Puerto Arista, Pacific Coast of Mexico

Esteban watching the big waves
Originally uploaded by louise_parmenter

We had planned that it would take us an entire day to reach our destination in Mexico, the quiet Pacific coastal village of Puerto Arista in Mexico. In fact it took us more than 7 hours just to get from Xela to the largest town over the Mexican border (Tapachulas) and then another 4 hours on a bus to Tonala. On arrival in Tonala it was obviously too late to continue on to the final destination and so we had to find accommodation for the night. Little did we expect that we`d bump into a lovely Mexican called Octavio who offered us a room in his apartment with his family for a very economical price. Not only did he make us feel completely at home but he also prepared breakfast and an early lunch for us before we set off, without accepting any compensation. We decided that we would stay at his again on our return. Arriving in Puerto Arista in the hot midday sun we quickly found accommodation (cabanas) and headed off for the beach. There we discovered that we were perhaps the only foreigners in the whole village and had the beach, restaurants, etc. to ourselves. And how beautiful the beach, warm the sea, great fun the rough waves and kind the people. We spent 3 days enjoying the sea and on the last day we hired a Quadbike and drove up the beach towards the turtle sanctuary. Before arriving we discovered a mother turtle digging a hole in which to lay her eggs. We informed the people of the sanctuary and watched as they collected the eggs for incubation. The eggs are a delicacy in this region and can be sold for a good price, therefore the eggs were not safe there on the beach. Also a group of vultures were loitering with intent!

Generally Mexico is more expensive than Guatemala but the sleepy village of Puerto Arista was far more expensive than we had imagined, and Esteban was charged a surprise fee to enter Mexico. All this left a big hole in our pockets so we had to head back to Guatemala after this short but sweet stay. We stopped off at Octavio`s on the way back and spent a great evening with him and his friends before setting off the following morning on our very long trip back to Xela (15 hours in all).

Here are the photos.

DISTANCE TRAVELED (OVERLAND) SINCE USHUAIA: 30,890KM