Salsa and Sunbathing in Puerto Escondido

We finally reached Puerto Escondido on the coast! What was already a 12 hour overnight coach became even longer when about 2 hours away from our destination the coach had to stop, there was a protest going on and the road had been blocked by a barricade of four big lorries. Apparently there had been a local government official killed by the police and locals were rightly not happy about it. After 4 hours of waiting in 35°C in a coach car park we decided to try and make our way past on foot. We got a taxi to the barrier and walked through and then tried to figure out how to make the rest of the two hour trip. The local taxi drivers were having the time of their lives and were charging ridiculous amounts to take us there the lowest offer was about $2000 MX (£80) per person. Luckily we saw a local bus and in broken Spanish explained where we were going and he told us he could drop us at a bus station about an hour away so we jumped on and hoped we’d managed to understand and explain correctly and wouldn’t end up in the middle of nowhere. To the credit of the Mexican people though, in any place we’ve visited all you have to do is look white, or gringo as they call it, and appear lost and many locals will come over and try and help you or find someone who speaks English for you, so we easily found the correct bus and got to our new hostel 18 hours after leaving the previous one, and it ended up costing us $200 MX (£8) not $2000 MX (£80).

We were knackered after arriving at the hostel but there were free salsa lessons in the evening that we didn’t want to miss so we had a quick lunch and took a nap until the evening. The salsa class was so much fun, although I’ve never felt so white and British in my life, I have to shake my hips like that?! In public?! While sober?! Safe to say we aren’t naturals but it’s actually not that hard, we learnt three variations and even a basic spin. We then had to get a partner which took me back to a primary school disco, with all the guys stood on one side of the room and women on the other, but after a free round of shots we all maned up, quite literally, and got in pairs. The dancing was a lot of fun although how salsa got invented in such hot climates I will never understand, it was 30°C and very humid without any breeze and in a room of 40 people dancing, it got very hot and not one person had a dry piece of clothing by the end. The Latino people there seemed very comfortable with it and kept putting their arms around us while chatting, which almost made me and Grace gag and quickly move away in sweaty shame! As an apology for our obvious discomfort one guy offered us some cerviche he had made from a fish he caught that morning, so we gave it a try and it was actually really good. Although he didn’t know what fish it was so if we get really sick later well know it was from trying mystery fish from some guy’s bag…

Today we decided to check out the local beach which was about a 20 minute walk away, it was beautiful there and the sea was like bath water but there was absolutely no shade unless you paid to sit in a restaurant, so we got tacos for lunch…again. They’re always the cheapest thing on the menu but are usually just corn tortillas, which I can no longer stand, and meat, safe to say I’m sick of tacos. We sat in the restaurant from 3-5 pm until it was cool enough to ascend the 200 steps to the beach and complete the 20 minute uphill walk to the hostel. In San Cristobel we were freezing cold and couldn’t wait to get here, now were here we’re longing for the cool of San Cristobel!

When we got back we booked a 2 hour surfing lesson for tomorrow and decided to cook dinner for ourselves to save money and hopefully eat a bit healthier, the food here is so greasy and 90% carbs. But it ended up costing us twice the price of eating out and was a bit shit, as they seem to sweeten everything here even tomato puree and cheese! (And don’t get me started on our quest for unsweetened bread!)

Anyway I’m rambling on and we have to be up early for surfing! I’ll keep you updated on how it goes.

Lots of Love,

Alice x

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