DAY 46: PUERTO ESCONDIDO TO OAXACA

Posted on May 12, 2013 by furcoat under Uncategorized

We were both pretty sad to leave Puerto Escondido this morning, but there’s nothing like a six-hour minibus ride through the mountains to take your mind off things…

There are a few ways to get to Oaxaca city from Puerto Escondido: the faithful ADO bus, which takes ten hours skirting the mountains; the very expensive, but no doubt thrilling, 12-seated plane which takes an hour over the mountains; and the vomit-inducing minibus which takes five hours right through the middle of the mountains… Which is the one we chose.

Every review we’d read about the Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca minibus shuttle along Highway 131 said that it wasn’t for those who suffer from a delicate constitution, with countless tales of sick – and as if to prove the point, a child stepped off the bus as we were boarding and threw up everywhere…

And so it came to pass that we found ourselves on a minibus hurtling around hair-pin bends, swerving goats and donkeys, peeking out over vertiginous drops and trying not to look when the driver overtook on blind bends. Actually, most of that is quite normal for the bus journeys we’ve taken in Mexico – this one just had more twists than usual and at higher altitude. We made up an improvised AA I-Spy Book of the Road to amuse ourselves and ate copious mints to settle our stomachs – but really it wasn’t that bad at all.

The scenery was amazing, the bus was comfy and spacious and, as with all of our Mexican bus journeys, quiet – people are very good at being silent during travel here, which makes for a nice change from UK travel.

More importantly, no-one was sick! It was definitely a bit uncomfortable when we set off and I had a bit of a queasy feel, but within half an hour I’d evident got used to it and we both had a totally fine journey. I’m sure if you were prone to travel sickness (or, god forbid, hungover) it could be a different story but overall it gets a thumbs up.

Once we arrived in Oaxaca it was on to the hostel – Casa Angel – which is spotlessly clean and smart with a nice combination of clean and modern with local period detail (more amazing tiles!) and individual touches.

We had dinner at La Biznaga, which came recommended and which serves modern updates on Oaxaca favourites. For the princely sum of £20 (we splashed out after that journey) we had tortilla horns stuffed with hibiscus flowers and chipotle, then I had red snapper with cactus, pineapple and onion and Andy had tuna with avocado and salsa. All amazing, although we were so stuffed and knackered that we waddled out at 9pm and straight to bed, wondering if our stomachs had shrink or if the journey had damaged our appetites…

(Pic from the start of the journey, when all was smooth and flat… Couldn’t really hold my phone once we got going into the mountains…)