Panama City

Just flew over the Panama Canal.... Pretty amazeballs. For some reason I really want to see this place. It looks like New York dumped in the central American jungle. Everyone looks very beautiful and very rich. Note to self to come back here, me thinks...

Day 13 lesson learned

No matter how much I like micheladas and mojitos, I must lay off the ice; otherwise the toilet becomes my best friend...

Los siento, Puerto Escondido. Te amomos entrañablemente

I won't lie. When we rocked up to puerto escondido after a 19-hour bus ride we really thought we'd made a big mistake. The town was dead, the main beach was not conducive for swimming and had quite a lot of rubbish lying around, and the whole place felt like a toy-town set up specifically for tourists, selling Western food and bad souvenirs. Imagine if Torremelinos and Bondi had a bastard love child, and you might get close to how we perceived the place. We began to think that the pristine Australian and Thai beaches we were so used to had spoilt us over the years. How wrong we were. WE LOVE PUERTO ESCONDIDO! And we are sorry we ever doubted you.

We spent our first two nights at the beautiful hotelito, Osa Mariposa, complete with cabanas, wonderful Mexican vegetarian food, a chilled out bar and hammocks for lazing in. It was quite a walk from the main strip, and we spent our first two days dutifully walking into town trying to find whatever it was that people who travel here rave about. The weather was stormy and rainy, and we struggled to find any authentic food to write home about. On our first nght we settled on a beach-front bar called fish tacos and beer (what could go wrong?), which was filled with cool surfers (I can't speak for Ais, but I'm not overly cool and I'm definitely not a surfer), and consumed pretty average tacos and several micheladas (new favourite drink. Statistic). We visited a couple of other bars in the rain, and resided ourselves to the fact that this wasn't going to be the slice of paradise we had hoped for.

After two nights at Osa, we thought we'd move closer to the 'action', not because we didnt like the place, but to save our legs walking the two kilometres into town every day. It was a rather large hangover that made us decide to stay another night, and we are SO glad we did! It turned out to be the best decision we've made on the trip so far. On our third night we began talking to the other travellers staying at our hostel, who turned out to be the nicest and funniest group of people we've met so far. Card games were played, which of course turned into card drinking games, conversations were had about the best places to visit in Mexico, and we learned all about the intricacies and rules of surfing from a group of San Diegans. Who knew surfing had etiquette?

MC Hammock time...

On our fourth night we all bunkered down under the threat of a hurricane (which we had brushed off as a wind-up, after two Americans warned us the place might be decimated), which although didn't amount to anything, still managed to dump about 15 cm of rain on us in one night. There's a lot to be said for lying in a hammock (my new favourite sleeping apparatus), drinking a cerveza and listening to the sound of rain pound down on a tin roof, all in 30-degree temperatures at 10 o'clock at night. During this time friendships were further cemented and we finally discovered where we had been going wrong (literally) during the day all along. It turns out that if you turn left when you hit the beach instead of right, and make the effort to walk 500 metres in the other direction (yes, I know we are lazy and a bit stupid), you hit la puenta, the far end of puerto escondido's shoreline. Here, was what we had been looking for all along: a clean beach to lie on, tacos galore, and a sea that although you couldn't strictly swim in due to the strong currents, it was tame enough to plonk yourself in the shallows and have fun getting dumped by the waves without being dragged out to sea. It was also where all the surfers hung out, so there was something pretty to look at too. Thankfully, day five was the first time the sun truly shone, so we consoled ourselves with the fact that we couldn't have sun-baked before then anyway. 

The beach that nearly got away....

 

No caption required!

We ended up spending all six nights at Osa Mariposa, and spent our last three days working on our tans, so we no longer blinded people as we walked along the beach. There's nothing like pasty white skin that screams newby abroad.

On our last night one of the women staying at our hostel (aged 50, and who has been travelling solo for six years!; also a hardened alcoholic) cooked a huge bowl of vegetable pasta for 12 of us (yes, I know, not very Mexican, but sometimes the body just craves carbs), and we all headed out for a night on the town. Saturday night is clearly party night in puerto escondido and we danced the night away to a Bob Marley tribute band (yep, wherever there are travellers there will be Bob Marley music...) and finished up dancing to a live salsa band on the beach until the small hours of the morning.

Thank you to Lewis for teaching us the doughnut, a dance that has to be seen to be believed and that literally gets the whole place wishing they were in your dancing circle - we will be bringing this back with us; thank you to Dave for the hospitality at Osa and probably the best bean burger I've ever tasted, and thank you to puerto for teaching us the virtue of patience. We are incredibly sad to be leaving this place, and it's not even as if we're heading home... Puerto escondido will definitely hold a special place in our hearts for a long time. 

Off to catch a wave...

Lauren Smith, you're going to love it; just make sure you keep walking to the end of the beach! 

Until next time, salut!

Musings

...on mosquitoes

Mosquitoes like me. They haven't always done, but in the last 10 years the little bastards, for some reason, think that my blood is tastier than most. I've often put this down to my vegetarianism - mosquitoes are thought to seek out victims lacking in b12, something a lot of vegetarians are deficient in. But, the more research I do, it would seem I'm not actually the most ideal candidate for the blighters, thus making their attraction to me even more frustrating. This is also excacerbated by the fact that I'm allergic to the bites, which I find doubly unfair. Mmm, welts on the legs are so attractive...

Although the jury is still out on why some people are more susceptible to mosquito bites than others, there is an overall general consensus regarding the below. All of which I contradict.

Mosquitoes prefer O blood types. I am A positive.

Mosquitoes prefer blood deficient in B 1 and 12. I take super mega B complex every day. Sometimes twice a day.

Mosquitoes are attracted to those who release more carbon dioxide and lactic acid. Something which occurs after exercise. Lets face it, I am probably the most sedentary person I know. Release of the above should be at a minimum.

Mosquitoes are attracted to pregnant women. Last time I checked I was not pregnant.

Mosquitoes love perfumed individuals. Although I like to think I smell nice most of the time, I don't wear or carry perfume when travelling.

I can thus only conclude that I must be one of the unlucky 1 in 10 individuals whose blood emits an aroma or chemical that mosquitoes find irresistible. My only option is to stop washing and honk for the rest our trip. Sorry Ais...

Day 9 lesson learned

I don't think I can keep up with daily lessons when I'm not sure what day it is.

Day 8 lesson learned

Ask questions. After wondering why everyone raved so much about the beach at puerto escondido, we finally discovered what they were talking about. Shame it was 4 days into our stay here..,

Here comes the story of the hurricane (clap clap)

Having been in Mexico for a week, I feel it's important that I catalogue my mistakes, so as to avoid any similar ones in the future. Also to capture random thoughts. 

1. If a sandwich is really, really delicious (pork, beef, cheese, chipotle, avo, onion, chili), don't only eat half and throw the other half away, because you're afraid you won't be able to fit in lunch.  Because you might end up walking around one of the best anthropology museums in the world, ignoring the lost civilisations, because you're thinking of the lost sandwich that's in the bin outside. 

2. The pyramids at Teotihuacan are HUGE, and best not climbed in jeans and thongs on a 30deg day. 

3. Refer to Lucy's post re going out without remembering the name of your hostel. Bigmistakebighuge. 

4. When a seasoned American surfer named Django the D is silent tells you that there's a hurricane a-comin', don't automatically assume they're messing with ya cause you don't get hurricanes in Melbourne. They mightn't be. 

5. They weren't.*

6. Mosquitos that bite like Lucy. They don't like me. I am sure they will realise their mistake soon. 

7. I still don't like falafel. 

8. I have very white skin, and Lucy has very blond hair. We are what tourists look like.

9. At least for now.

10. Jumping in the air and screeching like a sissy is EXACTLY what I would do if I ever saw a wild snake in real life. I have always thought that would be how I would react, and it turns out, after testing the theory this morning while out walking, I was fucking right. 

That is all for now, hasta la vista baby. 

X

* Thankfully the hurricane crossed land about 50kms away from us, so we only got the voice-of-God thunder, the odd lightening bolt, and the kind of rain Forrest Gump talks about. 

Here is the place where I ate my sandwich (the bin is about 7 meters to the right, just out of the frame).

 

And here is my face after realising my mistake. 

Here's me on the beach at Puerto Escondido. An no, I was not looking for bugs to fry and eat. That is Lucy's job. 

Beach bugs

Walking along the beach in puerto Escondido yesterday we noticed hundreds of dead bugs lining the shore. A little further on groups of locals and families were excitedly filling buckets, plastic bags and even wheelbarrows with these soggy creatures. Back at our hostel our host explained that the insects are considered a delicacy that only wash up on the beach once a year. They are dried, fried and either crunched on their own or pounded into a paste to make salsa.... Delicious!

The bug that got away...

Day 6 lesson learned

Card games are a great way to make friends and pass the time when it's torrentially raining outside. So far we have learnt:

Sevens, hell, and spoons, the latter being a marvellous drinking game involving, you've guessed it - spoons.

Day 5 lesson learned - try to remember the name of your hostel before venturing out to drink...