¡Vamos a Puerto Escondido!

After several weeks of intensive Spanish courses at Solexico and classes with Jonathan and Oliver at SURCO, week seven of our journey here in Oaxaca arrived, which for most of us meant one very long-awaited thing: beach week.  Now don't get us wrong, we are certainly taking our studies here very seriously and are absolutely cherishing each wonderful experience as it comes, but an adventure to the world renowned surfing beaches of Puerto Escondido is a plus in anyone's book.  After some bittersweet goodbyes with our instructors at Solexico, the first group of four (Hannah, Carter, Lauren, & Kensey) boarded a van to venture through the mountains towards the southern coast of Oaxaca.  The rest of us then prepared ourselves for our 4am departure in a rented van the next day, and Carey really wasn't kidding about how windy the road was the ENTIRE 7 hours of the journey there.  After a restless ride that personally resulted in a very sore neck, we arrived at our funky hostel, Vivo Escondido, which coincidentally enough is owned and operated by a young guy from New Hampshire named Ross.  We quickly became acquainted with Ross's friends and coworkers as well as some of the other international guests at the hostel, including Jack the Aussie and 'Mongo' the eclectic, well-traveled artist and his dog, Tope (aka Richard Switzerland).  

  

 

Vivo Escondido & 'Mongo'- The most interesting man in Puerto
(Photos: Kensey Hanson & Shawn Dunwoody)

Once the 20 of us practically took over Vivo, we all eagerly donned our bathing suits and made the short 5 minute walk to the gorgeous swimming beach, Playa Carrizalillo, where we spent several sun-soaked afternoons together .  With sun and ocean aplenty, many of us worked on our lacking suntans while others took advantage of the opportunity to learn how to surf and paddleboard, ¡qué chido!  We also greatly enjoyed trying the wide array of cuisine offered by the restaurants located near Vivo Escondido, from authentic Italian pasta dishes to delicious falafels and everything in between.  As a gorgeous beach destination, Puerto exists as a very popular place for foreigners to retire to or buy a second home, which is perhaps why such a variety of food was available- we even found Cabot cheddar at the corner store (yes, we did buy it)!  Many of us also ventured away from the Rinconada neighborhood where Vivo is located to the more popular Playa Zicatela, which is renowned as one of the the top 10 surfing beaches in the entire world.  Although Zicatela is quite tourist-oriented, we enjoyed perusing the local artisan shops, visiting the small local market, and of course tasting some amazingly fresh seafood, including shrimp, fish tacos, and raw oysters straight out of the sea.  Zicatela is also quite popular for its beachside nightlife, and so to gather the 'authentic' Puerto Escondido experience many of us visited the scene for some salsa dancing and to practice our improved Spanish-speaking skills with both the locals and other young travelers hailing from France, Belgium, Australia, and Germany. 

Playa Carrizalillo (Photo: Lilly Xian)

On Wednesday, several of us took a nighttime boat ride in a lagoon about 30 minutes away from our hostel. Being out on the water was beautiful enough due to the overwhelming brilliance of the stars due to the lack of light pollution. The real reason we were there, however, was to see natural bioluminescent algae. After a while in the boat, the driver turned off the engine and said that we could put our hands in the water. It wasn’t until you touched the water that it began to literally glow. If you’ve seen Life of Pi, you know what I’m talking about. We all then jumped right into the water and our entire bodies began to glow which was incredible. It wasn’t until the next day that we all were informed that there was an alligator sighting during our swim…

 On Thursday, we soaked up our last rays of sun on the beach before embarking on another long journey back to Oaxaca around 3 pm. The ride home was actually really beautiful because we drove through the Sierra Norte at sunset. On Friday, the Food Systems program students met with one of the professors, Amy, to go over the plan for the next few weeks which made us all very excited because she has plenty of market visits, cooking demonstrations, and tastings planned! Everyone then joined us and we talked about our upcoming village stays. We had our final big research paper due for Oliver’s class on Sunday so most of us spent the weekend in cafes polishing those up so that we can go into village stays and then into our new course tracks on a good note.

Great times with even greater people (Photos: Julia Helms & Lauren Truncellito)

¡Salud! -Sarah Shaw & Margaret Liljedahl