It is a battle to write, I love publishing posts but as hard as it may be for one to believe I have not had time to sit and write. Who wants to spend hours in front of the computer trying to write an intersting piece when the sun is shining and the surf is pumping. But I am strong willed and will complete the trip and will document it, even if it is a couple of months late.
The road from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido is filled with curves from beginnning to end. It was a five hour ride holding on at every turn and being thankful that I decided to take the mini van instead of the bus and that I had the front seat. I've never been too terrible about car sickness, but I also can't deny the few times where I have been holding pressure points and praying for the ride to be over. This was one of those times. After passing the large mountain range that cuts through the state of Oaxaca I finally arrived to Puerto Escondido. I had heard about Puerto and its waves many times before and had looked forward to this moment for a long time. Tyler and I were hungry and exhausted from the trip so we decided to walk down to the beach, find a place to drop off our bags and go get some food. We were foolish in the sense that we did not look around first, but the place we decided to stay was nice and looked pretty good. After agreeing on a price,we put our bags in the room and left. Walkign around town we ate some cheap street food and then made our way back to the place through the beach watching the sunset. It was a beautiful first sunset in Puerto, the fishermen were coming back with their boats, the children splashing around the warm water of the pacific and in the background the beach bars were playing a mix of reggaeton and mexican ballads. When we got back I started to unpack my things when I saw a huge cockroach on the wall, I had mine five second freak out, the roach ran away and I calmed myself down. If you happen to know me, you know that roaches happen to be one of my least favorite bugs. Back at school in East Los Angeles classes were interrupted several times by the gross bug visiting and thankfully I had brave students to protect me, and in the case that I was alone, the heavy history book launched across the room and landing perfectly on top of the abomination would solve the problem. But this was different, I had tried to prepare myself mentally to face bugs on this trip, and had done alright so far. So I took a deep breath and reminded myself it was just a bug, it was gone and everything was going to be ok. I was wrong. I then looked around and realized the room was infested with roaches and they were everywhere, on the walls, the bed, on the mosquito net and the ceiling. I ran out. Tyler went in and got my bag, we spoke to the lady who ran the place and got a new room. The new room was clean, but as soon as I put my bag down roaches started crawling from the top of them and into the room and once again I ran out with goosebumps all over my body wishing this nightmare would be over. It was the grossest experience of my life and Iwas scared to put my bag on my back and have roaches crawling on me. But we had to move on, so I strapped on the pack and we moved to a place with other friends from Oaxaca right on the Zicatela strip.
This new place was a bit more expensive, but beautiful and with our own kitchen. For the next week I lived in this beautiful place, went to beach everyday, watched the sunset and cooked delicious food. Puerto really is a beautiful beach and the surf culture is present everywhere. From the surf stores, to the foreign surfers and the little gromms running around in their mischevious ways. By the time I got there it was the low season so the surf was not as big and there weren't as many people, which to me was perfect since bigs waves really aren´t my fuerte. During that week I met a lot of other travelers, locals and got to watch some crazy local groms ripping it up at a surf competition that was organized for the first weekend that I was there. This first week in Puerto was very relaxing and not much happened, but I was so happy to just be by the beach, cook delicious food and relax all day watching the waves crashing in the beautiful Pacific ocean.
The next week, Tyler and I moved in to the hostel A La Casa which is located at the point on the south end of the beach. There we were welcomed by Daniella, the italian owner that invited us to work and change the vibe at the hostel. I could not have been more excited to work in this place, it was in a gorgeous location at the end of the beach and I found it the perfect opportunity to learn about hostels since I´ve thought many times about starting my own. This could not have owrked out any better.
The next two weeks were incredible and Tyler and I took control of the hostel. From painting doors, to columns, to changing the whole vibe of the place, moving kitchens, creating new entrances, bartending at concerts that we held, creating family dinners, cooking delicious food and just relaxing and reading books in paradise. I met amazing people at the hostel and had some incredible conversations and revelations. To me those two weeks in one place working, reading and thinking did a lot more to confuse me than clarify anything to me about my life, but they were very necessary and I loved them. It was during those weeks that I started to pay attention to coincidences, and signs that have been happening on the trip and that I had until then not paid much attention to. From the crazy Mayan guy who walked of the beach and told me exactly who I was, from the books I read and spiritual conversations I had that would help shape the rest of my trip, to the great friendships that I made and left behind. Because with travelling nothing is constant and everything changes. I could go into a lot more detail about some of those experiences, but some of them would not make much sense for someone other than me.
I loved being there and going for swims and runs along the beach, I felt I could stay there forever, but deep inside me I had to continue the trip and discover what else this amazing piece of land called America had to offer. So I packed my bags, said some very difficult goodbyes and embarked on my new adventure, leaving behind a beloved Mexico and with hungry eyes towards Guatemala.
* Pictures of the hostel and other pictures are unfortunately not available as a result of another broken camera.
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