Mexico Day 94: Hunting down a place to stay

Puerto Escondido to La Puesta, Oaxaca //

We wake to seventy-five degrees at sunrise which feels considerably better than the peak of yesterday’s heat.  However, the temp is rising fast and we have no desire to sit around and bake so we pack up and head into the center of Puerto Escondido for breakfast.  Puerto Escondido is a surfing and vacation destination on the Oaxaca coast.  Tourists of various nationalities walk the streets and ride past us on rented motorbikes.  With tourist-driven businesses on every corner, I’m surprised our breakfast only costs a total of $14.

There is a Chedraui in town, a grocery store chain we love for its wide variety of food, so we head there before making our way out of town.  Upon arrival we see that the parking lot resides within a garage.  Mark pulls off the busy street and up to the clearance sign.  I get out and confirm that we will definitely clear the sign and continue to watch as Mark proceeds to clear the first three beams.  After I get back in the truck and Mark drives just a few feet further, we hear something scrape.  A man appears, rattling off Spanish, and is telling us to keep driving further into the garage.  Mark is not interested in making the situation worse so he stands outside the truck and evaluates his options.  Upon looking around at the beams overhead he sees that some of the beams hang 4-6” lower than the others.  I guess getting past the clearance sign didn’t guarantee we were in the clear.  Luckily other cars entering the garage can get around us.  In that moment I’m feeling so glad that Mark does not get hasty or flustered in these situations.  This is the kind of thing that could quickly escalate from a minor problem to a major problem if not approached in a calculated manor.  Mark decides to let some air out of the tires and then proceeds to reverse out of the garage slowly.  No serious damage is incurred, only scratches to our vent hood and Starlink mount.  

After completing our grocery shop we head out of town to find our next camp spot.  Mark has a few location options picked out on the iOverlander app so we head an hour down the highway to option one.  We arrive to a small dirt parking lot on the edge of a small lagoon with no access to, or breeze from the ocean.  Standing on the edge of the still water, Mark and I contemplate the likelihood of crocodiles and agree that mosquitoes will probably be horrendous.  Back in the cab of the truck we reevaluate our other options which are mostly of the restaurant parking lot variety.  At this point we’re no strangers to camping in parking lots but after driving around the small village of El Cacalote we’re not seeing anything that looks level or large enough for two trucks.  It’s an easy decision to get back on the highway and head to the next town.  

On a positive note, the driving today is glorious.  The two lane highway has light traffic, very few semis, and no steep grades.  For the first time in two months we are leisurely cruising down a quiet highway at a comfortable fifty-five miles an hour.  It’s our favorite kind of driving and is something we’ve been missing.  This is still Mexico however and the drive doesn’t come without a few dozen topes.

In the next town of Cerro Hermoso the presence of crocodiles is confirmed when we spot warning signs posted along a stream that runs beside the road.  To further confirm that we are in all new territory, I spot an iguana sun-bathing on a pile of large boulders.  He seems agitated by me taking his picture as though I didn’t ask for his permission.  I’m thrilled by the photo-op nonetheless.

At the end of a narrow spit is another camp option marked on iOverlander.  Once again we don’t love what we see.  There’s trash, little room to walk around our trucks, and it’s close to a populated center meaning there’s a good chance of having company.  When considering a free campsite such as this, we evaluate the chances of getting a knock on the door in the middle of the night from someone telling us we’re not allowed to be parked where we are.  Unlike in the US, it’s not very clear where overnight parking is allowed and not allowed in Mexico.  This is one of the top reasons why we’ve been paying to stay at places.  The fee and subsequent required action of speaking with a host/owner/local of some kind, confirms that we’re allowed to be parked in that location.  While we’ve spent far more money on campsites this winter than ever before, we have yet to get kicked out of a spot, a winning streak we’d like to keep going.  

Moving on from the spit Mark decides it’s time to try something other than iOverlander options.  On google maps he sees several cabana rentals along the coast and figures one of them may let us park on their property.  A short ways out of town a dirt road runs adjacent to the sea with various plots of private property standing between the road and the shoreline.  We pull up to the first spot with cabana rentals and in short order a woman walks out to greet us.  Between her limited English and Mark’s limited Spanish, Zulma happily accepts our request to park on her property.  She shows us around and offers use of the bathrooms, showers, pool, and outdoor kitchen.  We find a large, sturdy palapa to park next to that offers shade, a steady breeze, and hammocks for all four of us.  After striking out multiple times today we’re in awe of what a perfect place we’ve found.  And with no one renting her cabanas on this night, Zulma is happy to have us.  

The heat and humidity is ever-so-slightly more tolerable than yesterday.  That is until the sun sets activating hoards of hungry mosquitoes.  We retreat to the oven that is our camper and though the heat is reaching the upper level of what I can tolerate, I remain oh so grateful for this little slice of paradise and it’s welcoming host.  I’m always happy to go to bed knowing we’re allowed to be parked where we are.

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