Family Day in Mexico

Just a lazy Sunday yesterday. We went and hung out at Alfredo's mother's place in La Barra. The original plan was that Alfredo was going to go net fishing in the lagoon, but he was late getting there and then it got too hot. Oh well...it's Mexico.

Sunday is typically family day in Mexico. Most Mexicans work a six day week, so Sunday is the only day to get together with family.

Now that's a BBQ!

We walked downtown again yesterday morning. Ruth wanted to get her hair cut, and we needed to go to the bank and get some more dinero. And maybe a quick stop at the grocery store again.

Didn't bring the camera this time though. Sometimes you just don't feel like being weighted down with things.

Our Puerto Escondido Apartment

We wanted to tell you a little more about the place where we're staying here in Puerto Escondido. We were pretty specific about what we were looking for, and it's pretty tough to find a place that has everything going for it.

Bungalows El Maguey came pretty close though, so we signed up for an eight night stay!

Back to the Beach!

We did a little more travel planning yesterday morning. We leave here Tuesday afternoon, flying back to Mexico City. But we need to get to Toluca, which is another city just outside of Mexico City. Our plane doesn't arrive until 5:30pm and we figured that was getting a bit late for navigating subways and buses to get out of the big city.

So we booked another hotel room.

Day trip to San Pedro Mixtepec

San Pedro Mixtepec is a town about 20 kms (13 miles) inland from Puerto Escondido. It's just a quiet place, with not much to see, but it's a great place to go just for a day trip to get away from the beach. And along the way, there's the University's Botanical Gardens.

So just for something to do, we hopped on the collectivo and went for a ride.

Lots to do around Puerto Escondido

All we need is some ambition to get out and do some of it! We're totally enjoying just doing nothing, although we do have some plans over the next few days.

For example, there's a botanical gardens that we want to visit. It's located about 15 minutes outside of town on highway 131. We didn't know which collectivo to take, but we found out who to ask!

Looks like winter is off to an early start

Yikes. Looking at the weather across most of the United States and Canada makes us quite happy that we're in hot and sunny Mexico! We're planning on heading up to the southern Arizona and California area in January...I guess we'll keep an eye on the weather before making that decision.

Don't mind chilly nights, but so long as it's warm enough for a light jacket when doing some hiking we'll be fine.

Moving day

We moved to our "vacation" property yesterday! Nice little spot and it'll do fine for a week. Closer to the action, and a little more privacy than we have had for the last six days! Still, we enjoyed spending time with our friends in La Barra. And we'll see them again a few more times even though we've moved.

We had planned on going to the beach yesterday, but we never made it!

An update about our Mexican friends

In response to a couple of recent comments...yes, we need a vacation. We know that sounds odd. But we've have been going pretty much non stop since we left Saskatchewan just over six weeks ago. Moving every few days and living out of a backpack does take a toll and you do need a break from it every now and again.

I wanted to talk a little more about how things are going with our adopted Mexican family.

WiFi in Korea!

We're behind on a few things that we have been wanting to tell you about, so we'll try and get caught up throughout the rest of this week.

Our regular readers know that we like to tell you about details that can make your travels better, and one of the things we came across that was really convenient during out trip to Korea was our own portable source of internet!

All three goals accomplished!

We went to the main tourist area of Playa Zicatela yesterday morning. With three goals in mind. One, to get breakfast at a spot we had visited almost two years ago. Two, to visit some fellow Canadians. And three, to find a place closer to the beach to spend our last week here.

All goals accomplished!

Family chicken dinner for $5.00!

We finally made it to Playa Zicatela and Puerto Escondido. We had driven through Puerto Escondido on the way from the airport, but otherwise we've just been hanging out at La Barra.

So yesterday morning, we hopped into the collectivo and first made our way to the beach.

Life in La Barra

Got up this morning and had a shower. Not the typical shower that we would normally have! You stand in the small shower room with a drum filled with water, and a curtain over the entrance way. You then dump cold water over yourself using a small bucket.

Not much of a problem using the cold water. The daytime temperature is usually between 30C (86F) and 33C (92F) and it rarely falls below 22C (72F) at night.

You really don't need any hot water!

Relaxing in La Barra (part 2)

Okay...sorry about that. I don't like only giving you half a blog post! I've made it up to the Oxxo corner store and I've charged up our internet stick with a 400 peso ($34) credit. That gives us 3GB of usage, or 30 days...whichever comes first.

So, let's continue from our post this morning.

Relaxing in La Barra

"La Barra" is the village of La Barra de Colotopec. It's located about 7 kms (4 miles) SE of Puerto Escondido. It's mostly local Mexicans living a very basic lifestyle, with the odd gringo passing through on his way to surf at the beach ten minutes away.

It's a pretty laid back place!