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A little about Playa Zipolite, The Beach of the Dead . . .

Playa Zipolite, Oaxaca, Southern Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean. A little bit about my favorite little get-away on this small world of ours.

Zipolite, a sweaty 30-minute walk west from Puerto Angel, brings you to Playa Zipolite and another world. The feeling here is 1970's - Led Zep, Marley, and scruffy gringos.

A long, long time ago, Zipolite beach was usually visited by the Zapotecans...who made it a magical place. They came to visit Zipolite to meditate, or just to rest.

Recently, this beach has begun to receive day-trippers from Puerto Angel and Puerto Escondido, giving it a more TOURISTY feel than before.

Most people come here for the novelty of the nude beach, yoga, turtles, seafood, surf, meditation, vegetarians, discos, party, to get burnt by the sun, or to see how long they can stretch their skinny budget.

I post WWW Oaxaca, Mexico, Zipolite and areas nearby information. Also general budget, backpacker, surfer, off the beaten path, Mexico and beyond, information.

REMEMBER: Everyone is welcome at Zipolite.

ivan

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Full-Day Mazunte, Zipolite, and Puerto Angel Tour Details Explore the community of Mazunte, home to many environmentally friendly businesses, laze on the beaches of Zipolite, relaxing in a hammock and catching the ... www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll/.../wtid=28

Full-Day Mazunte, Zipolite, and Puerto Angel Tour Details
Explore the community of Mazunte, home to many environmentally friendly businesses, laze on the beaches of Zipolite, relaxing in a hammock and catching the ...
www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll/.../wtid=28







Full-Day Mazunte, Zipolite, and Puerto Angel Tour
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(Image provided by Gray Line Huatulco)
Huatulco
More details below
Pricing and availability






Details

Venture to the town of Mazunte, and ecotourism community that is home to several environmentally friendly businesses and conservation centers. Check out the natural cosmetics factory, and the Mexican Center of Turtles. See turtles in all different stages of growth, and learn what the Mexican government is doing to protect the turtles, which lay their eggs on the shores each year.

Continue to Zipolite, and stroll along some of the most unique beaches of Mexico's Pacific coastline. Laze in the sun and take in the beach's peaceful ambiance, and catch the ocean breeze from a hammock.

Finally, stop at Puerto Angel for a taste of some delectable Oaxacan food. Try a delicious dish of fresh fish and seafood, a specialty o f the fishing village.

Inclusions :


Duration:
Approximately 8 hours

Departure time and location:
9 AM; from your centrally located Huatulco hotel

Return time and location:
5 PM; to your centrally located Huatulco hotel

Note:
Participation in this tour is complimentary for children age 2 and younger. Tour gratuity is not included and is at your discretion. This tour requires a minimum of 2 passengers to operate.
Redemption instructions

After you book your activity, follow these 3 easy steps:
1. Print your voucher; locate the voucher in your travel confirmation e-mail or in the My Trips/My Itineraries link on the site.
2. Follow the redemption instructions on your voucher; it is critical to do this before you depart.
3. Take all vouchers with you; you must redeem one voucher per person.

Exchange your voucher for activity:
Reservation confirmation is required. Please contact Gray Line Huatulco at least 48 hours prior to your tour date to ensure your reservation (contact information is provided on your printed voucher(s). Upon arrival at the redemption location, present your printed voucher(s) and photo ID in exchange for service.
Terms and conditions

Cancellations and Changes: This Activity can be changed or cancelled without penalty at any time prior to 48 hours before the scheduled start of your trip. The scheduled start of your trip is defined the date of the Activity.





Friday, April 27, 2012

SAN PEDRO TUTUTEPEC puerto angel

Puerto Escondido: Markets, Turtles, and Phosphorescence Posted in Animals, Mexico, Travel on April 27th, 2012 by Lisa


Puerto Escondido: Markets, Turtles, and Phosphorescence

Posted in AnimalsMexicoTravel on April 27th, 2012 by Lisa
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Needing groceries (the hotel has a community kitchen), Ty and I, accompanied by Helen and Belinda, two Aussies also staying at the Swiss Oasis, hopped aboard the camionetta (a small pickup truck with bench seating in the back like Thai songthaews) to the market.

Puerto Escondido’s market is very clean and well maintained, with a good selection of food and small restaurants. We had a jugo verde at Myrna’s juice stand and tortas (for which Ty developed a taste in Guanajuato) for lunch,


bought a big bag full of produce, did a small walkabout downtown, and jumped on the camionetta once again for the trip back. Back at the ranch, I enjoyed a swim in the pool. Puerto Escondido is hot – the day after we arrived the temperature hit 38 degrees.

The Hotelito Swiss Oasis supports the Escondido economy by recommending local people with whom to do eco-tours. Brandy had done a turtle release and lagoon tour and highly recommended it, so yesterday evening was the moment to give it a go. Chop (not sure about the spelling), a fellow who lives at the lagoon, arrived to pick us up at 6:40 and we were off in his car to Playa Delfin (Dolphin Beach), a twenty five kilometer long beach a ways north of Escondido, to release turtles.



This beach is almost deserted along its length; a few housing developments, most shuttered or unfinished, dot the area, and one small town lies near its middle but other than that, the beach is undeveloped.

It is home to a couple of species of endangered sea turtles, the Green Turtle and the Leatherback (although leatherbacks are rare in this part of the world, apparently). We were driven to the turtle release area, which consists of a couple of small camping tents, a wooden lean-to, two quad motorcycles, three nesting areas, and one crazy dog who keeps the fellow who looks after the area company.

This place is a one man operation; the caretaker works here alone, without pay, subsisting on the tips of people who visit to participate in the turtle release. He live here all year round in one of the small tents.

This evening, in addition to Ty, myself, and Coco, there was a van load of Mexican tourists for the release of four baby turtles, three tiny greens and one larger leatherback, born that morning and ready to start their life in the ocean. The four turtles were kept in a small pink plastic tub and, after we washed our hands, we were allowed to pick up and examine them (I wasn’t sure about the merits of handling them …).





After waiting for a while to watch the sun descend in the sky, and watching a couple of kids pretend to be turtles crossing the sand, the moment for the release arrived. The caretaker drew a line in the sand and told us that we weren’t allowed to go beyond it.


I had thought that we would guide the turtles down the beach but that wasn’t the case; once released from the tub, they must make their own way down the beach to the water without human help. This enables their location to imprint and helps to ensure that they can return to this beach later on; if we simply put them into the water, or helped them out, they would likely die.


All of us lined up and each small group was given one turtle; we received the leatherback and I put it on the ground facing in the direction of the ocean. It started moving towards the water but then got disoriented and headed back up to us again. I really wanted to pick it up and turn it around but the guide said that we must leave it to make its own way. It was painful to watch the four tiny beasts attempt to crawl towards the ocean and life.

“Our” turtle, the largest and strongest of the bunch, figured out the correct direction and headed off at a fast crawl towards the huge waves; finally, after a couple of false starts, a large wave caught it, and lifted it out to sea – we all clapped.



This same process was repeated for each of the other three, one of whom was particularly weak. Although they all reached the sea eventually, the weakest one had to be helped out a couple of times by being lifted down towards the water (I don’t think that it will survive, unfortunately).




After it was washed out to sea by a wave, one of the tiny turtles was washed in again farther down the beach by another wave; Ty saw it struggling and gently put it back in the water again – hopefully it will live.

I found the whole experience very moving; it’s hard to believe that these creatures, only one day old, have to go through that onerous process in order to begin their lives. Very few turtles survive; many die on their way to the ocean, picked off by predators, and many die in the ocean from ingesting plastics they mistake for jellyfish. Cut up all plastics before disposing of them and don’t dump plastic – better still, don’t use plastic.
After the turtle release, which probably took about two hours or so, we were off north again to the six kilometer long Manialtepec Lagoon, a body of water surrounded by mangrove swamp vegetation, its tropical climate lending itself to a diverse ecosystem. Dozens of migratory bird species such as herons and ducks make Manialtepec lagoon their home at various times of the year. Chop told us that, in addition to birds and fish, crocodiles live here.

We, and six other people, boarded the small tour boat and headed out on the cloudless night to tour the lagoon and see the phosphorescence created by the water’s phytoplankton. Beside the boat, we could see streaks of bright silver zipping hither and yon; these were fish. Running our hands through the water produced long streaks of brilliant white and silver; resting in the lagoon, our hands appeared white and skeletal because of the phosporescence. Encouraged by Chop, several people, including Coco, jumped in and swam,

their bodies making white and silver patterns in the dark – fabulous (unfortunately, it was impossible to get a decent picture of the phosphorescence). We were told that, in the rainy season, the area is completely dark and the falling rain makes the entire lagoon shine brilliantly against the black background. That would be amazing to see.
See more pics here.

LA To Tulum, Day 10 — Puerto Escondido To Tulum APRIL 26, 2012


LA To Tulum, Day 10 — Puerto Escondido To Tulum

By Larry Crowson
Day 10
It was raining softly when I woke up and the surfers were already pounding the waves. I really wanted to stay for a couple of days—I was both road tired and wanting to explore this inviting place.
Walked down the malecon and had coffee and breakfast and then headed out south towards Puerto Angel, a small fishing village that I had heard about and wanted to see for myself. It turned out to be a little surfing and fishing village with not much in the way of services but lots of For Sale signs. I got out briefly to see the turtle museum and then got back on the highway. I was feeling the call of home and it was time to fly.
I cut up at Salina Cruz and headed over the Oaxaca mountain range towards Minititlan and the Gulf of Mexico.
A couple of hours in, I came upon a huge wind farm. Going up, there must have been over 100 parts being staged for assembly. This was a large valley in the mountains and I have to assume that it blows hard here between the oceans.
I came into a small village in the mountains called Matias Romero. It seemed like a junction for many smaller roads all converging from the countryside and the street merchants were out in force selling everything you could imagine. I even saw several folks selling Parrots just sitting on their arms.
Well this place has had a history of trouble with the cartels and drug smuggling, and I ran into a pretty serious Mexican Army checkpoint where they proceeded to go over my paperwork and car with a fine tooth comb. They were all very polite and then told me to have a safe day and proceed as I pulled away. Literally 100 yards ahead was a Federale checkpoint where the guys acted like we were going to do this all over again in case the Army missed something. I have driven many thousands of miles in Mexico and never seen this before.
The guys were all about checking my VIN numbers to make sure they match my title and car permit paperwork.
Funny thing was, this one cop seemed almost disappointed that it did match, as his partner was opening up a few bags asking me what each item was where had I’d been and was going. One of my bags had several boxes of Trader Joe’s chocolate covered almonds with Sea Salt, and he didn’t seem to understand why I had so many. This isn’t my first rodeo, so I opened one up and offered him a taste. He immediately said no politely, but I insisted and you should have seen the smile come across his face as he chewed on it. Priceless! Wish I had a picture of it! He then said he understood why I had gone to so much trouble and I told him my wife would kill us both if I didn’t show up with these intact. He laughed real hard and said take care and have a nice drive.
The drive over to Minititlan was uneventful until I turned off onto the new highway heading towards Villahermosa. About 5-6 miles down, both lanes on my side came to a halt with everyone out looking down the road. I figured it was an accident which can cause quite a stir, sometimes for hours. Well, all of a sudden, lots of folks further ahead started turning around and heading back and then just ahead I noticed some farm workers cutting an opening into the fence to access the small dirt road running along side of the highway and everyone started taking their turns jumping the dirt mound to get up and over onto the dirt road. I wasn’t so sure if my Honda SRV would clear but what the heck—made it, now what? I hadn’t a clue where we were all heading now and after a mile or so we came to a bridge junction going over the highway in both directions. It seemed that no one knew exactly which way to go so I followed a couple of folks left towards the town off in the distance. A couple of miles of weaving thru the little village and we came to another on ramp back to the highway and we were off again. I never did find out what had happened back there.
The rest of my drive back to Tulum from here bored me, as I have made this drive many times thru the countryside and then the jungles off the Yucatan— home was calling and I picked up the pace considerably now. Traffic flow here was an easy 80-85 mph until you reached a small town. Everyone seemed to be going towards Merida or Cancun up the Yucatan peninsula. Two more Army checkpoints and then home.
In closing, this was a long road trip and I had no choice but to keep up a good pace, but it also opened up a wealth of incredible beauty to explore further on longer trips as I seek to better understand my newly adopted country of Mexico.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

puerto escondido « no hay bronca From the concrete roof of my little hotel on the beach in Puerto Escondido, the flat horizon of the deep blue ocean looks calm. It's hot, and the wind kicks up some ... nohaybronca.wordpress.com/tag/puerto-escondido/


Puerto Escondido

From the concrete roof of my little hotel on the beach in Puerto Escondido, the flat horizon of the deep blue ocean looks calm. It’s hot, and the wind kicks up some dust from the street of sand below. I’m at the far end of Zicatela beach, a spot called La Punta (the point).
There’s a lot of water out there; from this angle the straight blue line towers over the beach, where good waves come crashing in day and night. I see more small concrete houses, including a pink castle, but no high-rise exclusive condos. I hear the ceaseless crash of the waves, but no beachside street traffic. The Oaxaca coast is a little far, and the roads to get here are a little bit too curvy, but there is plenty of return for making the extra effort.
Puerto Escondido is right about in the middle of Mexico’s southern coast. Its main beach Zicatela is a surf beach. La Punta is the spot on the far end of the beach where there is a point break. It’s full of surfers all day.
The beach is wide and clean. Small houses and hotels are visible between lots of palms, all set back from the beach. As of now there is no hotel larger than a story or two, no pumping beach music, no hustlers.
I ruin my bodyboard in the heavy breakers my first day out. I keep thinking to rent a surfboard, but I’m not so good and am happy just swimming all afternoon. Plus, my legs are already sore from the several hour runs I do on the beach each morning. If you go around the rocks and cliffs past La Punta, you will find a near-virgin beach on the other side. There is only just a little development on the hills above, none on the wild beach.
La Punta is quiet; it’s comparable to other underdeveloped spots on the Oaxaca coast, like Zipolite up the road, Mexico’s only nude beach. Only every third building in La Punta is made for tourists: small hotels/hostels, good restaurants, and at least one Spanish school. The rest is all for the locals: grocery stores, laundromats, private homes, a church.
A sand-road block up from my hotel is a great four-way. On one corner is a falafel place, the other a burger place, and then next to the burgers is a pizza place. It’s all first rate: all-beef grilled burgers, thin crust pizza, and the first falafel I’ve found in Mexico. All have outdoor seating, and if they don’t serve beer then they don’t mind if you bring your own. You might think I’m a dummy for eating this stuff instead of awesome Mexican food, but then I live in Mexico and eat awesome Mexican food all the time.
Other than when I arrived after an overnight bus trip from Mexico City, I only venture into Puerto Escondido proper once. First stop is the market for lunch and some shopping. We go to a juice bar – I have an alfalfa mixture and my friend gets straight-up orange juice. Then at one of the little market restaurants I have mole negro and my friend gets a big seafood soup of fish, shrimp, clams, and octopus. Each meal is about $3 US, drink included. If you ever want authentic eats, go to the little restaurants in the market, and always choose the busiest one.
Then I went around to buy some essentials: a big bag of finely ground, rich local coffee, some almonds, some raisins, and a big 3-day papaya. This all costs me around $12 US.
The larger, more enclosed part of Puerto Escondido’s market has the stuff for tourists: t-shirts, handicrafts, beach gear.
The walk along the beach from central Puerto Escondido back to La Punta takes about an hour. You pass through the more developed part of Zicatela with its little tourist strip of restaurants and souvenir shops. It’s set back from the beach and not too gaudy. Here I saw some even cheaper hotel deals – as low as $4 US a night advertized. At night it’s a place to stroll with a big, sweating Michelada in hand.
Farther along are more hippy-like establishments. My friend and I stop at a bar/coffeeshop full of books and cool carved masks.
8 Venado, my hotel/hostel, is family run, clean, and convenient. I get a sizable room with balcony and private bath for 100 pesos, or about $8 US. They also have dorm rooms. The best feature for me is a sizable open-air kitchen. I can pay a little more for a hotel (you can go cheaper than 100 pesos in Oaxaca) and will more than make up for it by brewing my own coffee and making simple meals, like Mexican buns (teleras) with mango jam.
Puerto Escondido is a about half a day from Oaxaca City on a very twisty road. Be warned if you get carsick. Second class buses and combis are cheapest, and the place to go is the second class bus terminal by the Centro de Abastos, a big market in Oaxaca. On the way to Puerto Escondido you will pass San Jose del Pacifico, a mushroom town in the mountains; Pochutla, a good hub for all points on the Oaxaca coast; and low key beaches Zipolite and Mazunte. You can also get direct buses from Mexico City. Check out this post for tips on bus travel in Mexico.

Huatulco Life: Popocatépetl Volcano Huatulco Life was inspired by people with a passion for Huatulco and the Mexican lifestyle. It is a place to find out more information about the region and enjoy ... huatulcolife.blogspot.com/2012/04/popocatepetl-volcano.html

Huatulco Life: Popocatépetl Volcano
Huatulco Life was inspired by people with a passion for Huatulco and the Mexican lifestyle. It is a place to find out more information about the region and enjoy ...
huatulcolife.blogspot.com/2012/04/popocatepetl-volcano.html




Monday, April 23, 2012

Popocatépetl Volcano

 



I just had to share this photo from National Geographic of Popocatépetl 
Volcano in Puebla, Mexico.

It's a good one!









huatulco, oaxaca