Week #19: Oaxacan Coast

Greetings from Veracruz! We've been in the state of Oaxaca for the last month and just left it yesterday after three weeks in the City of Oaxaca de Juarez and one week at the Oaxacan coast. The coast was nice but also very hot so one week was plenty of beach time for us mountain folk! I've continued to speak Spanish all morning and I must say it is helping me to think in Spanish which I think is a good sign that I may be moving towards fluency. Ginny has been a great sport with it and is learning lots of Spanish as well!

We spent the beginning of the week in Mazunte which is a super chill beach community that is also known for being a spawning ground for baby turtles and home to the National Mexican Turtle Sanctuary. Visitors to Mazunte trend younger, dirtier (yes, even dirtier than us!) and hippier so it wasn't exactly our crowd but we did enjoy some nice little restaurants and there's some really gorgeous beaches as well. On one of my morning runs, I stopped to look out over the ocean and saw a large pod of dolphins surfing the waves as they came in towards the beach. It was mesmerizing to watch but unfortunately I didn't have my phone with me so I didn't get any photos!

We decided to move on towards Bahia de San Agustin after Mazunte as there was a good looking RV park there that had a pool, showers and outdoor kitchen! We had been camping out in a very still, dusty school parking lot in Mazunte so were ready to live high on the hog for a couple days. Chuparosa Gardens RV Park was a great spot situated between two different beaches so it almost always had a nice breeze which is a godsend in this climate. It's run by a Canadian couple and they do a great job of keeping the place nice and tidy and making all guests feel like family. And our timing was perfect as all of the other RVs/campers had cleared out right before our arrival.

While we were staying at Chuparosa Gardens, we met another guest who was in the midst of trying to row around the world in a solo row boat. He left San Diego in October with no money in a rowboat in a state of disrepair. I suppose it's pretty impressive that he's made it all the way to the Oaxacan coast considering the circumstances but I'm pretty skeptical of the prospects of his round the world journey. If this piques your interest, you should read this interview with Aaron and be the judge of his level of sanity!   

We left Bahia de San Agustin yesterday and drove nearly all day across the isthmus of Mexico to get from the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Mexico coast. We spent last night at some waterfalls a few hours south of the City of Veracruz. We took a  super refreshing swim in the river this morning and then drove to the City of Veracruz which we'll be exploring in the coming days. Not much to report yet but see photo below of my macchiato from this cafe which was a real work of art!   












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