No pain, no gain

Hola everyone!

We made it to the beach on Friday...after a HORRIFYING, nauseating, awful drive through the mountains. 14 of us plus luggage crammed into a minivan for 5.5 hours, driving up and down the mountains at scary speeds on curvy roads with steep cliffs left and right for a good 3.5 of those hours (I kid you not!). About half way into the drive we both took a Dramamine (thank God, otherwise we would have puked, absolutely no doubt). I don't think I have been this sick to my stomach in a long, long, long, long time. So when we got off that "bus", we knew, come hell or high water, we would not take that same route back. No way. Alternatives included renting a car and doing it on our own time (no car rental agency here, though) or taking the big overnight bus that takes the much longer, but supposedly drives on less curvy roads. Well, the latter option won and now we are getting ready to get on that 9 hour bus ride. Yay. It had better be less curvy, because the only thing worse than driving up and down mountains is to do so at night. Yikes.

The bad drive, however, was all worth it when we got to the coast. The climate had changed drastically, everything was a lot more tropical (i.e. hot) and we could smell the ocean in the air. Pochutla, the little town in which the bus dropped us off is still a good 40 minutes away from the actual coastal towns of Mazunte, Zipolite, and San Agustinillo. Since we wanted to do it the backpacking way all the way, we ended up taking a camioneta...a pickup truck that has been rebuilt to seat about 15 people in its bed. It cost 1/10th of a taxi ride and was certainly an experience (pictures to follow as soon as we come by a faster internet connection.) Once we got to the beach we knew it had all been worth it. Our cabaña was right by (!) the beach, with hammocks to hang out in and not too many tourists around (though that area has been known as a key place for backpackers to hang out in the past). We spent three nights here and the days pretty much only at the beach and in and on the water. Exciting (and scary) events included a scorpion on Patrick's leg (he reacted quickly and brushed it off, with no harm to anyone), fishing on a small fishing boat, and swimming with sea turtles (Mazunte has a bis sea turtle museum and research center). Just hanging out in hammocks and reading was divine after all the running and driving around of the past two weeks and the Oaxacan coast is certainly a place I'd love to come back to...if only it weren't for the pain it took to get here (either way you take, it seems, everyone there was complaining about the same thing...).

Now we are, as mentioned, back on our way to Oaxaca, from where we fly back to Mexico City tomorrow night. We'll spend another day in Mexico City before flying back to Tampa and Nashville on Thursday.

For now wish us luck for the busride and we'll hopefully be back with a faster internet connection and pictures tomorrow from Oaxaca (where we also have a full day inbetween arriving and leaving again).

Adios!