The world according to...: Beaches, bugs and paradise!

It's been a while since I have had the internet at my fingertips, and enough time to sit and participate in the waxing phenomenon we call blogging.

It has been a very crazy week and change for me. It began on my impromptu trip to Acapulco with a kid I met in the "rideshare" section of craigslist, and ended with a kid I met in an internet cafe in a quaint artsy village just southeast of Mexico City, Tepotzlan. In between were a myriad of adventures and a couple curve balls which you can only expect and come to look forward to whilst traveling.

After leaving Acapulco I came up with the bright idea to check out this spot on the map, a lagoon by the name of Tecomate. So we darted off the main road on to a dirt road riddled with pot holes and more livestock than a petting zoo, to make it just as the sun was setting in what turned out to be a very very small fishing village. The people stared as we drove through the only street in town, as if we had appeared from the sky and not endured the same dirt road they use to get to and from the main highway. We found a spot to park and asked some ladies if it was alright to check out their little slice of heaven and walk around the lagoon. They loved our interest and we proceeded to familiarize ourself with the tiny fishing village of no more than a couple hundred people. It was becoming apparent that there was no hostel, no motel, no camp ground, and not even a beach to crash on. Upon returning to the car, I asked the same ladies if we could sleep in the car, to which they opened up and offered us a spot on their concrete floor. If that wasn't good enough, they took us to the only public place in town, Restaurante 3 Mananas. After a few beers and chatting up the owner, he offered to put us up in his restaurant, it was on the second floor and had a good breeze and good view, why not? Their level of hospitality only increased from there. The eldest daughter of the restaurant owners invited us to a party where a local boy was turning 24. We went and were quickly invited in and handed endless supplies of beers and tequila straight from a bottle they passed around. This lively event of 30 or so people ranged from teenagers to people in their 50's. As we all became more intoxicated they attempted to teach us how to dance while at the same time encircling us and prodding about why we were there, how we got there, our lives "back home" and so on. By the end of the night we were offered several places to stay, several breakfasts, and several boat rides on the lagoon. We ended up back at the house of the restaurant owners and awoke to the daughters cooking us fresh (from he lagoon that morning!) fish, handmade tortillas, and fresh salsa. It was by far one of the most amazing meals I have had in my life. The parents had gone to town, so we sat and chatted up the eldest daughter (the younger two just smiled and laughed at my green eyed friend and what I'm assuming is my laughable spanish) Now things move slowly in places like this. There was no television, no radio, no air conditioner, no running water. No stress either. There was no rush to do anything, we had all day to eat, lounge, eat coconuts, take a boat ride...talk. This came as a shock I think, because we were used to keeping a schedule, and the villagers figured we had all day, hell, they even offered to put us up for weeks! But by the afternoon we had to leave to our next destination.

By that night we made it into a beautiful beach resort by the name of Playa Ventura. This place is beautiful, inexpensive, and the beaches are fantastic. But by the time we made it to the hotel, we realized we both had been bitten HUNDREDS of times by what the locals called "sancudos" which I have gathered is a nasty little mosquito. My feet swelled up so big that I couldn't wear sandals or shoes, or even bend my toes (the wretched irony of feet problems!) It hurt/itched/burned so much it made me sick to my stomach. So needless to say we didn't enjoy much of the beach, the sand and water was "no bueno" for our feet.

The next spot on the itinerary was another fishing village with a rich afro-mestizo population, part of an isolated population that came from the caribbean and throughout mexico after slavery. This place was another very welcoming and simple village. They again welcomed us and asked us a ton of questions. It seems everywhere we went, the more open we were, the more we were treated like family! We stayed one night and left around noon the next day.

So, finally, we were just a short drive from our ultimate destination, the surf spot by the name of Puerto Escondido. But just when we got our hopes up, we got rear-ended by a drunk guy in the town of San Jose del Progreso. This put a definite wrench in our plans. We figured it out though, and stayed in a nice cabaña at a place called "Güido's". After 2 nights there, we were finally headed to Puerto.

We got to Puerto and I managed to do a lot of nothing, but lounge on the beach a couple days.

I then met a famous visual anthropologist by the name of Guillermo Aldana, who has been studying and taking pictures of the indegenous people throughout Mexico for 40 years. He showed me some work and even offered to take me back up toward Mexico City. He left me in a hip artsy town just a short drive from Mexico City where I landed in an internet café, bags and all, and proceeded to try and find a ride back to the city. Once again, I managed to ask the right people because the kids I approached asking about the nearest bus station just so happened to be from Mexico City. One of the guys had just come down with the flu and said he was headed back immediately (¡Gracias Nadir!) What luck! He drove me back and I met up with my brother who just so happened to be hanging out at the Frida Kahlo museum blocks from my ride's apartment---great timing!

And here I am, back in the "Districo Fedral" awaiting my next adventure!

Here: the restaurant in Tecomate (the lagoon), view from our balcony in Playa Ventura, View from the road south out of Acapulco, and Güido's restaurant in San José del Progreso