Eat, Drink, & Be Merry: Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico
Having been here for a month and truly fallen in love, this was very difficult to narrow down to a few recommendations. What I cannot categorize into a meal, drink, or activity is how overwhelming beautiful, kind, and welcoming of a community Puerto is as a whole. That I hope you will be able to experience yourself someday.
eat
Piyoli
Piyoli is fantastic. I went for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and loved the food every time. It is in the community of La Punta, the sandy-street Southern point of Puerto known for its hippie vibes and surf. In line with the La Punta atmosphere, Piyoli has beautiful dining tables, sand floor, strung lights, and if you’re lucky, maybe even a live saxophonist. While this area can be a bit pricier, Piyoli has many options in the range equivalent to about 3-6 US dollars. It is also a great pick to please a crowd of ranging from vegan to meat-lovers. If going for only one meal, I highly recommend the flor de calabaza tacos (pumpkin flower). Choose any one of their delicious juices to make this amazingly fresh and delicious meal somehow even better.
drink
Casa Babylon
Casa Babylon is situated in the thick of Zicatela. Known for its giant surf (not currently in season) and vibrant nightlife (always in season), Zicatela is another area not to be missed. The mojitos at Casa Babylon are so tasty and a cool 60 pesos (3 US dollars). The vibe is funky, with eclectically decorated cool indoors and outdoors space, and the crowd is friendly, a very Puerto mix of travellers, locals, and ex-pats. If you are fortunate enough to be here on a weekend, the real reason to come to Casa Babylon is for the live music. A mix of covers of Pink Floyd, Ray Charles, and jam sessions (which I usually don’t go for so seriously, take my word) of sax, guitar, and harmonica will fill your heart instantly. After you get your fix of excellent music and mojitos, you can cross the street back to the sandside of Zicatela to dance to reggaeton on the rooftop of Cañabrava or to relax at the mellow Palapita Bar (where again, you might experience excellent live music…there is a trend here…)
& be merry
Turtle Release
It is difficult to not be merry while visiting Puerto. Go to any one of the beautiful beaches, watch the sunset with friends, walk around Benito Juarez market in city center, or go for a swim in the bioluminescence lagoon. However, my one pick for pure merriment is the turtle release at Playa Bacocho. Playa Bacocho is on the northern end of Puerto and the surrounding neighborhood is where I have been living for the past month with my homestay family. Everyday at 5 pm for 100 pesos, you can learn about sea turtles and then release a baby sea turtle into the sea. The most magical part though, is how every evening so many people come together: together they cheer the sea turtles, boo and throw sand at the birds that come down and capture the sea turtles between their beaks, and ooh and ahh when a waves comes and sweeps the scrambling tiny turtles out to sea. With the sun setting, a game of pick-up soccer just north, and the beautiful cove of Playa Coral just south, the daily sea turtle release reveals how special of a place Puerto is. Plus, if it is a Wednesday, afterwards you can walk over to Club Playa Villasol just a few hundred feet away and enjoy a free screening of a critically-acclaimed movie in the sand. (Side note: while I appreciate the excellent caliber of movies they show, crying with all the other movie-goers to the pain of poverty and children’s innocence during The Florida Project felt pretty heavy last week).
Ariane