terminal, and lodging, clubs, restaurants and shopping around the small square. In the winter months, cruise ships visit and moor in  the harbor of Santa Cruz, a short distance away.

See Huatulco for more details on lodging, golf, beaches, hiring a cab by the hour.  

The small Huatulco ruin site called Copalita displays artifacts from the State of Oaxaca and from the site on the coast by the river.  A fee of 100 pesos is  charged for entry.  Other ruin sites such asMonte Alban and Teotihuacan are more representative of Mexico's ruins, they have splendid museums of local artifacts, and showcase the splendor of Mexico’s ancient cities. 

Reach Huatulco from Oaxaca City via OCC Bus , ADO with stops in Pochutla and Puerto Escondido.  Sur Buses run regular service to Escondido along with Futura buses and Alta Mar, divisions of Estrella Blanca that serve first class passengers along the Route 200 bus route between Huatulco and |Puerto Escondido. 

OCC buses also leave Pochutla for the 12 hour, 440 Peso trip toSan Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas.

· Puerto Angel Beaches:

Reach Puerto Angel via taxi or collective taxi from the town of Pochutla. The collective taxi runs hourly from in front of the church, about two blocks east and three north of the bus station.  OCC buses, Sur Buses,  and local buses based in Huatulco stop in Pochutla as they run up and down the bus routes on coastal Route 200, the road between Huatulco and Puerto Escondido.   Estrella Blanca Bus Line runs the bus route also with Futura Buses and Alta Mar Buses that run bus routes between Acapulco and Hualtulco  with stops in Puerto Escondido, Pochutla, and Huatulco.

• Taxis, Collectivos

The private taxi to the beach towns from Pochutla cost 100 pesos, Zipolite Beach, Colonia Roca Blanca for instance, half way between Puerto Angel and Mazunte. 

If you group with other travelers you can save; the taxis charge by the trip not by the number of people.  
The alternative transportation from Pochutla to the beach is the Colectivo Taxi, or the Camioneta.  These are the budget options.  The colectivo is a shared taxi costing 15 Pesos and leaving from the church and running down main street of Pochutla.   The camioneta is a pickup truck with a covered bed. It costs ten pesos per person, a budget but uncomfortable ride; an experience, however.  

• Puerto Angel

Puerto Angel is the first town you passs as you go northwest along the road at the coast from Pochutla.  Puerto Angel offers a beachside hotel at 400 peso per night and several other hotels nearby.  Snorkel, scuba, and sightseeing boat tours leave from Puerto Angel.  
Sightseeing tours leave from Playa Panteon, a calm water beach where you can swim and snorkel.  In front of the hotel, two tour agencies offer four hour whale watch, dolphin watch, boat tours with visits to four secluded bays along the coast.  See area dining Dining Zipolite   

Zipolite Beach, dawn

· Zipolite Beach

Zipolite beach is a nude optional beach a few miles west of Puerto Angel noted for its sunrises and sunsets. Nudism is not legal in Mexico but is allowed on Zipolite Beach.  Budget lodging, beachside posadas, beach camping, surfing, laundromat and good restaurants like La Providencia and Piedra del Fuego make Zipolite a good visit. See Zipolite pages

Next page Oaxaca Beaches Continues,  Mazunte

The history of mothers day and a tribute to activist mothers from the past and the present.

Viva Veracruz & Viva Puerto Escondido Musings from and about living in Mexico Cart Courtliness

Cart Courtliness

MAY07
201216 COMMENTS AND 0 REACTIONSWRITTEN BY JOHN CALYPSO

It has been a week since we have written from our recent arrival in Xico. We mentioned we were going to talk some gossip – which we will do.

But first an observation that was inspired from reading my Blogging amigo Steve Cotton’s entry today:

“Courtliness….And it is a trait I long ago associated with the Spanish. A trait that has been inherited — to one degree or other — in the Mexican culture.”

This baffled us as it most assuredly is NOT an inherited characteristic to any degree within the Mexican culture where we live – neither in Xico or Puerto.

Not to stereotype an entire country, but after living here seven years we feel we can write with some authority that rudeness is very much a way of life here. Much of it is thoughtless rather than premeditated, but rudeness it is. Take yesterday for instance.

We do not often venture to Xalapa as the traffic and lack of ease of getting around a very complicated street layout quite simply makes us want to avoid visiting. However there are things that plainly are otherwise unobtainable without heading into the BIG city.

We chose Sunday as the traffic is a bit less; however the shoppers are probably in greater force; which brings me to the point. In spite of visiting U.S. origin outlets like Home Depot, Sam’s Club and Superama (a higher end Walmart, owned by Walmart), where you might expect to encounter a higher-end group of shoppers, the rudeness and inability to manage what we will call proper shopper decorum permeated yesterday’s shopping experience.

Cart management quite simply does not exist in the Mexican lexicon. It is not just that they leave their carts blocking isles; it is as if they setup their carts in blockade fashion with full intent. Most often the operators of these offending carts are nowhere to be found. Of course this allows us a greater freedom to re-park their wayward carts, but it remains oh so frustrating and bewildering as to why they cannot figure out that others might need to pass? Or how simply maneuvering their cart in an orderly manner might help move things along for the collective shoppers.

Then there is the incredible gall of interrupting a conversation with a salesperson. More often than not while in mid conversation the Mexican shopper will simply angle his way in front of you and begin a dialogue with the salesperson as if you simply do not exist – huh?

They cut in line with the clever posture of avoiding eye contact as a means of not taking responsibility for such rudeness. To add to that irony other Mexicans in line do not complain. Apparently this is left up to the very frustrated gringo. We should add that they also use eye contact avoidance to do very stupid car tricks – we have filed that complaint herein several times.

The bottom line is proper shopping decorum left the building or never existed since way before the Calypsos invaded Mexican turf. You will get used to it or deal with bulging veins, most assuredly. This is not to say fighting back a little without much anger hasn’t satisfaction. Yesterday we moved an offending cart straddled across an isle in Sam’s Club noticing approval and a shared frustration from a fellow shopper (a Mexican national at that). Chalk one up for international relations.

Our aforementioned amigo Steve is on a world cruise; something the very green Calypsos would never do – or could we afford – would that be an inclination. We live this cruise vicariously through Steve’s wonderfully written Blog.

We commented back relating to his comment about Mexican courtliness: “Our differing parts of Mexico must be showing. We find the Mexican people particularly rude relating to letting the other guy go, giving way and courtesy in lines etc. Our experience is an ‘every man for himself’ and harsher conduct here in our parts of Mexico; virtually no refined behavior.
Oh and the way they operate their shopping carts! I’ll stop now.”

Now to the gossip which could very well deserve an entry on its own, but we do not like gossip much so it will get a dishonorable mention here: A lot has been written about Mexico cleaning up its baby act. They have improved their population increase numbers dramatically in the last ten years – this is well documented.

But we have to say here in Poor Man’s Shangri-La, in the Hood, the baby production is quite astounding and has to be skewing those numbers. Upon arrival we learned that a large number of the very young ladies are pregnant or sporting a new child – here we are talking children having children in a BIG way.

To really bring it home our very close friends here have a 16 year old son who we have known since he was 9. We well remember the little tag-along chimaco that our now 21 year old son played with early on upon moving here more than 7 years ago.

The boy now has a baby due in July. His new ‘wife’ is living with our friends (his parents) – one and a half more mouths to feed in a small casa supported by one hard working adult. The parents of the expected child are still attending the equivalent of U.S. high school.

Another of our son’s young friends is expecting, another already has a 4 year old. The cute little girl right across the street from us is now living with her ‘husband’; and is currently dealing with a nervous breakdown that has distorted her formerly pretty face. Her mouth has skewed to one-side. She went blind for a time and remains on heavy tranquilizers. We celebrated her 15th birthday just before we headed to Puerto six months ago.

Everywhere we look there are new babies. Mexico has reduced child production from seven something to less than two and a half.

Our friend’s son’s new baby will enter the world with a living great-great grandmother. An all too common circumstance here – do the math – children having children – four generations often living under the same roof. This saddens us. Stay Tuned!

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