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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

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Random Mix - Jan 20th 2015 [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Demons - Imagine Dragons (Cover By Tyler & Ryan)

mazunte Dos chicas do Mexico - WordPress.com So we headed for Mazunte 65 km east along the coast, the new hippy hang out. To get to this part of the coast we needed to take a 10 hour night bus ...

mazunte

The Oaxacan Coast with a capital A

Before embarking on our trip to Mexico a friend of Sophie and I’s raved about the Oaxacan coast. He had spent two weeks there when he was 21 learning to surf and living in a cabana on the beach in pure tropical paradise. So it was top on our list of places to go. After researching the coast, Puerto Escondido where our friend had stayed in blissful paradise, was now ten years on, a major tourist destination and the cabanas had been replaced by large hotels. So we headed for Mazunte 65 km east along the coast, the new hippy hang out.
To get to this part of the coast we needed to take a 10 hour night bus along winding mountain roads. At the start of the journey I was not feeling good and as soon as the coach started on the curving roads my stomach started to churn. As on all buses in Mexico the onboard TVs were blaring out a film, this time it was ‘The Impossible’ with Naomi Watts. The screaming and mangled bodies of the aftermath of the Tsunami was not a welcome soundtrack to my nausea. After an hour or so the road, the film and my stomach had begun to settle. Nearing the end of our journey as dawn began to break the road started to twist once again but this time it was Sophie’s turn to hold down the vomit. Eventually we were set down in Pochutla, a small dusty village where a taxi took us to Mazunte.
As we drove through lush tropical forests I knew we had come to the right place. We had booked a night in the most highly recommended cabana on Tripadvisor to ease our early morning arrival. How had we not learnt by now?! We arrived at a dusty unkempt sight atop Mazunte cliff. There was no one around as we picked our way amongst the debris to the ‘kitchen/reception’, there were empty bottles everywhere as if it were the sight of many parties. After a few minutes the owner appeared, hung over and dishevelled. He explained there was a party last night, and they are off to a luna eclipse rave that night too if we wanted to join. He is very chatty and shows us to our room. Instantly we ask for another option, it is a dorm room above the ‘party’ kitchen, this is not what we booked. Next he takes us to a half built room, the builders are still working on the room next door. I asked about the workers as we had not slept and needed a rest, he said that they would not working today and it was the only room he had left. As soon as we had settled down to take a nap the workers began banging next door. So I attempted to have a shower, there was no curtain and the shower was in the centre of the camp. After setting up my sarong in the door way I turned on the light to discover a cloud of mosquitos and this was Dengue season, so no shower for me. Soph and I see this places potential, it is set on a stunning site with incredible views but there has been no up keep which has let the place down.
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So we decided to leave tomorrow. Unable to sleep we walk down to the beach to eat and hunt out a new place to stay. Mazunte beach is a stunning double crescent bay with low surfing waves lapping the golden sand. We are impressed by the beach and definitely want to stay.
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Whilst eating fish Tlayudas, a sort of folded Mexican Pizza, we bump into Kirsty and Freddy our travel friends, suddenly Mexico feels like a very small place. They have no advice on places to stay as they are in a Posada on the next beach over. After an exhausting and thorough investigation of pretty much every accommodation option in Mazunte we decide on Posada del Arquitecto. Their cheapest room is an open walled Palapa in the trees with a platform swing bed and awesome views. Soph is not too keen on the lack of walls but the natural setting soon grows on her. This will be one of my favourite places we stay in, in Mexico.
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But first we have to stay one night at our place on the cliff. Well we nearly don’t make it back after dinner; the streets are transformed by the darkness and we lose our way and are unable to ask for directions as we have forgotten the name of the Cabanas. Sophie keeps cool whilst I panic and she eventually finds our way home. The camp is now deserted and it is eerie in the full moon light. Our room feels unsecure and is sweltering hot. As we fiddle with the curtains to encourage more air flow we uncover a huge scorpion on the wall.  It is too large to catch but luckily as we dither as to what to do it runs up into the roof and does not reappear.
We do not sleep well and are up and out early. We creep out of the camp in the hope that our exit will go unnoticed but just as we are about to be clear of the place the owner appears asking despondently if we are leaving? We simply answer, ‘Yes’ and continue on our way. Unfortunately we take his dog Frida too! As we make our way down the hill road Frida follows, we think she will give up after a certain point and go home but after 10 minutes we realise this is not her plan. She follows us all the way into the village, up some stairs and into a restaurant. We try to explain that this is not our dog and luckily we are believed. But Frida is still with us! There is nothing to do but take her back. Sophie gallantly runs back up the hill and returns her to the owner.
Settled into our tree top palapa we spend the day on the beach and enjoy cocktails in the evening as the sunsets. We talk of spending longer here in this sandy paradise.
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Sadly our time in Mazunte does not go as planned.
As the birds wake in the early dawn light I am also awake with severe stomach ache, nausea, and all over muscle pain. I wake Sophie and tell her I am feeling unwell and ask her to take me to the bathroom as I think I am going to be sick. I spend the next few hours vomiting and have to spend the day in bed. A few days pass and I do not improve, fever, headaches , intense muscle pain and exhaustion. Sophie discovers that Kirsty is also very unwell so she and Freddy amuse themselves on the beach Whilst we two ladies rest.
Sophie asks around for a doctor but there is none in Mazunte and we will have to travel to Puerto Escondido. A woman at our Posada is very helpful, feeds me a special healing honey and offers to have an 83 year old Shaman woman come to perform a ritual. I am reluctant to go to the doctor because of my past experience with mononucleosis, a part of me is terrified that a Doctor will diagnose me with this illness again. But after seven days in bed with no improvement I give in and Sophie takes me to Puerto Escondido.
Sophie is wonderful, she carries my bag the entire way, finds me an English speaking doctor and by lunchtime I am settled in a hotel room having had blood tests and will have the results by seven. The Doctor has warned it may be Dengue Fever and so we wait.
We return to the Doctor at 7.30pm with my results. He goes down the list of results, my lymph nodes are very active indicating a virus, could be Dengue, but no my blood is negative. He turns over the page. ‘Oh it is much worse!’ he exclaims. ‘You have Hepatitis A!’ The next 10 minutes are a blur; he rambles on in a mildly threatening manner, explaining that I must stop drinking alcohol, go on a strict low-fat diet and that I am highly contagious. There is nothing much to do but wait it out and Sophie must get tested as well.
As soon as we get back to our room we begin to google. It is not life threatening or a permanent disease but it can last months with symptoms recurring for up to a year and all on a low-fat, T total diet and no kisses from my love for some time! And before you ask I have had the vaccination.
The next day Sophie goes for her tests at the same clinic as me. As she sits down with the nurse, the nurse says in English to her, ‘So Bonnie has HIV.’ What? Sophie asks her to repeat. A tense fear runs through her body. ‘Bonnie has HIV.’ Sophie replies with lowering assertion, ‘No Bonnie has hepatitis A.’ The nurse responds ‘Yes that is what I said Bonnie has HAV, Hepatitis A virus.’ Phew.
Sophie gets back from the clinic and tells me her misunderstanding with the nurse we laugh in nervous relief. When we later go back to collect Sophie’s results, which are clear, the same nurse repeats loudly over the reception desk for the entire waiting room to hear, that Bonnie has HIV but Sophie does not. This then becomes an in joke between Sophie and I about my illness.
The weather turns with my diagnosis and it rains solidly for three days. My Dad has kindly offered to pay for a weeks recuperation in a more salubrious hotel and we move to Santa Fe, a lovely old fashioned colonial hotel with well stocked English library, cable TV and onsite restaurant. As the weather brightens I gradually start to feel stronger and enjoy lying by the pool.
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After a week we move down the road to the cheaper but also charming Swiss Oasis where the owner kindly looks out for me as my strength slowly builds. The pool is beautiful and we get to know the six resident cats and some lovely fellow travelers as I am unable to get out and do much exploring.
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I do manage it down to the beach on our last three evenings to watch the sun set whilst the surfers ride the Mexican half pipe. The waves are at times over seven metres tall and the surfers here are truly amazing to watch.
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We also make it down to one of the smaller bays and realise what this place must have been like when our friend James had been here years ago.
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Time has been slipping by as I have been resting and the Day of the Dead is fast approaching! It is something I have always wanted to see and be a part of and I am unwilling to give up going to Oaxaca City to experience it just because I am ill. So we book what seems to be the last room in town and prepare ourselves for reportedly the worst bus journey in Mexico.

Travel > Americas Mexico's street food: Beyond burritos Yolanda Zappaterra travelled to Oaxaca for a taste of savoury chocolate sauce, slow-cooked pork stew and toasted grasshoppers

Mexico's street food: Beyond burritos

Yolanda Zappaterra travelled to Oaxaca for a taste of savoury chocolate sauce, slow-cooked pork stew and toasted grasshoppers




With its elegant colonial buildings, an impressive arts and crafts scene, top-class museums and markets selling mounds of mole (sauce) and the state’s other favourite food, chocolate,  Oaxaca is a city that both looks and tastes  good. The regional cuisine encompasses fiery, earthy mountain dishes and delicate seafood, crowned by stand-out restaurants such as  Casa Oaxaca – one of the two Oaxacan establishments on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. The other is Pitiona, whose chef Jose Manuel Baños Rodriguez has done stints  at elBulli and Arzak.
To make up for missing the radish fest, I delve into Pitiona’s six-course tasting menu at a courtyard table with a kitchen view. I watch chefs craft complex dishes such as sopa de fideos, a noodle and bean soup that is presented with delicate globes of cheese that burst into liquid in the mouth. Each course is paired with a Mexican wine, craft beer or mezcal from small producers that now thrive as part of the country’s burgeoning gourmet scene.
I also sample dishes at Casa Oaxaca, El Típico, La Biznaga and La Olla. The range of flavours, spices and textures is as varied as the ingredients, which include delicate squash blossoms and mole chichilo (beef stock, chillies, onion, garlic and lime-cured flour). However, to get to the heart of Oaxacan cuisine, I need to visit the food markets.
Here I find the country’s finest selection of moles – salsas made from a base of black chillies, chocolate and sesame seeds to create mole negros; and more unusually from yellow or red chillies, tomatillos and fresh herbs, or ground pumpkin seeds, to create moles such as amarillo, coloradito, salsa verde or pipián.
At Mercado Sánchez Pascuas, I join scores of Oaxaqueños at tiny family-run fondas (food stalls) to try some of the seven varieties  of moles on offer, memelas (tortillas topped with lard, cheese and salsa verde) and grilled empanadas – pastry filled with fiery chicken and yellow mole sauce. During the rainy season, huitlacoche, a fungus that grows on corn, is added to the mix to give an earthy flavour quite unlike anything else. These antojitos, or little snacks, are as cheap and homely as Mexican food gets, but just as delicious as refined restaurant dishes.
At the shops along downtown’s Mina Street, I watch hair-netted, masked men toil over industrial mills to grind cocoa beans into chocolate and moles, all available to sample and buy for the equivalent of pennies. Just north, at Mercado 20 de Noviembre, the huge clouds of curling smoke and burly butchers pressing me towards slabs covered with wafer-thin meat may make the huge pasillo de carnes asadas (passage of grilled meats) look like a modern Hieronymous Bosch scene of hell. However, it smells like heaven – the meats are grilled and served in beef or pork tacos. Equally appealing are the signature Oaxacan tlayudas – huge baked corn tortillas topped in the manner of pizzas with everything from pork lard and the local stringy, mozzarella-like cheese, quesillo, to avocado and tomatoes.
Across the road at Oaxaca’s oldest market, Benito Juárez, women sit beside mounds of chapulines – grasshoppers toasted with garlic, lime juice and salt. They are an acquired taste which, despite two or three attempts, I never get the hang of. More palatable, I’m assured later, are the caviar-like escamoles: ant larvae. Another local – and cheaper – flavour is nopal, the slimy prickly pear cactus leaves that offer another distinctive taste.
I’m much more enamoured of the agua frescas on sale everywhere – flavoured, natural waters. I chose a Jamaica – made using dried hibiscus flowers – from the huge selection at Casilda’s stall in Benito Juarez market, where the crowds are three-deep and the everyday pastel-coloured plastic jugs belie the beauty of their contents. I join the throng, knowing that it will be worth the wait, and that in half an hour’s time, I’ll be ready for another antojito – though maybe not the grasshoppers.
Getting there
Mexico City is served from Heathrow by British Airways (0844 493 0787; ba.com) and Aeroméxico (0800 977 5533;aeromexico.uk.com). Volaris (volaris.com),  Aeroméxico and Interjet (interjet.com) fly daily from Mexico City to Oaxaca.
Eating and drinking there
Pitiona, Allende 108 (00 52 951 514 0690; pitiona.com).
Casa Oaxaca, García Vigil 407 (00 52 951 514 4173;casaoaxaca.com.mx).
El Típico, Zarate 100, off  El Llano square (00 52 951  518 6557;facebook.com/ RestauranteTipicoOaxacaEnMexico).
Biznaga, García Vigil 512 (00 52 951 516 1800;labiznaga.com.mx).
La Olla, Reforma 402-1 (00 52 951 516 6668; laolla.com.mx).
Mercado Sánchez Pascuas, Porfirio Díaz and Callejón Hidalgo.
Mercado 20 de Noviembre, Ignacio Aldama and 20 de Noviembre.
Mercado Benito Juárez, Flores Magon and Colon.
More information
visitmexico.com
On 10 February, Alejandro Ruiz, from Casa Oaxaca, will be cooking in London at Wahaca, Covent Garden in the the first of a Culinary Trip Through Mexico series. Four-course meal with coffee, £40 (wahaca.co.uk/blog).




C.C. Catch Long Mix C.C. Catch Long Mix By DJ-POWERMASTERMIX Dj Mix

Cabana

Tonight's The Night (Gonna Be Alright) - Rod Stewart (1976) HQ Audio Remaster HD Video

Region De Pochutla

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

What To Do If You Lose Your Wallet While Traveling by paradise

New post on This Way To Paradise-Beaches, Islands, And Travel




What To Do If You Lose Your Wallet While Traveling

by paradise
Whether you are traveling locally or abroad, getting away from the usual places and routine is always a thrill. Ideally, you have all your travel documents in order if you are traveling abroad, and you have taken care of the finances. However, things don't always go according to plan when you are traveling. One of the worst things that can happen is that you lose your wallet. It can create a real crisis if your credit or debit cards were in there as well as travel documents like your passport or visa.
Whether you misplaced your wallet somewhere or you got mugged, there are precautionary steps that you need to take immediately. One is to cancel your credit or debit cards. Submitting a report before an ATM card is used means that you have no liability whatsoever. With credit cards, the same rule applies but your liability is limited to a certain amount if you do not submit a report.
If you are abroad, you'll need to report to the Embassy or Consulate of your country. They will verify your identity and help you with the process of replacing your passport and visa so that you can go back home.
You should also take the precaution of initiating a fraud alert from one of the credit reporting bureaus. This way, should someone try to take a loan in your name or initiate another large transaction, you will first be called to confirm the transaction.

What about emergency funds?

If you are in your country, you can dial a customer care line, report the loss to your financial institution and they can rush new cards to you after the cancel the missing ones, perhaps by courier. If you are abroad, you can make an emergency collect call to your credit or debit card company.
Financial institutions will handle situations differently most if not all will want to do all that they can to help their clients in a situation where they have no funds at all. One quick solution is for finances to be remitted to you online. If you are in a situation where you have no money at all even for your next meal or take a cab, you can ask that finances are remitted to you online.
The financial company will check the status of your credit or debit card and they will usually be perfectly willing to send money to you online. You can access your funds as soon as they are remitted online and you can go on with your trip. If not your financial institution, then you can always call on a friend or family member and ask them to send money to your online account as you wait for replacement cards.
Apart from being fast and convenient, international money transfer services can be used in most countries in the world. Neither do you have to worry about cost. The transaction is done electronically so it is very cheap. You don't have to worry about expensive fees, especially in another currency.

Err on the side of caution

You may not see the need to have an online account. Even though, open one just as a precaution. You can even put some funds in it so that if you lose the cards in your wallet, all you will to access your emergency funds is a computer or internet-enabled cell phone. To this end, Azimo is one of the fastest, safest and cheapest international money transfer services available.
photo credit: GuySie via photopin cc

A peso for a taco was too much Juana Reyes and fellow citizens took up arms two years ago in Tepalcatepec

http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/peso-taco-much/?utm_source=Mexico+News+Daily&utm_campaign=22df5c9c10-Jan+20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f1536a3787-22df5c9c10-348153685

A peso for a taco was too much

Juana Reyes and fellow citizens took up arms two years ago in Tepalcatepec

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It was a one-peso surcharge on the price of a taco that drove Juana Reyes to take up arms nearly two years ago in the town of Tepalcatepec.
After 12 years of oppression by the criminal gang Caballeros Templarios, Reyes had had enough.
She had decided to open a taquería in January 2013 when a man paid her a visit: the Caballeros would take one peso for each taco she sold.
“I felt a boundless rage,” recalled Reyes in an interview with Milenio.
At a subsequent meeting of taco vendors, she asked gang representatives how they would know how many tacos she had sold. The charge would be based on the amount of meat they purchased from the butchers, whose sales would be monitored, they explained.
In the end, Reyes paid not a single peso.
On February 24 of that year, with a megaphone in hand, she stood in the town’s central square and called on the citizens to take up arms and defend themselves. A civil defense movement was born and Reyes became it spokesperson and earned the name, La Comandanta.
By all accounts the first year was not an easy one. “It was a year of terror because every day we went out we were scared we wouldn’t return.”
For a dozen years the municipality of 15,000 in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán had suffered under the yoke of the drug gang that operated with impunity, dealing in extortion and violence and death.
They charged levies and kidnapped, and stole vehicles, plots of land and houses. But now they’re gone, said Reyes, and economic growth has come instead: Tepalcatepec is in peace.
The same cannot be said for other communities in Tierra Caliente, such as La Ruana where two rival community police leaders had a shoot-out December 16 that left 11 dead. Reyes said the difference in her community is that they made their agreements with the federally-appointed security commissioner, Alfredo Castillo, and lived by them.
They put down their arms as civil defense militia and joined the officially-sanctioned Fuerza Rural. But in other towns there were those who did not want a pact with the government and had their own interests to serve.
Sooner or later, says Reyes, that will change and all of Tierra Caliente will be at peace.
Today, Juana Reyes is no longer the militia leader nor is she a member of the new community police force. And the taco stand never did get off the ground.
An agricultural engineer by training, she has embarked upon a project that was a dream for several years, but only a dream as long as the Caballeros Templarios were around.
By March her artisanal cheese-making cooperative, Tepemich, will employ its 12 members along with five other local residents.
And not a single peso will go to the Caballeros Templarios.
- See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/peso-taco-much/?utm_source=Mexico+News+Daily&utm_campaign=22df5c9c10-Jan+20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f1536a3787-22df5c9c10-348153685#sthash.LqvE0cPB.dpuf

SURF | Dave Rastovich | Magic Carpets