Mexico Day 11

by Kathy 12. May 2009 14:51

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Puerto Escondido

The morning sky was blue and clear—another beautiful day for adventure! Here is the view looking from our hotel down the street along Zicatela beach:

Near Puerto Escondido is a small rescue center for crocodiles, turtles, and iguanas. The sanctuary was started by Galo Sánchez, his family and neighbors. We had some basic driving directions, which led us to the Barra de Colotepec neighborhood. We reached a point where we were on a narrow dirt road near the beach, and we realized that we had obviously missed the rescue center; so we turned around and backtracked, looking and looking. We finally stopped to ask directions from a family that was sitting outside of their house. They pointed across the street; wouldn’t you know it—we had stopped right in front of the rescue center! We all shared a good laugh.

The rescue center does not allow photos inside the facilities; however, we took several from outside the front gate:

Genevieve at the entrance:

We entered the gate, and a woman came out to greet us. She started our short walking tour by bringing out two small iguanas that we could touch. She continued by leading us to the various pens where the animals were maintained. She spoke very rapid Spanish, even though we asked her several times if she could please slow down. She seemed tired and a bit indifferent, even unenthusiastic, about our visit. However, she did answer all of our questions, and Ben and I like to think that we got the “big picture” regarding how the animals are kept and fed. Our understanding is that the center receives the animals through donations, and then nurtures them for several years before releasing the animals back into their natural environment. The animals that we saw all looked like they were being cared for very well. The children especially enjoyed seeing the crocodiles and iguanas. In particular, Sebastian was fascinated at how the hundreds of iguanas in one very large pen would congregate and move almost as a single mass from one side to the other, away from us as we walked around. The tour is “free”, but the woman does ask for a voluntary donation at the end. We were very impressed with the center, and at how the animals appear to be thriving, and we were happy to make a modest donation.

Here is a cute house that we passed on our way out of Barra de Colotepec:

This truck blocked our route for a few minutes, unloading and loading passengers into the back.

We admired this graffiti:

Sometimes the transportation trucks don’t have protective awnings in the back, but this one had some chairs:

Puerto Escondido has a number of small beaches that are family-friendly, with small waves and clear water. Based upon the beach descriptions in our Moon guidebook, we selected the beautiful Playa Carrizalillo, which is surrounded by high cliffs. Genevieve and Sebastian joyfully counted all of the steps (over 160!) leading down, down, down to the beach:

We settled into a space at the far end of the beach, under the shade of an umbrella provided by a palapa-covered restaurant:

The water was warm, with small but powerful waves and a sucking current that was a bit more intense than we had anticipated.

After watching the children get dragged out a bit with the receding waves, Ben joined in the water fun to make sure that the kids stayed safe. We also bought the kids little “floaty” rings, but Sebastian soon abandoned his ring in favor of a floating “dad”:

Sebastian also made a new friend, Cesar, and they played together in the surf:

The beach was very relaxing. Every once in a while, a vendor would come by selling items—not in a harassing manner at all, but just offering his or her items/services in a soft, non-intrusive voice. We usually would say no thank you (even Genevieve had the phrase, “No, gracias!” down—spoken very politely, of course). However, today we did say “yes!” Roberto came by and said that he could take us out on his boat for an hour to see some sea turtles. The price seemed very reasonable (about $40 for the 4 of us), so we jumped at the chance.

Here is Roberto’s boat:

All aboard! Genevieve and Sebastian rode in front:

Roberto and his assistant Juan were in the back. And behind Ben and I were two women from England who Roberto had recruited to join us at the last minute:

Here is Ben (and I, of course, am behind the camera!):

Looking back, we had a nice view of Playa Carrizalillo:

About 20 minutes into the boat ride, Roberto suddenly stopped the boat; Juan ran to the front of the boat, stripped off his shirt, and dove into the water. We were a bit perplexed. Genevieve turned around, looked at me, and said, “That was odd.” Moments later, Juan’s head emerged, next to a flapping sea turtle:

Roberto explained that the conservation laws permitted him to bring the turtle onto the boat for a maximum of 5 minutes. The turtle was a small female, and we were allowed to touch her smooth shell and skin. Genevieve thought that the experience was very “cool”:

I felt a bid sad for the turtle, being hauled out of her warm watery home. I joked to Ben that she was probably thinking, “This is the sixth time today that I have been dragged up on a boat to be gawked at by tourists—just let me swim in peace”

I noticed a large number of creepy-crawlies on the bottom part of the turtle’s shell. Roberto explained that the bugs help to keep the turtle’s shell clean by feasting on the algae and other things that accumulate there.

With a gentle heave-ho, Roberto reunited the turtle with her home environment.

Roberto then took us on a brief tour of the beaches along Puerto Escondido. We could see our hotel in the distance (the pink three-story building with the red-tile roof, on the left side, next to the large pile of rocks):

We passed the stark white lighthouse, appropriately named “El Faro” (which means “lighthouse”). It was built in 1936 at the western entrance of the Puerto Escondido harbor. It warns boats and sailing vessels of the dangerous rocks and cliffs, emitting two bright flashes of light every 10 seconds. Visitors are not allowed.

Sebastian and Genevieve had a blast riding in the nose of the boat.

Back at Playa Carrizalillo, we all agreed that this short boat trip had been an amazing experience—definitely one of the top ten highlights of this journey.

Also, we found this beach to be very safe. When we were gathering our things to get on Roberto’s boat, he had told us just to leave most of our items behind. We had assessed the situation—the items we had to put on the boat bottom would get wet during the ride; there was only one way in and out of this beach for any thieves (up the long flight of stairs); we were at the very far end of the beach, away from the stairs; and our table was in front of the restaurant, in full view of other people as well as the server who had been bringing us refreshments. We decided to leave various “non-valuable” items at the table—the children’s floaty rings, our beach towels, sun hats, and some other things. And all of the items were there upon our return, just as we had left them.

After a short nap at the hotel, Genevieve and Sebastian were ready for more swimming and snorkeling in the pool:

Then we all just rested with our chosen relaxation devices—Genevieve (and I) chose a book:

Ben perused his email, and Sebastian played his Nintendo DS:

Later, we decided to climb the rocks across the street to get a better look at the “hands” sculpture. The fingers resembled wings unfurling to the heavens. Knowing the tragedy behind the sculpture, I could feel the sacred energy of this space on top of the rocks.

For Genevieve and Sebastian, a pile of rocks sets off automatic “gotta’ climb” reflexes. There were many rocks around . . . (note Genevieve in the far background, contemplating the best route up that rock mound).