Iguana See You Later, My MIL’s (and friend’s) Puerto Escondido Snorkeling Aventura!

Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, México is absolutely stunning and I’m so happy that I got to show it off when my mum-in-law and her friend came for a visit. You all know that I, for sure, made a fancy schedule! However, to my surprise, the snorkeling was so much fun and so close by that we scrapped a lot of activities in favor of watching the fishes and sea turtles swimming under the gorgeous Pacific Ocean. I know this isn’t Costa Rica, but Pura Vida!

What are all the boats doing?

My whole adventure in beautiful Puerto started in a Garden View condo with a kitchen on the back deck. The unit was really cute and there were so many fun critter sightings, but I really missed the amazing views that I had in my 13th story high-rise apartment in Medellín, Colombia. The owner of the building offered an upgrade to the unit two stories up, and I had to take it. She gave me a huge discount that is so worth the breathtaking vistas of the Pacific Ocean. I really got lucky with this one.

The issue was that the unit I was moving up into was the unit that my MIL and her friend were planning on staying in when they came for a visit. Lucky for all of us, the owner of the building suggested the Penthouse for The Ladies. The Penthouse is massive and has 360-degree views of Puerto Escondido, the Pacific Ocean, and the Bay of Puerto. El Faro (the lighthouse) is right outside and you can see all the way down to the lighthouse at Punta Zicatela. Truly amazing sunsets and sunrises!

I totally promised the sighting of whales from my place (as if that is something that I could guarantee!) and was crazy surprised when they saw a mother and calf first thing after arriving from a stressful overnight flight. Their Penthouse wasn’t ready just yet. No worries as I was feeding them lunch (chilaquiles!) on my new balcony, anyway. Plus, my MIL was able to unload all of the supplies she brought me from the States (and a fabulous new shirt she custom made me! Thanks, MIL!). Once on the balcony, I pulled out the monocular to watch for groups of boats as the whale watching vessels head straight for the giant ocean mammals playing on the surface.

You will not die on my watch!

I’ve been in the tropical hot-hot for a few weeks now, so I’m fairly well acclimated. But The Ladies just got here from the cold north, so I tried really hard to take it easy on them so that they didn’t, you know, die. It’s important to have a good time while trying to have a good time. The problem is that the building we are staying in is on top of a hill. The only way to get down to the various beaches is by stairs (117 stairs, to be exact!). But luckily, there is an ocean to cool off in at the bottom, and a pool to chill at after the hike.

On the first day, after feeding them breakfast on their gorgeous back deck, I took them down to Playa Manzanillo for some snorkeling. Unfortunately, the ocean was a bit surgy for me and I got seasick. Luckily, both ladies had an amazing time looking at all the fish (angelfish, parrotfish, wrasse, pipefish, eel, boxfish, so many fishes!). I felt terrible cutting the snorkeling short, but I had to get out or I would lose my breakfast. The walk back up all of those stairs calmed my stomach, and we all prepared for lunch.

Here’s the thing… the condos are on a hill. Did I mention that yet? Well, it’s not even that they are on a hill. It’s like they are on a hill surrounded by a moat. You can go down the stairs to get to the beaches… or you can go down the hill and then up another hill to get to town. There is no avoiding the hill, and it is truly a hill… both ways. Down and up to get out and then down and up to get back. Sorry, Ladies!!!

Did I tell you about the hills?

So I hiked those ladies in the noontime tropical hot-hot down the hill and back up the opposite hill (I wish they had a zip line or bridge or aerial cable car to avoid the down-and-up) all the way to a wonderful seafood restaurant for lunch with the promise of two for one drinks. Here’s the thing… apparently that’s only for happy hour and not lunch. Sorry, Ladies! But lunch was wonderful, and they had plenty of fans to cool us off. Back down the hill and up the opposite side to the pool at our building.

Soon it was time for a Mezcal Tour that my MIL’s friend had graciously arranged. They said that they would pick us up, but I’m pretty sure they forgot about us because after waiting for 15 minutes and texting them, a random unmarked vehicle pulls up with no other tourists. We all pile in and hope we don’t get kidnapped. It’s an adventure! About half way to the Mezcal Distillery, the vehicle pulls over and we wait.

That’s when a large van filled to the brim with other tourists pulls up and we say goodbye to our driver and Hola to this new driver as we cram in. Off we go! Sounds like all the other tourists were from the Zicatella area and we are from the Centro area, so we should have been the first ones picked up, as Zicatella is on the way to the distillery. Oh, well. At least we didn’t get left behind!

I don’t feel so good

The Mezcal Tour was absolutely fantastic. They started us out right with an amazing Mango Mezcalita (with actual mango chunks) as they introduced us to the history of mezcal and how it is traditionally produced. Then we headed out back to watch the uncovering of their most recent batch of agave piñas cooked for several days in a pit dug into the ground. It was an amazing batch and everyone was very excited about how much sugar these agave piñas had. We got to taste them.

After watching how the agave is broken down by smashing it between a wooden trough and a big pounding club (with an opportunity to try), and seeing where the fermentation takes place, we wandered back inside to check out the wood fired distillery. That is where we got our first taste of mezcal straight from the water chilled condenser. Delightful! After that, we got down to the actual tasting. Here’s the thing… I’m pretty sure the servers, and the owners, were having a sip with us as well, because the pours got bigger and bigger the more tastes we had!

You could really tell how passionate the owner was about his products. I think he was having a good time because, after the tasting menu, he kept bringing out other samples for people to try. And then more and more samples after those were done. Some of those bottles were very expensive, so it was really nice of him to go the extra mile. I’m not a huge fan of mezcal (too smoky), and I wasn’t feeling that great from the drive in, so I lightly tasted everything but gave the extra to my companions. They throughly loved that!

Bats!

The ride home was an absolute hoot. People were telling stories and joking around. Everyone having a hilarious time. I don’t do so well in cars, and ended up a bit more carsick than I usually get. But I managed to keep up with the conversations and not get sick in the van. Winning! I’m glad I didn’t drink much, as that would have put me over. As I suspected, we were the last ones to be dropped off as the rest of the peeps were staying closer to the distillery.

The following day, we spent grocery shopping and trying to get money out of every ATM that we could find. First two ATMs didn’t work with that card’s bank. Third, fourth, and fifth ATMs were out of money. Luckily, I still had Mexican pesos left over from when I got my security deposit back for my rental unit in Mazatlán. The Ladies and I, of course, hit up the pool once we made it back from hiking up and down and up all those hills!

That evening we enjoyed a lovely sunset at this lookout (mirador!) close to the condos. It was super fun because this dog came by to get lots of cuddles from all of us. He looked really healthy and delightfully covered in various colors of crayon or makeup. I can only assume some child got ahold of him! We managed to spot lots of bats taking off from the eaves for the evening. Love me some bats!

Snorkel-snorkel-snorkel

The next morning, it was back to the snorkeling spot where I did much better this time. There wasn’t quite so much surge and it was a bit more clear. Those ladies would stay out all day, but I had to go in eventually. My MIL’s friend was having some trouble with her mask, so we promised to switch things around the next time out. After it was back up those stairs!

At the swimming pool back home, we made an interesting discovery. A server from the restaurant connected to the pool let us know that the pool was only for guests of the hotel or with consumption of at least Mex$250 (US$12). Did not know that! I’ve been using the pool incognito for the last month. I thought the condo I was staying in was part of the hotel, as they were in the same gated area. My bad! The restaurant has really good food and fancy tropical drinks, so we’ll just buy something next time.

The rest of the week was spent enjoying many wonderful meals, attempting to open and eat an entire pineapple with just our fingers, watching sunsets, playing fun card games (thanks Seattle friends for teaching me Up and Down the River!), and even more snorkeling. On one adventure, I lent a lady my snorkel gear for a second as she had never seen under the water. I used her friend as a translator and lots of hand signals to demonstrate how to use everything. She squealed excitedly that there were fish under there!

We skipped the paid food tour, as it was really early in the morning with a taxi ride to get there. We also couldn’t do a bioluminescence tour as it was not the right time for that at the local lagoon (Laguna Manialtepec). Plus, you want to do that tour during a new moon and the timing didn’t work out. The releasing of baby sea turtles was also scrapped because we saw so many sea turtles while snorkeling that it didn’t seem worth the long taxi ride.

Food adventures and blues

We did manage to taxi up to Mercado Benito Juárez for a tasting of a variety of local cuisines and flavors. Not as informative as a paid food tour, but way less expensive. We tried Tasajos (dried beef cooked over wood fire), Tlayudas (made with a special type of tortilla), Nopales (cactus), Alambre (similar to fajitas), Carnes Fritas (fried pork belly), and fancy juices at a Jugaría. I also finally managed to hunt down some Mole paste for my MIL to bring home for her hubby. He will be so excited! That stuff is delicious, and the Mole made in Oaxaca is traditionally gluten-free.

The owner of our building texted to let us know that there would be this famous Canadian blues harp musician in town and we should go. I looked up the guy (David Rotundo) and turns out his tickets usually go for US$75! I’m not paying that much. Lucky for us, the venue was hosting him for free. I love free! I hiked those ladies all the way down (and up again) through the fancy Rinconada neighborhood to a very packed food/bar garden surrounding a small stage.

Now my MIL has mobility issues, so she can’t be all standing for a two-hour concert. Usually, it’s not an issue in México because older women get priority here regarding seating. However, this venue was packed with older women, so who gets priority? I hustled us all to the bar, where I was able to find her a barstool. Not ideal, but it worked. The concert was amazing! David Rotundo can really play that blues harp (10-hole harmonica)! I’ve never seen anything like it! So many people to watch dancing and having a good time.

Let’s talk safety

You can usually get a good feel for how safe an area is by watching to see if older local women walk home alone at night. Puerto Escondido is incredibly safe. I even see people leave all of their belongings on the beach while they go swimming and snorkeling. You don’t see that much in other beach towns. So I felt comfortable walking The Ladies home from the concert in the dark. The most dangerous things we encountered were the sidewalks. Those things are treacherous! Oh… and watch for riptides while swimming – and hammocks. Also dangerous!

The building we are staying in turned out to be so wonderful. The Ladies slept on my sofa-bed in the living room when they stayed with me last time in Mazatlán. I’m in a studio this time (it does have an extra bed and a hammock (danger!), but only one bathroom), so that would be tight. Lucky for us, the Penthouse was available right above me. It was nice to have that separate space so they could spread out and sleep when they want but still be a few steps away. We spent a lot of time on my amazing terrace chatting, eating, and playing cards.

The Ladies even named some geckos as well as a bunch of iguanas (I see you Frankie and Grace!) around the building. Love it! I’m so glad that they came for a visit and I wish they could have stayed longer. It gets lonely while traveling and visitors are always welcome. Plus, it’s so nice to have someone to organize a schedule for! It gives me a reason to investigate the local area for things to do and places to eat. It’s an adventure!