Hola, everyone. I am still in Puerto Escondido on the Oaxacan Pacific coast where I am finding that more North Americans are settling down in Oaxaca and this beautiful oceanside city I love.
One interesting phenomenon I’ve noticed is the number of expats arriving from Tulum. It seems that many are finding the Oaxacan coast to be more preferable, particularly due to security concerns.
There are many new real estate options all along the coast from Puerto Escondido to Huatulco, and new eco-friendly developments are springing up everywhere.
An area new to me is Boca Vieja and Cuahtunalco, which is approximately 20-minutes north of Huatulco. This is a wonderful and beautiful pair of pristine beaches connected by a rocky outcropping and a small fishing village called San Isidro where you can enjoy fresh seafood, including fresh oysters, lobster and much more under a palm leaf shade. There are also several interesting and beautiful lagoons in the area that can be explored, just watch out for the crocodiles!
Huatulco has pretty much opened up again with all of the restaurants and hotels reopened. There is a very interesting archeological site just to the east of Huatulco called Bocana Copalita, which combines fascinating architecture, mostly from the classic period, with a large eco-park. It is very close to La Bocana, which is another wonderful place to enjoy the beach and fresh seafood.
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I enjoy sharing anecdotal experiences I have in wonderful Mexico. Here is a recent one that I think illustrates wonderfully why people choose Mexico as a place to live.
I was on my way two weeks ago to a very important business appointment in Huatulco when suddenly I heard a loud noise from the recently rebuilt engine of my 1993 Jeep Wrangler. The air conditioning and power steering had stopped, so I knew that the uni-banda had come off. This happened very near the turnoff from coastal highway 200 for Mazunte. I pulled over to the side of the road and luckily happened to be right in front of a mechanic’s shop.
I drove in and they opened the hood, and sure enough discovered there was no uni-banda. We also discovered that a directional pulley was missing, thus the loud noise I was hearing. Now what? I had to be at an important meeting, but here I am with a nearly three-decades-old Jeep missing what I am sure will be a difficult part to find.
There were two teenage boys working as assistants to the mechanic. One jumped on his bicycle and within 15-minutes came back with the undamaged belt and the very damaged pulley, which he found on the highway. Great news about the belt. What to do about the pulley? The mechanic called AutoZone in Puerto Escondido, an hour away. AutoZone had both the pulley and the bearing and gave us a price for them. One of the teenage boys deposited the money in a nearby OXXO store, AutoZone put the parts on one of the passenger vans that go regularly back and forth between Puerto Escondido and Pochutla and in an hour I was back on the road to Huatulco, less than two hours after the breakdown.
The mechanic wanted to charge me $100 pesos for his service, but this grateful customer gave him $500 pesos and his assistants $200 pesos. Just one of the reasons why I love Mexico so much. The generosity, kindness, competence, resourcefulness and the goodwill of the Mexican people never ceases to amaze me!
