Monday, February 24, 2014

Oaxaca Beaches, First Class Bus

Bus First Class, Oaxaca Beaches, Huatulco, Zipolite, Mazunte, Puerto Escondido

Update March 2014


OCC Bus from Oaxaca City's first class ADO terminal reaches
Huatulco where nine bays and 33 beaches offer all kinds of lodging
options

Bus To Oaxaca Pacific Coast Beaches

Oaxaca's Pacific Coast Beach bus service has not changed much over the years regardless of the occasional earth tremor and hurricane.

Additions to the OCC Bus (link) out of Oaxaca City and the Estrella Blanca Bus (link)  and Alta Mar Bus service out of Acapulco to Oaxaca's beach villages, are the new van services  (link)  from Oaxaca City that now reach three main towns on the Pacific Coast where you find beach transportation: Puerto Escondido, Pochutla, and Huatulco.
From these towns, a bus, taxi, or colective taxi will reach all the smaller beach villages.

Bus Oaxaca Beaches From Acapulco

Estrella Blanca Bus Line runs the Highway 200 bus route with Futura Buses out of Acapulco (link) to offer first class bus routes along Route 200 between Huatulco, (link) Puerto Escondido, and Acapulco.
Alta Mar Buses also run bus routes between Acapulco,  Puerto Escondido, (link) Pochutla, and Hualtulco.
For trips south to Chiapas find OCC buses leaving Pochutla for the 12 hour, 440 Peso trip southeast to San Cristobal de las
Casas  (link)  Chiapas.

Huatulco Resort beaches, high rise and all inclusive
 included

Huatulco Beach Resort
Direct, first class buses from Oaxaca City (8 hours) and second class buses from Puerto Escondido and Pochutla serve the beach town furthest southeast on Oaxaca's Pacific Coast, the resort town of Huatulco. This relatively new resort area created by the Government in the 1980s was built from the nine bays and 33 beaches in the area.
The chapel honoring the Cross Of Huatulco at the
village of Santa Cruz

 The town of Crucicita is the transfer hub for this area, a tidy little place that offers an ADO  (link)  first class bus terminal, a second class bus terminal,  lodging, clubs, restaurants and shopping around the small square a fifteen minute taxi ride from Huatulco's airport. (HUX).


The marina at the village of Santa Cruz

Several of the bays of Huatulco are developed much more intensly than Crucicita, with high-rise resorts, some with protected beaches others with surfing waves.
In the winter months, cruise ships visit the harbor of Santa Cruz at the end of a long bay.
The harbor's name, Santa Cruz, was inspired by a legend about the discovery by the first Spanish visitors of a huge, wooden cross standing in place at the beach, “The Cross of Huatulco.”

The village of Santa Cruz showing the cruise ship dock.
The latest addition to the attractions in Huatulco is the small Huatulco archaeological ruin site called  Copalita, opened recently to display artifacts from the State of Oaxaca and from the small ruin site on the coast by the river.  Entry to the museum is 100 pesos. 
 Other ruin sites such as  Monte Alban, (link)  near Oaxaca City, and  Teotihuacan(link) near Mexico City are archaeological ruins with splendid museums and monumental buildings and pyramidal structures typical of Mexico’s ancient cities.  
 OCC Bus leaves from the Oaxaca ADO Bus Terminal and
serves the Pacific Coast 
towns of Huatulco, Pochutla,
 and Puerto Escondido.

Bus To Huatulco
Reach Huatulco from Oaxaca City via OCC Buses that  leave from the Oaxaca ADO Bus Terminal with stops in Huatulco, Pochutla, and Puerto Escondido.  Sur Buses run regular service between Pochutla and Puerto Escondido. OCC buses and Sur Buses run routes from Huatulco, Pochutla, and Puerto Escondido as they run hourly up and down the bus routes on coastal Route 200, the highway between Huatulco and Puerto Escondido. 
See Huatulco (link)  for more details on lodging, golf, beaches, hiring a cab by the hour, and about the Cross of Huatulco legend. 

Transportation To Oaxaca's Pacific Coast Beaches
Taxis, Colectivos
Long-haul, first class buses don't reach all the small beach towns, they are served by taxi and colectivo. The fare from Pochutla by private taxi to the beach towns of Puerto Angel and Zipolite, for example, cost around 100 pesos to reach Zipolite Beach, Colonia Roca Blanca, Puerto Angel and Mazunte. 

Group To Save
If you group with other travelers you can save; the taxis charge by the trip not by the number of people. 


Budget Transfer
The budget alternatives for transportation from Pochutla to the beach villages are the colectivo taxi and the camioneta.  The colectivo is a shared taxi costing 12 Pesos and leaving from Pochutla.  Walk to your right from the bus station about one block and find the collective taxis at a fork in the road.  Tewlve Pesos for Puerto Angel.  
Camioneta, shared transportation
 The camioneta is a pickup truck with a covered bed that costs ten pesos per person, a budget ride but an uncomfortable one.   The camioneta are allowed to pick up and drop off anywhere along their route.

Snorkel, scuba, and sightseeing boat tours 
leave from Puerto Angel.  

Puerto Angel Beaches
Reach the fishing village and beach town of Puerto Angel via taxi, collective taxi, or camioneta from the town of Pochutla.
The collective taxi is the best option for saving on transit.  It runs hourly from just a block northeast  of the bus terminal.  The collective taxis also pick up at the crossroads of Route 200 and Route 175 but will usually be full before they reach this location.  

Cost is 12 Peso to Puerto Angel, the first beach town you passs as you go northwest along the coast road from Pochutla.  Puerto Angel offers a beach-side hotel, the Cordelia at 350 peso per night with Air Conditioning, wifi, and a restaurant.  Several other hotels are nearby.  Snorkel, scuba, and sightseeing boat tours leave from Puerto Angel.  


Sightseeing tours leave from Playa Panteon, a calm water beach where you can swim and snorkel.  In front of the hotel Cordelia, two tour agencies offer four-hour whale watch, dolphin watch, turtle watch boat tours with visits to four secluded bays along the coast.  
There are restaurants at the beach villages.   See Other area dining  Dining Zipolite (link)



Dawn at Zipolite Beach

Transportation To Zipolite Beach
Taxi, colectivo, and camioneta from Pochutla reach Zipolite Beach. 
Zipolite is a nude-optional beach noted for its sunrises and sunsets located a few miles west of Puerto Angel. Nudism is not legal in Mexico but is allowed on Zipolite Beach.  
Budget lodging, beachside posadas, beach camping, surfing, laundromat, and good restaurants such as Piedra del Fuego and “A Nice Place on the Beach” make Zipolite a good visit. 
See Zipolite Lodging 




Transportation To Mazunte Beach
A few miles west of Zipolite, along the coast, is the village of Mazunte. There you find beach-side camping, beach restaurants, posada lodging, and the Turtle Rescue Project.
Reach Mazunte and the other beaches, San Agustinillo, and Ventanillo in the same fashion: taxi, colectivo, or camioneta out of Pochutla or anywhere along the beach road, Route 175.


Mazunte Turtle Rescue Project Museum
San Agustinillo
SanAgustinillo is a small beach village on Route 175 just east of Mazunte. Find a small wave beach and a beach open to the ocean bordered by inns and restaurants.

Ventanilla offers tours of a  crocodile lagoon
Ventanilla
Ventanilla is a tiny community on an open ocean beach where you find tours of a lagoon to view crocodiles in the wild.
Tours of Manialtepec and Chacahua lagoons are offered 
in the coastal village of Puerto Escondido 
Puerto Escondido
The surfing and fishing village of Puerto Escondido is the best known of Oaxaca beach villages and offers first class bus service from the ADO terminal on Route 200. The second class bus terminal offers bus service to Acapulco via Alta Mar and Estrella Blanca Buses..


Beach dining Puerto Escondido


Fishing boats on the beach, Puerto Escondido

Related Links
Puerto Escondido Camping

Chacahua Lagoon Tour




No comments: