Lagunas de Chacahua National Park
We knew it would take a while to get to Puerto Escondido when we left Acapulco, but I didn’t know we would end up taking 3 days.
We left the hot and humid Playa Ventura and headed south. The road goes inland a bit, and we stopped for lunch and a look around at the market in Pinotepa Nacional. The market here is supposed to be amazing on Wednesdays and Sundays, when 3 different indigenous communities stream into town in their traditional dress. We were there on a Saturday though, so it seemed pretty much like most of the big markets we’ve been to. This area also has a noticeably larger Miztec population.
Things turned a bit greener once we crossed into Oaxaca. We headed another hour or so southeast before deciding it was time to call it a night. We had been told that Chacahua was nice so we stopped there. Upon driving into the small village we were surrounded by a few young boys who climbed on the bus and were offering us sodas and drinks at their family’s tienda. It took some effort to shoo them away and pressed through and found a restaurant by at the end of town where the nice woman said we could camp if we bought drinks from her.
The place next door had large kid pool so we joined a family on vacation from Oaxaca and got in. They had 6 kids, so Bode was in heaven trying to entertain them. There were also sand dunes nearby, so I took the kids for a run before dinner. We were able to cook our own dinner and order drinks from the restaurant, so Jason prepared some more sea bass.
The mosquitoes and no-see-ums were out in full force. We discovered we’ve been carrying around 2 empty bottles of bug spray, but luckily we were traveling with prepared friends. We need to put bug spray and mosquito nets on our shopping list before going further south.
Andres accidentally tripped over a smoldering coconut shell (to keep away mosquitoes) and burned his foot. Then, while we were washing dishes we both were bitten by fire ants. Somehow we’ve been able to avoid bug problems until now. I think we’re going to have to get used to it, especially since the rainy season is coming.
It was another night extremely hot night with no ocean breeze. Bode lamented in the middle of the night ‘Isn’t it morning yet?’
The shower at this place is a barrel of water and a bucket, so not exactly refreshing in the morning. On to Puerto Escondido, and hopefully a breeze. It is definitely time to air out the bus.
Maybe already gone from the area due to “blog lag”, but if you get a chance to see the Monte Alban ruins I very highly recommend it. 🙂
-Parker
A small dab of liquid detergent (Joy, Dawn,etc) will relief the itching from those fire ants and other bug bites.. When I was sanctioned in GTMO we called the “No SEE Ems”…. “TEETH”!!
I spent some really hot nights in my bus (and other vans) traveling the american south in the summer. A couple 12volt oscilating fans help alot. Not sure if you already have one, but a second battery (preferably a deep cycle) would be easy to add on the other side of the motor and could be connected with a kill switch. That way you can run the fans all night and not worry about draining your starting battery. Also, another trick I found when its hot is to have a few of those beaded seat covers like the taxi drivers have. They really let the air flow around your back when you drive and you can lay on them in the bed at night. Just helps keep the air flowing around you.
thanks for the tip – will do!
we’ve been told to use lime juice. works pretty well, but not great. We’ll definitely try the detergent trick!