Leaving Pinotepa Nacional we had a short 130 km. ride down to the beach town of Puerto Escondido. We stayed at Bungalow Ola, run by a nice Dutch woman who has lived there for some 22 yrs and is home to 18 cats and untold amount of dogs. This beach town has a small town feel, but has all the amenities one needs. There are no highrises to speak of on the beach which lends to it's charm, and many personal homes that ring the beach have excellent views of the ocean. Puerto Escondido has several world class surfing contests throughout the year. After having had a steady diet of beans , cheese, rice and tortillas it was nice to shake it up a bit with a Hawaiian pizza. This town has all the earmarks of a party town but you don't have to be dreadlocked or half naked to enjoy it.
Huatulco was next on the beach research scene. I am sure it is very nice, but we got lost looking for the beach, seeing as how the signs put us on dirt roads to nowhere, so we left. We did spy the marina thru the bars of the guarded entry but were too frugal to pony up for the entrance cost. Salina Cruz was our destination for the night and we had to fight very strong winds for about an hour berfore we arrived. Salina Cruz is a industrial port and storage facility/refinery for Pemex gas, Mexico's national oil company. We couldn't resist going into the local Burger King to see if there are any differences between here and home. This Burger King has a wide variety of desserts we don't normally see. Although a name brand chain, the concept of fast food and customer satisfaction here is still an oxymoron; horribly understaffed and a decision to shut down the bathroom for cleaning at the height of the supper rush. There was a baton carrying security guard manning the door on the inside, a fresh change from the armed guards at most other stores. Sort of like a Wal-mart greeter, security lite. The town square had a festive attitude for a Sunday night, young lovers, families, oil workers all out enjoying themselves, despite the windy conditions.
The next morning found us making remarkable progress on the road. After about 100 kms. of single lane road passing many windmill farms, we hit 2 lane blacktop and were averaging 100 kph. This section of road carries many transport trucks coming into and out of Central America. Our destination was the town of Escuintla, a jumping off point for a wildlife reserve area near Acapethua. Escuintla is a sizable town, however they seem to roll up the rug after 6p.m., making finding a restaurant a challenge. We found several Chinese food restaurants, in fact not serving Chinese food, but had many of the trimmings; lanterns, calenders, waving cats, and calligraphy.
The next morning we walked thru the local market, pre breakfast and passed stalls with the yellowist chickens, slabs of pig,beef, and all varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables. we settled in on a small stall and had a typical breakfast of scrambked eggs, frijoles tortillas and fresh orange juice. We were serenaded to by a one-legged guitar player who sang about falling in love with a girl who didn't speak Spanish. Very good string picking and a strong voice.
After a series of small vans/buses we made it to a national reserve that helps in the preservation of turtles as well as migratory birds. We negotiated a price for the tour and proceeded thru 30ft high mangrove covered lagoons on our way to outlying villages on small islands. We came to one island and had a long talk with the turtle caretaker. He would help with the incubation process for the turtle eggs and showed us the total cycle that these delicate creatures would have to endure for 1 in a thousand to survive to adulthood. He was also taking care of a one-eyed crocodile, that was destined for release in the future. We were hoping to see more birds other than the resident pelicans, egrets, herons and buzzards, but we were a little to early in the season. Next stop Guatemala.