Sylvie's Travels Home

March 24 and 25, 2024

Pogo went to get our rental car at 7am while I packed a few things for our day trip to the coast. The hotel packed us our breakfast and we went to pick Max up at her apartment. We left Oaxaca City at 8am.

The new highway to go the coast was finally opened all the way to Puerto Escondido after 20 years of construction. It used to take 8 to 9 hours and now it is only 3 hours.

We did a lot of driving but we stopped in many places and saw many beautiful little towns. We walked a few beaches, stopped for cold beverages, had some food but mostly we were seeking shade and AC. The heat was quite unbearable.

We stopped in Las Casualas for an early lunch, in Chacaha, we got lost and found a little river with a fisherman who offered to take us on the river, in Mazunte to walk on the beach and have an agua fresca at a small beach restaurant, in San Agustinillo to look at the beach, in Zipolite (a nude beach) where we had a late lunch and enjoyed the view…and in Puerto Escondido at Punta Zicatela beach where we watched an incredible sunset with thousand of our closest friends while enjoying a drink. We drove another 3 hours back home and arrived at the hotel at 10:30pm after dropping Max off at her apartment.

Meanwhile Shaun was enjoying a huge piece of sugar on snow at Moose Mountain Maple in Jericho.

Monday morning, Pogo drove the car back at 7am to the car rental place and took a few pictures on his way back. He said it was very quiet with hardly anyone in the streets. I wrote my blog again in the courtyard, and we both had the continental breakfast but Pogo had the mexicana eggs and I tried the memelitas, a crispy tortilla with black bean spread and cheese on top, sprinkled with salsa to taste. It was a late breakfast as we were recovering from the long day of travel from the day before. We went to check the rooftop of the hotel.

Max had to work so Pogo and I took a taxi to the artisan market and arrived there a little after noon. We were looking at textile mostly. Pogo wanted something to put on the wall in the dining room. We looked at many stalls and finally found something we both liked. He also bought a few shirts. We stopped at the ATM to get some dineros then we walked to the Benito Juarez market where Max had told Pogo he could find a hat. It was mostly a food market with tiny restaurants but they also sold pinatas, shoes, purses, clothing and hats. We both bought one. We were so thirsty but the place was packed so we decided to walk to the zocalo, the main local park, and we sat at one of the restaurant for a pineapple agua fresca. Instead of being able to people watch, we were surrounded by street vendors withing seconds. I swear 5 of them came to see us within the first 30 seconds we sat. We left as soon as we finished our drink.

We visited the cathedral then picked up a donut and a watermelon agua fresca on our way back to the hotel. Pogo took his nap and Max joined us at 5pm.

Max had arranged a very special dinner for us as a gift from her and Shaun to a place called Tika’aya. It was a 7 course meal, without a menu and with a waiter that spoke some very fast broken English. We asked him to repeat the description of each dish slowly twice and this is what I understood:

The first drink was a fermented pineapple limoncello with dried poleo (dried pennyroyal herb) and sugar thingy.

Chips and grasshopper salsa

Fried cactus ball stuffed with guacamole topped with watermelon and a bunch of other stuff

Mini crispy taquito with chorizo, chicharron, avocado, kimchi and a bunch of other stuff

Salad with beets, figs, cheese pearl, apple, ginger, and a hibiscus foam thingy

3 colors tacos (epazote, natural and beet) with beef tongue, pickled onions, pineapple, mole, dots of guacamole and other green thingies

Fermented honey drink, no alcohol 

Trout wrapped in grape leaf with dried pumpkin flower, broccolini, Brussels sprouts, ginger, Oja santa spice, oil of epazote and so many more thingies!

Oxtail, mole, carrot, puréed carrot, tomato compote, onion pieces, and lots of stuff

Some flavorful frozen ice, guava jelly, fermented apple, pineapple jello, hibiscus syrup with cinnamon or something like that but probably not 

Tangerine ice cream, foam, grilled grapefruit, mini meringues, crispy crumbs of something, jelly flower

Anniversary cake haha! Lava chocolate cake

Joking aside, the presentation of each dish was amazing, the smells incredible but especially every single bites were so very delicious! What a feast!!

We stopped at a little bar for a nightcap then took a taxi back to the hotel.