In 1994 I worked
in southern Mexico with a team of consultants implementing computerised
financial systems in state-owned petroleum refineries.
Our team was based in Coatzacoalcos, a coastal town on the Mexican gulf in the state of Veracruz.
1994 With work mates at Taco lunch Bar in Coatzacoalcos. L-R Laura, Big Paul, Little Paul & Jim.
We stayed at the Hotel Terranova on the banks of the Calzadas River. There were large Iguanas in the grounds and unsavoury wildlife in the river.
1994 Calzadas River at the rear of Hotel Terranova Coatzacoalcos. 1994 Partying with work mates on boat at rear of Hotel Terranova Coatzacoalcos.
On a long weekend break, I travelled to Puerto Escondido in the state of Oaxaca on Mexico’s Pacific Coast to check the waves. American work mates Tom & Little ‘Poquito’ John came along for the trip. We flew from Coatzacoalcos to Mexico City and onto Puerto Escondido.
1994 Coatzacoalcos-Minatitlan Aeroporto
On our flight
from Mexico City to Puerto Escondido I sat next to guy from Scarborough WA
(name unknown). We got chatting and I discovered he travelled annually to Puerto
Escondido to purchase jewellery to sell at the Scarborough markets.
He told me about a wave at the end of bay that broke like Left Handers in South West WA. He was not surfing this trip as the surfboard he stored in town had gone missing. He warned me the surf break was in a remote area and robberies occurred on the beach. We saw the surf break from the plane as we came into land at Puerto Escondido Aeroporto.
Tom, Little
john & I arrived in the afternoon booked into accommodation and had a look
around the town and beaches.
1994 Photo shoot in Puerto Escondido shopping mall with a view of the bay in the background. 1994 Puerto Escondido fishing village and nude beach 1994 Puerto Escondido young horse riders on the beach.
We stayed at Hotel Arcoiris on the beach front overlooking the main surf break at Puerto Escondido.
1994 Hotel Arcoiris (left) on the beach front at Puerto Escondido. 1994 Hotel Arcoiris with Playa Zicatela surf break in the background
The main surf break named Playa Zicatela and is also known in the surf world as the ‘Mexican Pipeline’. It is a heavy beach break like Yallingup’s Rabbits Beach, but on steroids. Big Pacific Ocean swells push out of a deep-water trench and unload on the shallow sandy beach. There is no easy way to paddle out into the line-up….timing is crucial!
1994 Unknown surfing Puerto Escondido left. Postcard image.
I quickly decided that the Mexican Pipeline was not for me and chose to surf the left at La Punta ‘the point’, a couple of k’s around the bay to the south.
The next morning, I caught a lift with Tom who was visiting another town on the coast road. When I thought we had travelled far enough and found a dirt track, I got dropped off with my board and started walking towards the coast. Tall dry shrubs surrounded the track, and I could not see around me. After some time, I heard a truck coming down the track and an old Mexican guy stopped next me and gestured to me to get in the back. He dropped me off at the top off the headland. There was a thatched roof building and workers were assembling a Christ the Redeemer type statue on top of the headland, but I saw no other infrastructure. I climbed down the cliff and left my gear on the empty beach while I surfed the 4ft waves on my own.
1994 La Punta surf break with my Murray Smith HotBrewz surfboard on the beach.
After my surf some local kids approached me and asked “was I professional” …. I said “No but thank you for asking” 😊 We got chatting as best we could with my limited grasp of Español. Anyway, the cheekiest young bloke asked could he borrow my board and we agreed to “10 minutos”. I was worried he might paddle around the point and I would never see him or my board again …. but no, he surfed well and had a fun time.
1994
Mexican grommet returning my surfboard.
I said “adios” to the kids and walked back to my hotel along the beach past the area where I had been told there had been robberies. I was prepared to lose my board if there was an issue, but nothing happened, and I got back safely albeit with board rash from surfing without a wettie.
Little John had not fared as well that day. He had gone to a beach on the other side of town and was robbed on the beach. He lost his personal belongings but escaped a beating by swimming out to sea. There were ‘Peligroso Bandits’ warning signs on the coastal road!
That evening I had a few beers on our hotel verandah with the boys and set off in the rental car for an evening meal and beer in downtown Puerto Escondido. I enjoyed a tasty Mexican meal and a few more beers with some friendly locals. On the drive back to the hotel, I was stopped at a military roadblock and was lucky to get through unscathed, as I only had a limited grasp of the language and had consumed a few Corona’s.
On a previous trip to Mexico’s west coast, while driving across the Sierra Madres late at night, I had a rifle stuffed in face by armed civilian militia, but that’s another story!
Next morning, I was up early and walked back along the beach to La Punta. I had another good surf but did not see the local kids again.
The Aeroporto taxi was already there when I got back to the hotel waiting to take us on the first leg of our return journey.
1994 Taxi waiting to take us to Puerto Escondido Aeroporto. 1994 Our Mexicana plane at Puerto Escondido Aeroporto.
In Mexico City Aeroporto I had a 5 hour wait for a connecting flight to Coatzacoalcos and had to securely hang onto my board and backpack so they would not get pinched.
It was an interesting surf trip to Puerto Escondido…. never a dull moment! Mexico’s like that 😊
The west coast of Mexico must have been a wild place back in the 70s when Californian
surfer/sailor Rich Myers and his US surf/sail mates first surfed there.
Footnotes:
The images except for the Postcard image are mine.
I soon discovered I was spending far too much of my free time sitting around Aeroporto’s. So, after a trip to San Francisco in California USA, I decided to spend my remaining free time in Mexico visiting archaeology sites and Spanish colonial towns in the Sierra Madre mountains. I stored my surfboard behind the bar at our Hotel and did not use it again until I got to Hawaii on the return trip to WA.
A recent web search on La Punta at Puerto Escondido revealed it is a now a fully blown tourist site with accommodation, cafes, shops and a surf school.
I also visited a beach named Playa Escondido near Catemaco on the Mexican Gulf in the State of Veracruz in Mexico. It was a quiet fishing village with a wonderful fresh seafood restaurant set on top of the hill visible in background of Bonus Image below.
Bonus Image
1994 Pulling nets with fisherman at Playa Escondido near Catemaco on the Mexican Gulf.
In 1994 I worked in southern Mexico with a team of consultants implementing computerised financial systems in state-owned petroleum refineries.
Our team was based in Coatzacoalcos, a coastal town on the Mexican gulf in the state of Veracruz.
L-R Laura, Big Paul, Little Paul & Jim.
We stayed at the Hotel Terranova on the banks of the Calzadas River. There were large Iguanas in the grounds and unsavoury wildlife in the river.
On a long weekend break, I travelled to Puerto Escondido in the state of Oaxaca on Mexico’s Pacific Coast to check the waves. American work mates Tom & Little ‘Poquito’ John came along for the trip. We flew from Coatzacoalcos to Mexico City and onto Puerto Escondido.
On our flight from Mexico City to Puerto Escondido I sat next to guy from Scarborough WA (name unknown). We got chatting and I discovered he travelled annually to Puerto Escondido to purchase jewellery to sell at the Scarborough markets.
He told me about a wave at the end of bay that broke like Left Handers in South West WA. He was not surfing this trip as the surfboard he stored in town had gone missing. He warned me the surf break was in a remote area and robberies occurred on the beach. We saw the surf break from the plane as we came into land at Puerto Escondido Aeroporto.
Tom, Little john & I arrived in the afternoon booked into accommodation and had a look around the town and beaches.
We stayed at Hotel Arcoiris on the beach front overlooking the main surf break at Puerto Escondido.
The main surf break named Playa Zicatela and is also known in the surf world as the ‘Mexican Pipeline’. It is a heavy beach break like Yallingup’s Rabbits Beach, but on steroids. Big Pacific Ocean swells push out of a deep-water trench and unload on the shallow sandy beach. There is no easy way to paddle out into the line-up….timing is crucial!
I quickly decided that the Mexican Pipeline was not for me and chose to surf the left at La Punta ‘the point’, a couple of k’s around the bay to the south.
The next morning, I caught a lift with Tom who was visiting another town on the coast road. When I thought we had travelled far enough and found a dirt track, I got dropped off with my board and started walking towards the coast. Tall dry shrubs surrounded the track, and I could not see around me. After some time, I heard a truck coming down the track and an old Mexican guy stopped next me and gestured to me to get in the back. He dropped me off at the top off the headland. There was a thatched roof building and workers were assembling a Christ the Redeemer type statue on top of the headland, but I saw no other infrastructure. I climbed down the cliff and left my gear on the empty beach while I surfed the 4ft waves on my own.
After my surf some local kids approached me and asked “was I professional” …. I said “No but thank you for asking” 😊 We got chatting as best we could with my limited grasp of Español. Anyway, the cheekiest young bloke asked could he borrow my board and we agreed to “10 minutos”. I was worried he might paddle around the point and I would never see him or my board again …. but no, he surfed well and had a fun time.
1994 Mexican grommet returning my surfboard.
I said “adios” to the kids and walked back to my hotel along the beach past the area where I had been told there had been robberies. I was prepared to lose my board if there was an issue, but nothing happened, and I got back safely albeit with board rash from surfing without a wettie.
Little John had not fared as well that day. He had gone to a beach on the other side of town and was robbed on the beach. He lost his personal belongings but escaped a beating by swimming out to sea. There were ‘Peligroso Bandits’ warning signs on the coastal road!
That evening I had a few beers on our hotel verandah with the boys and set off in the rental car for an evening meal and beer in downtown Puerto Escondido. I enjoyed a tasty Mexican meal and a few more beers with some friendly locals. On the drive back to the hotel, I was stopped at a military roadblock and was lucky to get through unscathed, as I only had a limited grasp of the language and had consumed a few Corona’s.
On a previous trip to Mexico’s west coast, while driving across the Sierra Madres late at night, I had a rifle stuffed in face by armed civilian militia, but that’s another story!
Next morning, I was up early and walked back along the beach to La Punta. I had another good surf but did not see the local kids again.
The Aeroporto taxi was already there when I got back to the hotel waiting to take us on the first leg of our return journey.
In Mexico City Aeroporto I had a 5 hour wait for a connecting flight to Coatzacoalcos and had to securely hang onto my board and backpack so they would not get pinched.
It was an interesting surf trip to Puerto Escondido…. never a dull moment! Mexico’s like that 😊
The west coast of Mexico must have been a wild place back in the 70s when Californian surfer/sailor Rich Myers and his US surf/sail mates first surfed there.
Footnotes:
Bonus Image
Related content.
Looking Back by Jim King published 6 November 2019
————————————
Share this:
Like this: