Puerto Escondido: The Land with no Time
So I just spent the last week in Puerto Escondido. If you asked me to tell you what I did each day, I would not be able to seperate the days. The whole week was one continous blur of beach, swimming, soccer, and fiestas. It was definitely a vacation and not travel. I spoke English pretty much the whole time and met some pretty funny characters. My only complaint was how freaking hot it was there. I took cold showers by choice. Puerto Escondido has one of the best pipelines in North America but I really didn´t care because I don´t surf.
One of the days, again I have no idea which one, we took a chartered boat for an hour to see the wild life. After about 10 minutes of driving full speed into the ocean, which is a little nerve wracking when you are going over large swells and have no life jacket, we encountered about 12 dolphines. They were only 10 meters from the boat and were swimming along the top. After we tired of dolphines, we went a little further. Out of nowhere, the driver speeds up, cuts the engine, and jumps off the boat with a rope and onto the back of a sea turtle. His son pulls him in and he has a freaking huge sea turtle in his grasps. I´m no sea expert but I feel like wild life is for seeing. The turle was about 35 years old he told us and they can live to be 100-120. This whole hour sea trip only cost me 50 pesos or about $4. I love Mexico.
The 15th of September was the eve to Mexico´s 200th independence day. This is probably the only day I know with certainty what I did (not because i was drinking but just because it´s difficult to distinguish one day at the beach from another). In a nut shell, we went to the Zocola, town center, along with about 5,000 other people and danced around like fools. Normally there are open containers laws, but not this night. At some point I thought I´d try my game and I went up to a group of Mexican girls and said "Hola chicas, como estan? Soy gringo." And that´s it. Unfortunately, it did not work.
The last two days in Puerto Escondio some Brazilians that I met in Cholula randomly showed up and I kicked it with them for two days. They were super fucking cool and it was hard to say goodbye to come to San Cristobal. I had to go though because in Puerto Escondido life is too perfect. It feels dirty how easy it is to live there. You wake up around 11, eat food, go to the beach, eat food, and then drink. Time has no value there and it feels like a guilty pleasure to be there. Almost pornographic. After a week I had done nothing meanful with my life. I could never live there. A bunch of americans did live there as expats but they were all really weird. I´d think you have to be crazy to be content to live in that dream of a reality for more than a few weeks. It´s not real life.
Last night I took a 12 hour night bus to San Cristobal. Night buses suck as you basically forfeit a night of sleep, but it´s the only way to travel around here. I found a couchsurfer in San Cristobal and I am expecting to be here 2 or three days. I basically just stay places until a little thing in my head says, alright, get the fuck out of here. I have two options now. Continue south to Guatemala as I am only 3 hours from the border (I met a guatemalan and mexican who live in America who are going), or go back to Mexico City for a few days. Both would be sweet.
I am a little disappointed that I didn´t use this trip to take more advantage of polishing up my Spanish, but it just wasn´t in the cards. I think to really get a Spanish experience, or any language experience, you have to do a little more planning and find a place to volunteer or a legitamite family to stay with. Not a shitty family that is in it for the money that the language schools connect you with, but a real family.
San Cristobal is one of my favorite cities already. The streets are narrow and cobbled and there are tons of open air shops. Most of all cheap food. We are talking 4 empanadas for 10 pesos cheap. Looks like Husky football didn´t do well today. Fulbright application successfully submitted. One week left...
Señor Taylor
One of the days, again I have no idea which one, we took a chartered boat for an hour to see the wild life. After about 10 minutes of driving full speed into the ocean, which is a little nerve wracking when you are going over large swells and have no life jacket, we encountered about 12 dolphines. They were only 10 meters from the boat and were swimming along the top. After we tired of dolphines, we went a little further. Out of nowhere, the driver speeds up, cuts the engine, and jumps off the boat with a rope and onto the back of a sea turtle. His son pulls him in and he has a freaking huge sea turtle in his grasps. I´m no sea expert but I feel like wild life is for seeing. The turle was about 35 years old he told us and they can live to be 100-120. This whole hour sea trip only cost me 50 pesos or about $4. I love Mexico.
The 15th of September was the eve to Mexico´s 200th independence day. This is probably the only day I know with certainty what I did (not because i was drinking but just because it´s difficult to distinguish one day at the beach from another). In a nut shell, we went to the Zocola, town center, along with about 5,000 other people and danced around like fools. Normally there are open containers laws, but not this night. At some point I thought I´d try my game and I went up to a group of Mexican girls and said "Hola chicas, como estan? Soy gringo." And that´s it. Unfortunately, it did not work.
The last two days in Puerto Escondio some Brazilians that I met in Cholula randomly showed up and I kicked it with them for two days. They were super fucking cool and it was hard to say goodbye to come to San Cristobal. I had to go though because in Puerto Escondido life is too perfect. It feels dirty how easy it is to live there. You wake up around 11, eat food, go to the beach, eat food, and then drink. Time has no value there and it feels like a guilty pleasure to be there. Almost pornographic. After a week I had done nothing meanful with my life. I could never live there. A bunch of americans did live there as expats but they were all really weird. I´d think you have to be crazy to be content to live in that dream of a reality for more than a few weeks. It´s not real life.
Last night I took a 12 hour night bus to San Cristobal. Night buses suck as you basically forfeit a night of sleep, but it´s the only way to travel around here. I found a couchsurfer in San Cristobal and I am expecting to be here 2 or three days. I basically just stay places until a little thing in my head says, alright, get the fuck out of here. I have two options now. Continue south to Guatemala as I am only 3 hours from the border (I met a guatemalan and mexican who live in America who are going), or go back to Mexico City for a few days. Both would be sweet.
I am a little disappointed that I didn´t use this trip to take more advantage of polishing up my Spanish, but it just wasn´t in the cards. I think to really get a Spanish experience, or any language experience, you have to do a little more planning and find a place to volunteer or a legitamite family to stay with. Not a shitty family that is in it for the money that the language schools connect you with, but a real family.
San Cristobal is one of my favorite cities already. The streets are narrow and cobbled and there are tons of open air shops. Most of all cheap food. We are talking 4 empanadas for 10 pesos cheap. Looks like Husky football didn´t do well today. Fulbright application successfully submitted. One week left...
Señor Taylor
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