And the adventure continues… we drove 10 hours by bus from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido, the touristy Surfparadise of Mexico. We were super tired but we managed to get to our hostel at Zicatela beach and the first thing we did was simply relax. We had an exhausting tour day and bus ride behind us and we were looking for a timeout by the ocean. In the late afternoon we dragged our butts to the beach, and luckily it was not too hot so we were able to do some yoga as well. The next day we started off with a power breakfast at a vegetarian/vegan cafe called Elephant, and afterwards we organized ourselves some surf lessons. We met up with our teachers David and Rene in front of the surf shop, and we got a quick introduction and practice on how to stand up on the board. Afterwards we kind of expected to hop in a car and drive to the next beach, where the waves were better for beginners…well that did happen, it just took a few minutes to organize a cab that had racks on it for the boards haha. As we arrived at the beach Carrizalillo, we were stunned by the view. It is a beautiful bay located north from Zicatela beach where we were staying, the water was shimmery and had that perfect sky color. The waves were crashing on the cliffs, and we could already see some surfers try their best in the water. A few rocky stairs later, we got in the water to start our surf lesson. Our teachers were extremly friendly and helpful, constantly motivating us to keep going. When a wave was coming they told us to paddle and then they pushed the board so we would catch the right moment to stand up. We had such an amazing time that we booked another lesson for the next day. And we even got a discount! The next two days were spent with more surfing, good food and lots of sun. On our last day we got introduced to Silas, the surf legend of Puerto Escondido! He was this super sweet old guy, who looked 10 years younger because of his daily surfing. David and him told us many stories about the town and their experiences as surfers. We had some pizza together at a local place (It was so good!) and then we went down to the same beach again at night, and watched the stars and just talked. Silas told us about his connection with the water and nature and you could really tell that these guys have such a different approach to life and the environment, because their whole lives they went to the ocean to surf, to swim or simply to enjoy the water. Every single day. And for a moment I imagined my life being like theirs. How beautiful it must be to grow up in a town by the ocean, to be able to surf everyday and be with mother nature constantly. My dreamy thoughts were interrupted by the guys, because they decided to go night surfing. They even wanted us to try it but we weren’t in the mood and neither did we have our swimsuits on, so we watched them from the beach. And what we witnessed was one of the most amazing things, I think I’ve ever seen. They were able to surf in pure darkness with only a gimpse of a light, and they even did handstands while surfing!! I was like what the..!??? HOW?? We were so impressed and at the same I just felt pure happiness. Only these guys could surf in their home waters at night, knowing where the rocks are and which parts to avoid. Their comfort in their own home and surroundings was splashing over to me. This night was definitely one to remember. We wanted to stay in Puerto forever…
Unfortunately the same night ended up pretty rough, after hanging out with some other people, and I kind of screwed up. It’s very personally so I do not want to share but I just want to say that I felt many emotions, and I still do. It kind of threw me back in time, and for the last 2 weeks now I’ve had a very very emotional and hard time with myself. I didn’t let that ruin my ongoing trip, I can actually say that the rest of our time in Mexico has helped me to overcome and be okay again. I am okay now, and I’ve definitely learned another life lesson, if not a couple honestly.. But didn’t I ask for that in my last post? Lol, life can be interesting sometimes.
Anyways.. Lina and I decided to fly from Puerto Escondido to Mexico City, for a couple reasons. First of all Lina got sick, she was struggling with a bad cold from the first flight and the night bus, and she generally has not the strongest immune system, and we also wanted to stay longer by the beach than we thought, so if we would’ve driven back with the bus it would’ve taken another 2 days (with a stop in Oaxaca again) to get to Mexico City. So we arrived in the big city on friday around 11am and we went straight to our hostel to catch up on the sleep we had missed out on. In the late afternoon we strolled around a park and we went to a vegan Taco Truck for dinner. They had the best vegan tacos I have ever tasted, I swear!! The place is called “Por Siempre Vegana Taqueria”. And if you know how much I love vegan food than I’m sure you can imagine my facial expression while eating these pieces of heaven! Also it was very weird to be in a big city again, actually even weirder because I think it was the biggest city I’ve ever been in so far, the city has about 9 million habitants or even more with all the non-registered people. Riding the metro was fun too after almost 3 months haha. Well so far Lina and I had a great time in Mexico with so much going on, but also with many good talks. We were dreaming often about the future, we talked about opening up a vegan cafe in Oaxaca, becoming professional surfers and yogis and how we would spent our time living in Mexico. We love this country so much, there is no doubt that we’ll come back soon.
Next stop: Puebla!
//Olivia