A Tale of Two Beaches

Photos:

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When you go backpacking for any length of time you expect to encounter the odd cockroach infested bedroom, death-defying bus journey or bout of digestive unwellness, all of which are considered part of the adventure. What you don't expect is to encounter all of these things within the space of 24 hours, and if you do you are fully entitled to be extremely unhappy about it, as was I the day we left Oaxaca.

The day had not started well. After shoehorning ourselves into a minibus clearly designed for short Mexican people we began the 7 hour drive to Puerto Escondido. Not along 7 hours worth of nice straight highway though, no - this journey was almost entirely on narrow, windy mountain roads along one side of which ran a bottomless ravine. This would have been bad enough with a half-sane driver, but unfortunately ours was in something of a hurry and had clearly been taught that driving behind any other vehicle is highly illegal and must be prevented by immediate overtaking. At one point he overtook 2 cars, a coach and a motorbike while approaching the brow of a steep hill and talking on his mobile phone. Not the most fun experience to sit through if you were fairly recently involved in a car accident...

Matters did not improve upon arrival at our hostel. It had looked promising enough - close to the beach and with its own pool, cocktail bar and cheap private rooms. What the website didn't mention was the crazy Englishman who ran the place, or the large cockroaches that live in the rafters above the bed and come out at night to say hello. After that there was no point even getting upset about something trivial like no longer being able to digest food properly.

Fortunately, our next port of call was a small slice of heaven. Two hours down the coast is the hitherto largely undiscovered beach hamlet of San Agustinillo. In a few years it's guaranteed to be swamped by hotels and tourists, but for now all it has is a single road running along a beautiful beach, with just enough palapas, pizza restaurants and purveyors of cerveza to look after the handful of backpackers that have stumbled across its pristine shores. We checked into a beachfront B&B, donned our swimsuits and spent the next 3 days sunbathing, swinging in hammocks, drinking pineapple smoothies and playing in the waves. Much better.

Our last stop on our tour de Mexico was the lovely San Cristobal de las Casas. Perched in the lofty Chiapas highlands, the city is surrounded by numerous Mayan villages where ancient traditions and religious practices remain a part of everyday life. San Cristobal achieves a rare balance between catering to a healthy tourist industry without prostituting its unique cultural heritage. We visited one of the larger Mayan villages, San Juan Chamula, on horseback (which was an experience in itself given that the horses barely came up to our waists). In the village church, the ancient traditions are demonstrably alive and well. Although in theory a Catholic place of worship, the local priest only visits when invited by the villagers to perform christenings. For all other religious matters they have their own church elders, and their own customs. You wouldn't find many Catholic churches where chickens are routinely sacrificed in front of statues of saints, or worshippers drink bottles of coke in order to induce burping and thereby expel evil spirits.

From San Cristobal we continue the journey south and into Central America. Next stop, Guatemala...