vampyresheep

 Day 7 Saturday

Another early start, as we met up with Tanya and Ralph from Go Well tours for a trip to Santiago Apoala.  Although we’ve only met once before, we’ve had a bit of communication online during the pandemic and we were warmly greeted as old friends.  It should have been a 2.5 drive to Apoala, but that didn’t factor in the road closures, so the final journey was more like 3.5 hours.  “No hay paso” became a very familiar term but it was fascinating to experience the rough country roads – if they could actually be called a road – and no idea how Ralph managed to get us there!

On arrival, we took a walk down many, many steps, through a beautiful ravine with the sound of the waterfall getting ever closer.  The first drop of the fall was a bit of a perilous clamber to get to but it was worth the peril.  A beautiful fall, dropping into an azure blue pool, with a way to swim into a little cave behind the waterfall.  The water was damn cold, and Rob was hesitant but determined to reprise a “Last of the Mohicans” moment, he braved it into the water and joined us in the cave.

There was another plunge pool a bit further down, so we clambered over the perilous rocky path, still in our swimming gear, where we got to have another swim.  Absolutely heavenly!  We also had the added bonus of an adorable little dog who followed us down to the pool and back up again.  After our swim, we headed back to the car, where we were taken to a nearby picnic spot at the entrance to the ravine. A beautiful peaceful spot, where we were accompanied by a couple more friendly dogs, and we tucked into a delicious picnic salad prepared by Tanya.

The journey back was less problematic, having been advised of a short cut – in exchange for a Squash which Tanya purchased from a passing lady as thanks for the directions – and we were dropped off back at our hotel looking forward to meeting with them again in a couple of days.

 

Spent the evening wandering around town, where I managed to buy myself a crazy big floral crown with a glittery skull – didn’t consider how I would fit that into my luggage later!

Photos: https://vampyresheep.smugmug.com/Holidays/2022-Mexico/10-29-Apoala-trip

 Day 3 Tuesday

Today we were off to see crocodiles and I had pre-booked a tour with Robert’s Ecotours.  It was an early start, so we popped to the local OXXO for some snacks for breakfast and ate them in the sunrise on the beach.  And then waited for our car ….. and waited….. after 30 minutes I tried calling, with the help of our hotel reception and eventually got a very flustered and apologetic Robert on the line.  Despite having confirmed our tour the day before, he somehow forgot about it.  Around 10 minutes later he turned up and kept us company until the driver arrived.  A bit frustrating but these things happen and it got resolved in the end.

Our first stop was Laguna Ventanilla.  We were taken by boat to the reserve on the island, with our driver translating for the guide and pointing out wildlife on the way.  Happy to spot a few crocs in the water and some iguanas relaxing on trees by the waterside, along with various beautiful birds.

On the island we were taken around the enclosures – some for safety to keep a barrier between us and the crocodiles, and some for various rescue animals that were also being looked after on the island.  The island is an eco-tourism centre managed by the local community to manage the ecology and provide an income.  We had lunch on the island, a tasty quesadilla and a big glass of cucumber water, before getting back onto the boats and to the van to our next destination.  Our driver took us on a tour of some of the Huatulco bays, Mazunte, Zipolite (the famous nudist beach) before ending at Playa Panteon where we got a couple of hours to spend on the beach.  The tour did actually mention a couple of other stops (mezcal and coffee tasting) which didn’t happen – maybe because of the delayed start – but this was no issue to us as I was eager to get into the sea!  There was a notable difference in tourism at the Huatulco bays, more hassle from traders to buy stuff, so I am glad we made the decision to stay in Puerto Escondido as it felt less commercialized. 

The bay was a beautiful place to swim, despite it being more built up, architecturally and with a similar undertow but more sheltered, so as long as I was wary getting in and out of the water, it felt a safe place to swim, whilst Rob sat at our table with his accidentally ordered michelada (that I had to drink for him!)

Overall, it did feel a bit of a package tour and not something I would usually do, but it was a good way to easily get to La Ventanilla and see a bit more of the coast.  We were fortunate that we were the only people booked on the tour, so it did feel like a private trip.

When we got back to the hotel, we went for dinner to Sabor a Mar, after liking the look of the meals when we drank there on our first day.  It was a beautiful spot to dine in the sunset and I had a very tasty spicy prawn pasta dish. It must have been close to closing time though, as they did seem very keen for us to leave and we didn’t get a chance for dessert.   Instead we grabbed a taxi to Adoquin for the night market.  Not much to write home about, very sparse, consisting mainly of tables set up by the shops that lined the street, selling tourist ware.  First stop was icecream of course – Rob lucked out with a delicious chocolate ice, I went for something strange (I should have learned from last time!).  After around 10 minutes it started to rain, first a light shower and then it just got worse.  There were no bars we fancied going to along this strip, they all looked a tad sleazy or were blaring out loud music, so we flagged down a taxi back to our hotel.  The rain still not stopping, we abandoned plans to go to Bruja Bar and instead had coffee and cocktails in our hotel bar/restaurant instead.

Photos from day 3 https://vampyresheep.smugmug.com/Holidays/2022-Mexico/10-25-Tues-La-Ventanilla-Mazunte-Playa-Panteon-/

Maybe I am being greedy, but after such a wonderful long, proper summer (ie one with sunshine), I've been feeling a bit down about the sudden change to gloom and chill of the past couple of weeks, so when the forecast was for better weather last weekend, I wanted to make the most of it with a swimming day trip!
I had been recommended on the Outdoor Swimming Forum on Facebook, to check out a tidal pool in Essex, called Woodup.  Looking the area at the map is fascinating enough, it has the feel of being the ends of the country, a place where nobody ventures to!  So we decided Sunday would be a good day for an adventure to the depths of Essex.


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Continuing from my last post, staying in beautiful Crickhowell overnight

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By some miracle, we've had two sunny May bank holiday weekends in London!  Albeit a bit stormy this time, but I was determined to make the most of the weather.



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