Puerto Escondido. Mexico      November 23, 2023

I figured out what was wrong yesterday.  Change.  In spite of the way I live my life, I have difficulty with change and there was a lot of that lately.  Lynne went home, I moved from a nice hotel to a hostel, I had a poor sleep the night before and I was just out of sorts.  Today was good, in spite of the idiot who talked via Zoom or whatever platform he was using until at 1 a.m. when I asked him to be quiet.  His solution was to put in his headphones so I couldn’t hear the person he was talking to.  So annoying.  Even so, I had a cool, comfortable sleep and was ready to do something this morning.  I headed out about 9 a.m.-

to a restaurant called Cafecito which means “little coffee”.  It was recommended by the front desk hostel people. I walked first along a busy highway and then down to the beach past the fishing boats and a bunch of tents in a rubby compound.  I thought of my overlanding days and was glad I hadn’t been in a tent in the rain last night-

Playa Principal becomes Zicatela Beach and it’s just beach after beach after beach.  It’s very wide with huge waves-

Obviously no swimming!  I walked along the edge where the waves were coming in to shore and about 6 inches of water hit my legs and just about toppled me.  The rip tides were horrendous too-

There are many restaurants along the beach- 

but they’re a long way back-

Mexicans like their statues-

I found Cafecito and had a 25 minute wait to get a table. Breakfast was delicious: French toast, eggs, bacon and fried potatoes-

and finally a good description of the different ways to order eggs.  As kids, we liked our eggs flat which is with a broken yolk and flipped.  I don’t see that kind on the list-

After breakfast I walked to the Zicatela Mercado which was a huge building with small kiosks but only half were open.  It was disappointing but I liked this mural-

and this tree-

Of course every place has its sign-

I passed a truck full of oranges-

where they were making juice-

I walked back to the hostel and just about melted.  I walked straight into the bathroom, undressed and stood in the tepid water of the shower until my body temperature returned to normal.  I decided I’m going to be like the Mexicans and have an afternoon siesta to stay out of the worst heat of the day.

For lupper, about 3 pm, I walked to Pepe’s Fish Tacos.  It was a very chill place, complete with a chicken-

I had a fish coconut taco which was just average and expensive at 70 pesos or ($5.58)-

They sure like their pineapple!  I wandered around and found the bus depot half a block from the hostel.  I got good information for the next couple of legs of my journey so that was reassuring.  

Walking home I passed this park.  Most people don’t have back or front yards so they take advantage of local parks-

It looked okay and was pretty clean.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow but I’ll think of something!