A poorly run hostel

May 1st. Seems like a milestone of sorts. Not exactly sure why, but I guess because it's the first of the month, there is a new timemarker to judge our time here. We just got off the bus this morning from Pochutla, a transportation hub outside of Mazunte, which is in turn a small beach outside of Puerto Escondido. We've really enjoyed our 6 days on the beach. It may be true that today is the first day in awhile where we weren't sweating profusely from the moment we woke till the moment we went to bed. I'm actually wearing a sweater right now and loving it.

Last blog left us arriving in Puerto Escondido.

We spent 3 great nights there, hanging out with some newfound friends. One of the other people staying at the hostel had her 35th birthday, so we made sure to celebrate it properly, including salsa dancing and a few cheers to health and good travels. It's always a lot of fun to meet the other people traveling around. That's one of the reasons that I prefer hostels to hotels, because when you're on a long trip, company besides the one you're traveling with is nice.

We did change places from the Hotel Mayflower, which was a whopping 220 pesos a night, or about $20. We instead decided to put our tent to good use, and found a small place right off the beach to chill at. That ended up being 120 pesos a night, which was nice. It may seem like small change, but when your spending hundreds of nights in a hotel, it adds up to quite a sum. Most of the time spent there was just relaxing. We read some books, played a little scrabble,

did our laundry, watched a few surfers, and that was pretty much it.

After a couple nights camping there, we decided to head to the quiet Mazunte, which was recommended by Lara and Rico during a lunch meeting setup by Erin's dad. Can't really say I've ever received a better recommendation. The place

was small, around 1000 people in total, in a small bay with great sand, fun people and places to stay, pretty much everything one could ask for. We found a hostel where we camped on the second floor overlooking the crashing waves of the ocean. Going to sleep to that sound and waking to it just puts you in a great mood for the day. I guess I can now understand those alarm clocks that wake you to the sound of the ocean. It's just a great way to be awoken.

The hostel was recently bought by a spanish guy, Carlos, and his Austrian girlfriend.

When we arrived, they were putting on a new roof, right above where we were supposed to camp. Initially, we thought that they were doing a great job with the place, really putting in some sweat equity to make it work. But it turns out that it wasn't quite like that. They closed the place from 2pm to 7pm, which on a beach could be considered prime drinking time. A couple of customers came in, looking for some lunch around 1pm or so. Carlos said that he couldn't serve them because he had soccer practice to go to and his wife had a beach volleyball game in 20 minutes. These weren't exactly Professional Beach Volleyball santioned games. It was more just some people getting together to hit the ball around.

If I had owned a hotel for just 2 months, and had customers coming in asking for food, I would probably serve them. I would also keep the place open at least for drinks, particularly if there was a captive audience of people totally unmotivated to go search out other places. Who wants to move, really, when it's 2pm on a sunny day, blisteringly hot, just to find a new place to get a beer? No, you just hang out where you're at. Oh well. I do have to say that the food was great when you were able to get it. I got a spaghetti with scallops for 60 pesos that was absolutely fantastic. $5 for a beautifully cooked, fresh scallop meal? Yes, please.

Now we're in San Cristobal de las Casas, site of the 1994 Zapatista uprising, when the indigenous people took over the city for awhile in name of Indian rights. The battle for rights still continues, but peacefully. We're planning on spending a couple of nights here, checking out some of the indigenous towns around, doing some shopping, and just generally enjoying the cool climate. I expect it to be a good time.