Puerto Escondido

In a word, HOT. I don’t know how people function in this heat. If it is like this in January, how must it be during the summer?

We wanted to get away from the cold and we did. Ticket prices had dropped to half what they were during the holidays and so with only three day planning, Alex and I booked the trip. The January forecast from the Power Path School of Shamanism (http://thepowerpath.com/) recommended that we break our routines so we interpreted this to be an act of spontaneity encouraged by the universe.

On the recommendation of a friend we chose to stay at the Casamar Apartments (http://www.casamarmexico.com/) on Zicatela beach. A two bedroom apartment (complete with kitchen) overlooking the pool, cost us $545 for the week.

Casamar is a relatively new family run operation; 12 apartments and the family residence surround a pool and gardens in a kind of “Melrose Place” atmosphere. Laine, the daughter of the owners, manages the complex.

Laine’s older sister was visiting from Boston with her new baby. Probably suspecting that Alex and I were a couple (which we are not, he's straight), she told us that her “partner” had just returned to the states with their two-year-old son. It was clear that her “partner” was a woman. The same question came to both Alex and me but it remained unasked. We didn’t feel that “Where did you get the sperm?” was a polite question to ask of someone we’d just met.

Our favorite members of the family were Casey and Rosita; two beautiful golden retrievers who share a passion for playing fetch, especially if it means jumping into the swimming pool.

I began an activity that I hope to make routine. I had read in a book that if one wants to lose weight (among a list of other things) one should walk an hour every day. I therefore set out to walk Zicatela beach the morning after we arrived.

Did I mention that it was hot?

Puerto Escondido is an international surfing destination, home of the “Mexican Pipeline.” If Calvin Klein is looking for new underwear models, he would be well advised to look in Puerto Escondido. “Think about it,” my friend Karl said back home, “They have to swim like a mile out to catch the best waves and they do that all day.” For someone who is not very happy with the condition of his aging body, my morning walks were an immensely humbling experience.

I’d heard that the last “affordable” beach front property in Mexico can be found in Puerto Escondido. This may be true, more so three years ago, but other than surfing and lying on the beach, there is not a great deal to do here. Not yet.

However, Scott, the owner of the restaurant Seis Palmas (not to be missed for fine dining) broke it down this way; “We have an international airport but no international flights, the ex-governor of the state is building a white elephant of a resort in the center of town, a local developer recently opened a cement factory including a fleet of new cement trucks, and an enormous discount supermarket is under construction as we speak. What does a town of 60,000 inhabitants need with all this? What do they know that we don’t?”

Scott didn’t appear to think much of the surfing community. “Surfers don’t have any money. They just surf and eat pizza.” But then he pointed to a group of million dollar homes on a cliff overlooking a pristine bay. “That one belongs to an Englishman, that to a Spaniard, that one an Italian, that one an American and over there, a Canadian. This place is attracting an international community.”

One evening Alex and I were sitting on our veranda when Alex said, “Holly Shit! That is the biggest scorpion I’ve ever seen!” There on the banister, headed toward the palapa terrace above, was a sizable dark scorpion. A few minutes later a huge toad appeared near the entrance to our terrace. When I approached him, he hopped up the steps after the scorpion. A few minutes later, a mouse ran past us, toward the stairs. “There must be a meeting up there tonight,” I said. “I wonder what they’re talking about. This could be the title to a children’s story; The Mouse, the Toad and the Scorpion.”

Have I said that it was really hot?

Our routine became one of eating, reading and sleeping. I would get up and take my morning walk. By the time I returned Alex was usually awake. Then we’d order breakfast, eat, read, take long naps, play with the dogs and swim a little, shower and go to dinner. More often than not, dinner was at a wonderful new restaurant called Guadua (http://www.guadua.com.mx/), just down the beach from our apartment. Diego and his business partners have put together an amazing menu in a beautiful, slightly Asian setting. (Watch out for the drink prices though. Ouch!) After dinner we’d sit on our terrace and solve the world’s problems.

While Puerto Escondido may be a good investment opportunity, it didn’t sing to me. I need a little more infrastructure, a little more cultural diversity, a little more interesting architecture, a larger variety of activities and a little less heat.

The search continues.