Getting to Puerto Escondido from Vancouver Island in February isn’t easy. It takes determination and while transiting via ferry’s trains, airports, and Uber’s one must keep the memory of warm winds and the sea air at top of mind. We left the Island on the 4th during a snowy cold snap and made our way to YVR to catch the red eye on Aeromexico to Mexico City where we had a long layover before our connection to Puerto. For anyone who hasn’t been to Benito Juarez Airport in CDMX prepare to be underwhelmed. In fact I am writing this blog sitting on the floor in Terminal 1 of said airport waiting for my airline to open so I can check my bag. There is woefully little seating landside and the glaring white lights, unintelligible loudspeaker, and thumping music is enough for me to consider other hubs to transit through.

At any rate, we made it to Puerto and spent 2 weeks at Vivo Resort with our good friends and neighbours Shari and Mark Selva. The resort itself is lovely, 3 pools, a restaurant, spa, and bar. We had a top floor oceanfront condo where we would sip coffee each morning and watch the whales swim by. Simply spectacular; a sandy beach for as far as the eye could see and as the resort is out of town, hardly anyone on it. We fell into a rhythm with our days and would spend a few days poolside followed by a day out exploring. Our friends hadn’t been to the area before so we were sure to take them out to explore the city, as well neighbouring beaches.

We went to a fiesta in Chila, the nearest inland town where we watched Pelota Mixteca, a traditional handball game dating back to pre-Hispanic times. The game itself is quite dangerous but somehow we ended up in the caged field watching for a few minutes before a women came up to us and said in English “get out of there, it’s so dangerous!” We skirted out of through the gate and watched from the outside. I never did get the gist of it but the players had a leather glove on that had a large boulder sewn into it. the opposing team would bounce a small rubber ball towards them and they have hit it back with this glove. There were several games being played at the same time on the same field and apparently teams came from as far as Mexico City to compete. We also watched a football game that was on a beautiful new pitch. A huge investment for a small farming community.

The highlight of the fiesta is the fireworks and castillo on the last night. It brings 100’s of people to the area to watch and there is also a huge street market and fair happening at the same time. Nick and I have seen castillo’s before but we have never seen anything like this. The show is amazing, so many firecrackers accompanied by a live band. Ash and embers were falling down everywhere and the kids were squealing with delight.

We also rented scooters for a few days and what fun that was. We got them for $300 pesos a day (about $20 CDN) and it was well worth it. We explored La Punta, Zicatela, and also went north up past the lagoon and popped into small towns along the way. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant that had a beautiful pool that we could use. We were the only ones there and we had an amazing fish lunch and cooled off in the pool.

Nick has a favourite seafood restaurant in Puerto that we discovered last year. We managed to find it again and ate there a few times and it was just as delightful. It is called El Curandero located about 4 blocks south of Playa Carrazalillo if you follow Benito Juarez to the roundabout and veer onto Avenida Hildago.

We also checked out Playa Coral which is a beautiful little beach one bay over from Playa Carrazalillo. It is accessible via a short trail (steep in places) or you can pay $50 pesos at Hotel Villa Mexicana and they have a paved walking path to go down but you have to access by going through the hotel. There is a bar, bathrooms, and outdoor shower available beachside as well. You can also rent an umbrella for $250 pesos.

The beach is tiny and the swimming is great. Not too crowded and also a great spot for sunset.

Before we knew it was time to leave Vivo Resort, our friends to head north, and Nick and I to carry on to our next adventure. We had such a great time, made so many memories and are looking forward to the next holiday together.

I’ll leave you a couple dogs of Mexico ❤️.