Spring Break Stop 2: Zipolite, Oaxaca

We arrived in Hualtulco early Wednesday morning and took a taxi to THE BEACH. Brit and I rented a room at a posada in Zipolite. A posada is like a bed and breakfast. We thought we were booking a house to rent in Hualtulco but Google Maps was wrong on Airbnb so we ended up in Zipolite, the nude beach. There were more bathing suits than I expected actually. Our room wasn’t ready at the house when we arrived so we decided to run on the beach. I’d say 10% of the people we passed were naked. Then we got some breakfast on the beach and groceries and headed back to the house. The house that we stayed at was amazing. It was a 5-minute walk from the beach and you could see the beach from the balconies because it was on a hill. Brit and I each had our own rooms and we shared a bathroom. Once we unpacked, we headed straight for the beach. Britney is a tanning machine. She can lay for hours soaking up the sun. I thought I could too but I was too hot. I spent most of my time in the water or shade. The waves were knock-your-bathing-suit-off huge. If you didn’t go to the beach naked, the waves helped make you that way. We stayed in the sand until it was 5 and there were 2-for-1 cocktails at a nearby restaurant. We were in heaven. The owner of the house made us a delicious dinner at night and we got to meet the other people staying in the house.

On Thursday we started off with another run. I was super proud of our exercising! We made friends with the federal police office who was also staying in the house and he was our chauffeur for the next couple of days. He offered to take us to Mazunte, a nearby town known for their turtles. First, we went to the turtle museum. Behind the museum, they had a bunch of open tanks with different kinds of turtles. Baby turtles are the cutest! In the parking lot, we were persuaded by a tour guide to take a boat ride through a swamp off a beach where the sand was magnetic because it had metallic bits mixed with regular rock. The tour was simple but we got to see a lot of wildlife. We saw birds, dozens of iguanas, and a handful of crocodiles. I learned that when a crocodile dies, you usually don’t see a complete dead body, but pieces rather because other crocodiles eat the dead one. Mothers even eat their children if they don’t leave their mothers quickly enough when they are babies. After the tour we went to the Mazunte beach for some lunch then hiked up Punta Cometa. On the other side of the hill, there was a beach (again, with massive waves). We made friends while we were swimming. I only lost my bathing suit twice. -_- We watched a beautiful sunset and headed back to the house.

Friday was another adventure day! After a morning run, Britney headed to the beach and I went to Las cascadas mágica (Magical Waterfalls) with people who were staying at the house with us. The police officer drove me, a British man who has been traveling the world for the last 17 years, creating and updating websites for free housing, and an Australian couple who have been traveling all over America for the past 6 months. Muy buena onda (very good people). We drove for so long. It was north of Hualtulco so it took about 3.5 hours to get there. The waterfalls were stunning. We hiked up as far as we could on land then we continued in our bathing suits to the highest pool. There was a rope swing and caves at all levels of the waterfall. The Brit made an awesome 2 minute video of us on the rope swing and in the caves to one of my favorite songs in Spanish. On the million hour drive back, the car died. In the middle of nowhere. In the dark. Thankfully a taxi drove past, so we were able to get a ride back. At night, Britney and I went out with our new friends from the beach. There was a bonfire on the beach in Zipolite right next to a reggae bar. It was a lot of fun! The night ended in tacos so you know it was a good time.

Saturday was another day in paradise. Another perk of staying at the house was that the owner made us breakfast for only $2USD. We had eggs, beans, toast, and bacon. Brit and I were going to go to Hualtulco for the day to enjoy the beach but it was too much of a pain to get there so we stayed in Zipolite. We layed out for a while then we met up with our beach friends again and played volleyball. We made the right choice to stay. After some micheladas, Brit and I headed back to the house to nap and to get ready for the night. We went back to the beach and there was a DJ playing who took 100% of our music requests because we were dancing. There was a bonfire outside of the reggae bar again and a live band so we stayed there until the time changed and we lost and hour and it was suddenly 4AM.

Our last day in Zipolite was Easter Sunday. It was a very sweet day. I had giving up sweets for Lent so I went to down with my sugar intake. It was the laziest day I’ve had possibly in my life. I set out to find a church after breakfast and I think I found the only one in Zipolite. I thought it might be Catholic because of the large Catholic presence here in Mexico but once the female priest figure walked in (15 minutes late) I assumed it wasn’t Catholic. It was the hottest mass I had even been to. I was dripping sweat just sitting in the simple square-shaped building. When I was leaving church, I ran into Brit who was on the hunt for medical supplies to play doctor for the metal pieces in her foot. After she treated herself, she headed to the beach but I headed back to the house to spend 4 hours in the hammock. Like I said, lazy day. Late at night, we went to the bus station to take another overnight bus to stop number 3. We met a really nice guy at the bus stop. When he thought his bus was at the station, he left and Brit went to the shop to get water but she found him there buying water and chocolate for us because his bus hadn’t actually arrived yet. So many nice people in Mexico. Then we hopped on our bus for the 11-hour ride to our next destination!