Greetings from Surf City, Part Two

It{s been almost two weeks since I arrived in Puerto Encondido, and I{m finally starting to feel like myself here. Having never really been one much for being On Vacation, it took a lot of effort to get used to how this all works. My first week was a time of utter confusion on all kinds of levels - I stayed in this strange Lost Weekend-esque elder-hippie Hotel where drinking and poker playing were the order of nearly every afternoon. It was really lurid and disorienting and I joined in briefly, simply out of a need to talk to someone, but managed to extract myself rather quickly. Also strange and difficult, as I noted in my first post, was getting used to the fact that living in a hotel means eating out every single meal. THAT bit had to go ASAP - it made me feel uncomfortable, and even though I spent a lot of money I felt like I was starving all the time.

While dazed and confused both with my external surroundings and my internal feelings, I did manage to spend a lot of time hiking around the area and going to the beach about five times a day. Which is pretty much what you do here. There are two main beaches in Puerto Escondido, the first being Playa Zicatela, which is the one I live on. I had been told that it was rough surf there, but I went in a lot anyway at first - the tows are really QUITE incredible. I cant say I{ve ever been in any ocean that felt too dangerous for body-surfing, other than those under storm conditions. I was determined to play in the water, however, and rented a boogie board one day, only to get so badly wiped out that the life-gaurd came over and essentially kicked me off the beach, pointing me in the direction of the other beach, Playa Principal.

Zicatela and Principal meet in a cluster of rocks called The Split. Near to the Split lies a rather bizarre (tortured, one friend called it) rock sculpture which you can see here. Crossing the split is a little tiny restaurant nestled amidst the rocks, and then the beach goes around 500 yards around in a half moon. On the side closest to the split are a couple of tourist-oriented restaurants, on the side closest to the beginning of the Pueblo (town) are where the locals play.

From about the third day at the first Hotel (it's called the Hotel Rockaway, it's a cheap place to stay and the people are awfully nice, but I'd be hard pressed to recommend the place because of the culture) I was dying to leave and go elsewhere, but I couldn't decide where to go. What I really wanted was some kind of apartment, but I was worried that I might become too isolated and lonely. I'd already felt a bit of angst about where I was and what this Vacation crap was all about, and loneliness was looming anyway. The only thing that made both go away was whenever I was in the ocean - hence why I spent and still spend a significant amount of time in it.

I walked Playa Principal beach the day after my ejection from Zicatela and was looking for someone who spoke English that I could leave my stuff near. In the water were thousands of these little blue jellyfish that I hadn{t seen before and haven{t seen since, but I picked one up and brought it over to them. We examined it and speculated, exchanged name and origin information (a near constant activity here) then merged our stuff and went swimming. Washing to shore about a half hour later, they invited me to join them for a drink (another constant activity) at their beach bar, a place called Liza{s Restaurant which might as well be named the Gringo Embassy.

Ordering my beer, I saw a pack of cigarettes on the bar that I thought were mine because they had the same color lighter. I was dazed from body surfing (and everything else) and took them. We sat down and had a drink, and this fellow, a self-described redneck who{d had already been boasting that he{d be drinking all day, came over and demanded his cigarettes. It was a fairly tense situation because I simply didn{t believe they were his, but I handed them over because, as I said "I didn't come to Mexico to fight with anyone." But he really scared me on some level, and I was hoping I wouldn't see him again.

Eventually, we left the bar and I realized that my cigarettes were actually on the beach. I wanted to apologize, but he was already gone and I really hoped I wouldn{t see him again. But life is a very very strange place - in point of fact, this kid, Josh Dolan is his name, actually held the answer to a lot of my problems in Puerto Escondido, but I just didn{t know that yet.

That night - one week ago? Amazing - I was heading for a "rave" at this beach bar on Zicatela, and I was walking in as he was walking out. I had to come clean even I thought he was an asshole. I pulled him aside and told him that I had discovered he was correct about the pack of cigarettes. He said, "Thanks man - let's drink!" The bar was having a 2-for-1 night, so we each got TWO beers (sigh) then we met some girls and got into the tequila...

Next day at the beach, (late) I told him I was looking for a place - he told me he and his friend Julie had a three-bedroom condo and they were looking for a third. So I went from not knowing where to go or what to do to stealing someone's cigarettes and ending up with someone Beyond My Wildest Dreams. For $300-month (my share) I have a place with A-C, cable television, a giant room, a big refrigerator, two burners (no oven), a shower big enough to have a rock concert in, and a porch that faces the west and the crashing surf of Zicatela Beach. It's really something else.

The first week I was here I was so unhinged that I figured I needed an anchor, so I took a week's worth of Spanish classes at the Language Institute. Between that and the beach and my new posse, I{ve been doing okay. I'm really glad about the Spanish - tonight I actually interviewed Nuwhan (Indios) pintores entirely in Spanish - I forgot the word for pottery, if you can believe it - and there was a lot I couldn{t ask because I don't yet know the words, but I'll get them. I've been shooting a fair bit of pictures, which I'll try to get up soon, but I certainly feel like Im pulling things together here in a really good way.