Finally made it to the beach!

San Cristobal de las Casas

I moved from Palenque to the classic travelers' town of San Cristobal de las Casas in central Chiapas.  It seemed nice, but very similar to Antigua, and the weather kind of reminded me of Xela (50 and drizzling).  I felt bad moving so fast, but I could only stand to stay there one night.  The pull of warm weather and the beach was just too strong.  I spent the next day slowly moving towards Puerto Angel on the Oaxaca coast.

The beach near Puerto Angel is split into 3 separate pieces.  Zipolite, San Augustinillo, and Mazunte.  Zipolite is the most famous, and enjoys a reputation as a nude beach and legendary hippie hangout.  Since I love to generalize, I'll just throw it out there now: I'm not a big fan of hippies.  Can't think of a hippie that I've ever liked.  About the closest I can think of is "The Dude" but a quick google search reveals that he isn't actually a hippie.

**Sidenote: At first glance, the website Dudeism.com appears to be awesome, and worth further study.  In case you're wondering about hippies and dudes, they sum it up here "Thus the Dude mandate is the same as Voltaire's, Samuel Johnson's, and Thoreau's: Tend to your own little garden and mend your neighbor's fence.  Hippies, on the other hand, think the entire world is a boundless garden, and then get disappointed when people shoot at them for trespassing."  Well said.**  

San Augustinillo

Anyway...I passed on Zipolite, and set up shop in the tiny, one-street town of San Augustinillo.  Speaking of hippies, not sure of the name of where I stayed, but instead of a door, there was just a giant dreamcatcher suspended above a gap in the wall between the street and the beach.  Tuto, the owner, was a clearly crazy bearded old wildman who carved driftwood in the common area with a chainsaw for a living.  There were three simple rooms (Lluvia - rain, Sol - sun, and Cielo - sky).  I chose Sol.  It wasn't much, but Tuto was really nice and didn't seem phased that I clearly couldn't understand a word of his spanish.  Everyday he would accost the fisherman as they brought their boats in around 11am, and would buy whatever they had caught that day.  He insisted that he make me ceviche for lunch, and I didn't complain about that one bit.  Can't beat fresh fish on the beach while watching the waves roll in.

Happy dogs playing on the beach...

Anyway, spent 3 days there doing nothing.  Read a lot of books, worked my ass off trying unsuccessfully to body surf in the particularly angry ocean, and sat and listened to Tuto ramble about who knows what.  I'm generally not much of a beach guy, but I can see how people could end up staying a lot longer than planned. The days go by pretty quickly when you just sit and watch the waves roll in.  

I finally left the beach and took the 6 hour van ride to Oaxaca city.  I was given a tip about buying some pills from the pharmacy that all the locals take for long bus rides.  Talk about a nice ride.  I passed out immediately and woke up in Oaxaca feeling great.  Hurray for medication!  Also, it only cost me $1.25 for 20 of these miracle pills.  Hurray for over the counter drugs!