Puerto Escondido

One of the best parts about Puerto Escondido for me was the arrival. After getting a taxi down to our hostel, I was immediately greeted by a heavily intoxicated old Mexican guy. He introduced himself as 'Indigo' and tried to carry my 15kg backpack down the steps to the hostel for me. Quite a funny thing to watch the little old fella struggle so much with my bag, swaying from a wall to a tree, to almost falling over several times. He didn't speak much english but managed to sign language a bong with his hands, apologising for being so high. HA, such a legend. He then tried his hardest to get me down to his shop to buy some boardshorts, ha ha. ¨I gotsa red ones day same as dis¨ he informed me, pointing to my dress. I wish I had taken a photo of him, such an interesting character.

Walking up the stairs of Mayflower, the hostel, I felt that rush of excitement flow through my blood. Even at a first glance Ness and I could tell this place was going to be amazing. Hammocks, painted walls, and plants galore.. a total Mexican paradise! With double beds and a whole dorm room to ourselves, we both knew Puerto was going to hold us captive for quite a few days.

To top it off, above the hostel there was a fantastic deck area overlooking the ocean, along with a great big table - the perfect kind to drink around... Something we did a little too often really. But one day in and we managed to form the greatest crew - the Cabo Baby crew - right up there on that deck. The amount of absolute nonsense spoken around that table for the days we were there would honestly blow any one's mind.

Another oh-so great thing about Puerto... an ounce of weed was a mere $200 pesos, not even $20 for us. It seemed every time you finished smoking a monster joint someone had already lit another. This sort of behaviour tends to lead to two things: eating, and siesta´s. I must admit, siesta's really did get the best of me, sometimes 'napping' at 5pm would turn into a deep sleep, and I'd often find myself not waking up til 10am the next day. Pretty sure ¨I feel a siesta coming on¨ came out of everyone's mouth at least twice a day.

Travelling during the 'low' season rocks! Everything is cheaper, and we pretty much had the town and the beaches to ourselves. We got to know a few of the locals, and formed a tight bond with our new travelling buddies - Craig, Nick, Alex, Mooney, Eddie and Adam. Two Aussies, three Tassies, and a Kiwi. You can only imagine the amount of sheep rooting/inbred jokes getting around.

Going out in Puerto was always a blast - as long the yearning desire for a siesta wasn't playing on the back of your mind. One of the rather large nights we had out Alex Nick and I ventured off to see what the town had to offer. It's quite easy to get free shots just by getting chummy with every bar tender we came across. Mind you, I am talking about horrible, horrible cheap tequila, so you can imagine what kind of night this evolved into.........

A few friends from back home, Cuss, Jacko and Mal were surprise visitors to the Mayflower the following day. It's crazy how you can be right over the other side of the world and still run into people you know. Nonetheless, a celebration was in order. Ha, actually something that's brilliant about travelling - how you lose track of days, and how you find a different reason why we have to fiesta every night. "It's Nick's last night, we have to have some drinks," or "Craig passed his Scuba licence, we better celebrate," or the old favourite, "It's a Friday night, we've all worked soo hard this week."

Not quite ready to leave this magical place, we postponed our departure for the Mexican holiday 'Cinco de Mayo' as another celebration was in order... ha ha. This was by far the most outrageous night to date. We headed down the road to the most fabulous Mexican Salsa bar, and it seemed everyone from Puerto was there. Dancing in the street, we were approached by what we like to call 'The Rabies Dogs.' Yep, the kind of dogs that come near you, and everyone tries not to look it in the eyes in fear that if you do so it will only venture closer. You're actually even afraid to kick it away. Rabies isn't cool. But we did make a song about it that was pretty cool.. Titled "I got rabies from mah doggie," (actually these were the only repetitive lyrics in the song) and sung to the tune of "la la bumba," it wasn't long before we had bongos as backups, and a rather large amount of people joining in on the adorable sing-along.

Alas, our time in Puerto had finally come to an end, but our new found family was yet to be separated. San Cristobal, Palanque, and Tulum were the next destination myself, Ness, Mooney, Alex, Adam and Eddie were bound for. I'll save all that for another entry however.

More news from over this side of the world... I've had a major change of plans. After some careful deliberation, I have decided my heart just isn't in Europe. The typical sightseeing and the whole European summer thing doesn't quite float my boat they way it does for others. On the other hand, the idea of a proper South America trip really gets my blood pumping. Plus with my budget, I'd be living like a queen compared to Europe! Ness, however, has her eyes on the Europe prize. So after Central we'll be parting ways, which was a really hard decision to make. There's just something about this land that is so completely overwhelming, and I'm not ready to leave. Everything about it - from the unbelievable picture perfect beaches to the luscious mountains and jungles, even the ruins, and the people - there is so much character in everything. Day after day it keeps getting better, just when you think you've reached the paramount. And I haven't even left Mexico yet!

From here, we're heading to an Island off of Belize, where I'm thinking about doing a diving course, then over to Guatemala to eat many 1 cent avocados, and potentially do a two week Spanish course and a home stay. What an experience that will be. Well that's my mammoth update for now!

Adios Amigos xxx