Ecotour From Puerto Escondido, Pacific Coast Lagoons, Oaxaca
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Sunset at Playa Marinero, Puerto Escondido
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| Zicatela Beach, Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca |
From
Oaxaca City we took an OCC night bus to Huatulco where Sur Buses and
local buses run north and south along Route 200 with stops in
Pochutla, Mazunte crossroads, and Puerto Escondido. We left the
bus at Pochutla for the beaches of Mazunte, the turtle museum, and
Ventanilla where our lagoon tours would start.
A collective cab took us to the village of Ventanilla where a tour by boat through the lagoon got us a look at several crocodiles sunning themselves on the beach.
My companion on this leg of the trip was David Rice who had just backpacked from Antarctica to Prudhoe Bay and seen his share of wildlife along the way including penguin, grizzly bear, and wolf so as you might guess he wasn't too impressed with a few basking crocs.
See David's Book at Amazon
Ventanilla Lagoon Crocodiles
My companion on this leg of the trip was David Rice who had just backpacked from Antarctica to Prudhoe Bay and seen his share of wildlife along the way including penguin, grizzly bear, and wolf so as you might guess he wasn't too impressed with a few basking crocs.
See David's Book at Amazon
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Our guide told us that the crocs don't
hunt humans, they prefer stray dogs.
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On the way in to Ventanilla on the access road I saw a dog sniffing along the shoreline and thought that the edges of the croc lagoon is probably not a good place for a dog to be prowling. Sure enough the tour guide later told us that dog was one of the favorite foods of the 70 or so crocs that live in the lagoon.
These photos are from several trips to the lagoons over the last couple of years
The crocs don't hunt man, the guide assured us, as we approached a few big crocodiles that were sunbathing on the shore. When we got close they would just scurry off into the water.
Puerto Escondido Lagoon Tour Chacahua
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| Sunset at Zicatela Beach |
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| Clubs and restaurants on Zicatela Beach are great for sunset watching |
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| Puerto Escondido, Playa Marinero and Playa Principal |
Puerto Escondido is known by most travelers for the surfing on Zicatela Beach and even travelers who don't surf visit to dip their toes into the Pacific beach where the legend of the Mexican Pipeline was born. The previous year we arrived in time for the November surfing competitions and saw lots of wildlife but not of the animal kind. bikini contests, skateboard competitions, skydiving and of course the three days of surfing kept us busy.
Puerto Escondido Camping
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| Playa Marinero at Puerto Escondido is a small wave beach |
Puerto Escondido Surfing
We were visiting
this time for the ecotours in the lagoons but watching surfers on
Playa
Zicatela is always fun on Puerto Escondido's surfing beach.
Surfing
competitions are held in August and again with the annual
Zicatela Pro in November, an International competition attracting
over 100 competition surfers.
Zicatela Beach
is open to the ocean to the southwest and can, in the peak
swell period of mid July through the August and September hurricane
season produce twenty-foot tube waves. Zicatela will regularly
produce eight to twelve-foot waves with an offshore wind
blowing northeast and this makes it one of the worlds best
surfing beaches.
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| Zicatela surfing |
Not
being athletic
swimmers we avoided the waves of Zicatela and stuck to the small-wave
beaches at Playa Marinero and took taxis to the Carrizalillo
and Puerto Angelito coves located in protected bays a mile
northwest of the village center.
Puerto Escondido Diving
Puerto
Escondido has a PADI dive shop at the center of Play Principal. They
will provide all equipment, lessons, local info and boat trips. Cove
beach dive spots for snorkel are Playa (beach) Carrizalillo, and
Puerto Angelito.
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| Lagunas de Chacahua National Park |
Chacahua Lagoon Tour
After a couple of days of beaching we
booked an all-day, Chacahua Lagoon tour that included a guide,
transportation, boat tour, and crocodile farm tour, for 500 pesos.
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Our guide explained that over 150 species of birds
inhabit the Chacahua Preserve
There is also a crocodile nursery located inside the Lagunas de Chacahua National Park |
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The boat captain knew where to find the birds and how
to get us close for photographs
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| Brown pelicans in Chacahua Lagoon |
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