La vida de la playa

Well, those ominous noises caught up with us at last. We had just passed through Puerto Escondido, a big surf town on the southern coast of Mexico (where the Pacific side curves around), heading for a little village out on a peninsula, up a long, sand road that might or might not even be passable depending on recent rainfall, where we were hoping to visit a crocodile breeding center. As we begun this trip, Alan announced he wanted to see a toucan, and I announced I wanted to see a crocodile. We've seen lots of toucans - in fact, I think Alan is a little tired of various locals excitedly stopping the car or stopping him to point out a toucan. But I haven't seen a crocodile yet. We hiked all the way around a buggy, muggy lagoon because someone told us they saw a huge crocodile in it, but he must have been hiding from the heat under the water.

Anyway, just outside of Puerto Escondido, crossing a gigantic bridge over a wide river, the car started making clicking noises that sounded completely fatal, like an axle might just pop off. Our friends and parents will be happy to know we finally did the practical thing and turned around. In Puerto Escondido, we were very lucky and found a hotel to drop our bags in, as well as a very generous woman who spoke English, led us all the way to her mechanic, and translated our entire littany of ominous sounds the car had made at various thousands of miles.

Even luckier, the couple days we had to wait for the car to be fixed kept us in Puerto Escondido for Half-Pipe Mexico, a big surf competition. We spent an evening in a bar called Casa Babylon where they made divine mojitos and listened to a cover band do simply fabulous renditions of Beatles tunes, Pink Floyd tunes, "I Shot the Sheriff", "I Will Survive" in Spanish, and coincidentally, a song we'd heard Joe Ely sing in Austin Texas called Illegal Alien (not the Phil Collins song, much better). In Spanish, it was called "Clandestino" and was such a sweet song.

Despite having stayed out way too late drinking way too many mojitos, we set the alarm and got up early for the surf competition. Front row seats on the sand were great for watching all the women compete (a fantastic surfer from U.S. named Holly something won) plus quite a few rounds of the men. Big tough waves made for great rides as well as great wipeouts.

On a side note, I must make a confession. The day before, I confidently rented a boogie board and strode right out into the water where I got beaten to a pulp without a single ride. Breathless and completely humbled to discover I've forgotten how, I threw the boogie board back on the sand and laid down with a Corona to nurse my wiped out pride. "Very rough waves," I told myself, "it's got nothing to do with my age." Made me feel slightly better when a guy threw his rented boogie board down in disgust next to me, plopped exhaustedly onto his lounge and complained to his wife about how rough the waves were. Ha, so there! But then again, he looked old and out of shape too.

Puerto Escondido was great though. A really nice surf town to hang out and do the beach thing in. I even got to have two girl crushes - that amazing American surfer and this chatty cathy from Montreal named Christina who was living on the road, out of a black VW bus with her boyfriend and their dog, making and selling gorgeous and unique jewelry.

Anyway, one very inexpensive car repair later, we hit the road noise free and care free. Haven't been online in a while because the Pacific coast that runs along the Mexican states of Chiapas, Guerrero, and Michoacan, is actually quite underpopulated. The only exceptions are the big resorts of Acapulco, Zihuatanejo, and Ixtapa - all of which looked like completely overengineered resort nightmares as we drove through them as quick as we could (which is at a crawl through Acapulco - extra big nightmare). Anyway, between these gigantic resorts are spectacular beaches with tiny villages along them. So sad our tent was stolen - it was this stretch of the drive we wanted the tent for most. Would have been so pleasant and peaceful to sleep on the sand in a tent.

One place we slept rented us a tent, but it wasn't until we crawled in for the night that we noticed none of the zippers worked. So we couldn't really seal out the mosquitos from the front door, or let in the breeze through the windows. So it was hot, stuffy, and buggy all at once. Next morning discovered the lovely bathrooms we'd seen the night before had no running water. So the sweat, dust, stand and salt stayed on our grimey selves for another day. No complaints though, the beach was gorgeous, and missing the crocodiles the other day was made up for by watching a completely adorable family of pigs wandering around us and the beach while we ate dinner.

Also funny animal story: in the middle of the night I heard steps walking all around the tent. With everything permanently zipped shut, I couldn't see who it was and got quite nervous. Finally I peeked out the one window that was open, and there, standing in the patio of the beachside restaurant who rented us the tent, among the tables and chairs and beer, looking somberly at me, was a donkey. Have to say it's marvelously weird to see pigs on the beach and a donkey in a restaurant.

We did find cabanas to sleep in at the other beaches. Last night's even had a great mosquito net. Yay. Today we made the long, fast drive to Guadelajara. Strange to arrive in such a big, cosmopolitan city with so much sand ground into my feet. Also strange to have a smoothly paved highway with a passing lane - such luxury! The highway along the Michoacan coast is spectacular but a full participation sport for the driver. Seriously, it's like a long serious of connected u-turns - forget hairpin, try complete donut turns. Also, just because lists are fun, here is a list of what you need to watch for if you are driving in Central America:

big, slow trucks carrying all kinds of shit
tiny, slow cars, with all kinds of gigantic shit strapped to the top
entire families on a motorcycle, moped or bicycle
children
chickens
turkeys
dogs
goats
herds of cows
horses grazing on the grass alongside the highway
donkeys standing in the middle of the highway looking like they will not move no matter what
pigs (whole families are just the cutest thing ever)
soccer players
big lizards
ice cream vendors with little carts
people selling coconuts, nuts, fruit, etc., etc.
coconuts
pineapples
the biggest speedbumps you've ever seen, often with little or no warning whatsoever
the biggest potholes you've ever seen
massive construction projects involving tearing up the entire street and rebuilding it with two guys, a small wheelbarrow full of dirt, and one shovel where you wait to go through until they are done

Anyway, Guadalajara is the second biggest city in Mexico and looks like all kinds of fun. Will probably be here for a few days to check out some music and theater before finally hitting the road for the last 22 hours of driving to the border.