Zipolite to Zihuatenejo

It's been a while! Last we left off, we were in Zipolite, poor Oli was struck down by some bad papaya juice, and I was sipping beer by my lonesome. Oli did make it out to the beach for one last drink that night, but two sips in his tummy caught back and he was down for the count. I grabbed the check and we called it and early night.

The next morning we checked out of our grub ridden bungalow, caught a cab to Pachutla, and then a couple hour bus to Puerto Escondido. Our next cabbie had loads of trouble finding our next sanctuary, and after three times as long as it should have taken, we found our way to Casa de Dan y Carmen. We had a lovely little room with a fantastic view and cable tv. We spent our time in Escondido eating yummy food, vegging out, and even doing laps in the hotel pool. Oli mainly did the laps.. I acquired some little Mexican girls who enjoyed holding onto my legs while I dragged them around the pool, and also liked to hook their fingers into my belly button to hold onto me while I swam. Cute as they were, I didn't appreciate the belly hooks.

Also while we were in Escondido, we passed a cafe/library that had extremely familiar art. We finally went in, and the art was by Justine Ward, who does out art for the festival! She did a gorgeous mosaic, as well as some fabulous art on the walls. Incredible!
We really did want to surf while we we were there, but the surf was far far too strong for beginners. So we decided to do a day of scuba! We teamed up with Lorenzo, our divemaster, and headed out to swim with some fishies. Strangely enough, this was our first experience with a heavy surge. We have encountered heavy currents before, but in those situations you really just go with the flow. With a surge, you are thrown backwards and forwards, up and down. It is a lot more difficult to ensure you don't bang into any precious coral, or hurt yourself! Additionally, the visibility was awful, so you really needed to keep a close eye on your spatial awareness. The dives were not a wash though- we watched an octopus go nutso and all inky, and also found our first Spanish dancer! Good times.

We then ventured to Acapulco for an evening on our way to Zihuatenejo. The bus ride was long and awful, and arriving in Acapulco was just smelly. It literally smelled like raw sewage everywhere we went, even in our $100/night splurge of a hotel room. Gross. We did have yummy tacos and watched lightening touch down less than 500 meters away from us, so the layover wasn't for nothin'! We also stopped in at a Mexicana office and confirmed that our flights ARE still valid. Horray! We hopped on another bus and headed to Zihua. I feel like we've spent our lives on shitty transportation.