Oaxaca City, Wednesday

Wed 0837 at little terminal on Mina waiting for 9 bus to Monte alban. Annoyingly there is actually an 8 bus now the place is open and I can see the posters, maybe could have seen this last night, but the stuff painted on the rolling ahutter didn't mention an 8 bus. Not a huge deal. I can get any bus back but I only have a seat on the 1230 (though it looks like 1250 on ticket, which cost 120 BTW - I handed over a 500 and a 20 and got change no fuss), not quite sure how that works. My intention is not to rush round like crazy and take my time as I want, but also not to milk it excessively. Based on random web pages saw other say 2-3h is about right, we will see.

Didn't sleep great, hard to say why - perhaps just knowing I had to be up relatively early didn't help. I didn't sleep terribly though either.

Also spotted bus terminal to pluma hidalgo on walk over. Vague recollections of last night's guidebook reading suggests this might be somewhere I would be interested in doing as a day trip, though maybe I am confused and it is more of a stay over destination.

I think when i get back from ma i need to decide roughly how many days I want to be in Oaxaca and think about whether to extend at current hostel for a night if I can or whether I would prefer to eg go somewhere else in a dorm for a couple of nights and see if it is any more social. Maybe I will see if I can get a coffee somewhere and mull it over.

0850 stomach rumbling a bit. Not saying this never happens at home but it is part of generally poor diet I suspect. It is fine, I do have my raisin cake stuff if I need it while I am there.

1302 back in town, got 1230 bus. Having a latte at a small cafe near where bus dropped me. I had two shots on site, one using toilet paper from pocket and another I has to pay a bog troll in museum toilet for. Took it fairly steadily round site and even managed to see the outlying small ball court (which I somehow half remember from last time - otherwise the whole thing was slightly familiar but not really omfg I remember this and that and that) and other tombas. It worked out pretty nicely, I didn't milk it but didn't rush and feel I did the site justice. All this despite us actually leaving about 15 mins late as well.

Had another dump at hostel before leaving. I think this is just a side effect of all the food yesterday.

1307 quick look at guide book and pluma hidalgo is even further towards pochutla than San Jose del Pacifico. So my gut feeling is that that is to be saved for a future trip when I go down to those intermediate mountainy places between here and the south coast and its beaches.

1320 looking at map, I can't help feel that if I knew then what I knew now and hadn't been pushing towards Acapulco, it might have been better to do comitan and environs after San cris rather than now. But can't be helped, and if nothing else this does at least open up possibility of going back to San cris fresh-ish rather than overdoing it.

I might have a kombucha or another latte then go back to hosfel and see about extending for a night. Also before that check my notes on o6 (in theory synced, but in practice not) first and have a bit of a think about whether I want one or two more nights in oaxaxa. The basic plan of pushing on to comitan (perhaps with a night bus to San cris then immediately getting a bus to comitan) then return to sc for the following weekend seems broadly sound, and gives me about a week in conitan, albeit it then sees me with only just over a week to get from San cris to cancun after my weekend there. It feels a bit pushed to rush over to sc for the weekend this weekend though, plus if it is crappy I will feel I rushed for no reason. I think if I get over to comitan in a few days and find there isn't as much to do in terms of neighbouring towns as I'd hoped I may have to skip the weekend in San xris idea, or at least cut it short and maybe go there thu/Fri instead of a full weekend.

To be fair once the situation is clearer and I know where I am and how comitan works out, I could potentially book a flight back from tuxtla or whatever instead of bussing it back to Cancun. On a hypothetical future trip starting in Cancun I could then so places like Campeche westbound from Cancun instead of going via the south side of Yucatán as I did this time.

I need to be cafecul to balance relaxing and having a slow travel ish trip with feeling I need to rush to get back. There is no immediate rush but just getting the several hundred km east to Chiapas would probably ease my mind a bit, in terms of flexibility to spend time without feeling I am too far from Cancun.

I might get a giant bottle of coke or something and go drink it on tertace at hostel while I mull. But let's have something else here first.

1328 getting a cardamom kombucha, only a small bottle not like the ones at hoatel in San cris but wtf.

Vague plan is to go back to hostel, mull and then see how extension at that hostel or another works, go out for ice cream and maybe a museum (perhaps the planetarium) then have dinner at Charlie's (v near hostel) and a quietish night in. I am assuming Kombucha is low or no alcohol and I may try to make today another alcohol free day, partly on general grounds and partly anticipating a few tomorrow night at language exchange and some drinking in San cris.

The feeling I need to be making most of my time and having to plan is vague sapping at the sense of "yay, I am chilling in mexico" I aspire to.

1627 at charlies. Prob overindulging in pizza mediana.

I asked hostel (via whatsapp, couldn't find any staff) and I can only extend in a dorm. It isn't having to be in a dorm as such that is a problem, but that this makes extending only marginally more convenient than just going to a different hostel. Need to think.

I went for a walk and has an ice cream - I asked two places at the square near hostle full of ice cream places but they didn't so cones, they are all oriented to eat in or so plastic cups to take away, and the one I got a price at was as expensive as la michoacana for a cone. So went to LA michoacana.

Struggled to find a laundry, one wanted 60 pesos for half a kilo and wouldn't do underwear - I spoke to nice woman in there and confirmed this, she said you can do a self wash. In the end I found one round xorner from hostel and took all my clothes which is only 1.5kg (she weighed it) but I have to pay the minimum 3kg of 95 pesos, but I am slightly desperate and not awful. Did half wonder of I should throw the fleece and or packtowl in to get more value but I really didn't want them washing and the risk of loss is already big enough. This excludes of course the clothes I changed into (red short sleeved  t shirt, the quechua socks) and one other pair of not worn since last proper laundry wash socks.

I did buy a litre of diet soft drink but didn't drink it, just may have it up on terrace tonight.

Not sure what to so. If I change hostel maybe I ought to do it for two nights. But I don't have to. There is still a tiny convenience bonus in changing to dorm at current hostel but another might be friendlier.

Not sure planetarium is open, j found something on web saying it shuts at 3 but that was dated 2017 despite looking official.

Current thinking is to maybe do a day trip to Mitla tomorrow.  This just may change if I decide to get jump on a  night bus tomorrow. Or just maybe a day bus to some intermediate place. But then time is ticking away a bit and it would probably be better to be around comitan with more time on the clock than burn 2-3 days on somewhere completely new en route. Plus if I visit somewhere en route there is an irrational sense in which i will say "been there" and be less keen to return on a future trip, so I sort of use the whole place up to some extent with a rushed visit.

If I weren't feeling at all time pressured I would probably move to another hostel for two nights. I am sure I can occupy myself for two more days and perhaps another mostly empty day before a night bus and a new hostel just might offer social opportunities. But as it is I do see some value in only extending a single night.

If I do got to mitla tomorrow I will have to wear this short sleeve top as it is all I have with the laundry. But I have plenty of sun block and for a single day I can slather my arms in it.

Gah. Going to stop waffling and see what my subconscious comes up with. I was at cafe Trebol for the latte and kombucha earlier btw.

Apart from hostel restrictions, one reason for wanting proper laundry is to get the grey trousers washed. They are not unusually dirty but obviously the trousers do get a lot of wear and I think hand washing then is less satisfactory than the tops, especially when not using soap but even so when I do.

"I choose never to forget... Driven to distraction... Is this love?" Playing. Is it Katrina and the waves?? The video just looks a bit like her.

1718 back at hostel. Had chat with Rosa (I remembered her name, she didn't remember mine but think she remembered me) and the younger woman who had served me when I paid. Nothing major but still nice, she said to try Huatulco next time.

Slightly over-perturbed by accom etc situation. I feel tbh also a bit vulnerable with nearly all my clothes at the laundry, I asked for low temp wash and dry but can only hope they don't get ruined or lost.

Really none of this is that critical. I don't think I want to jump on a night bus tomorrow, it would mean missing the lang exchange and it would be rushing off quicker than I planned and it doesn't leave much buffer for arguing or waiting for resolution if there is a problem with my laundry.

1811 had shower. Up on terrace. Lovely fluffy albeit slightly scarily huge dog, seems very friendly. Few people around in vague confusing staff-or-not ways. Insofar as it actually matters doesn't feel actively unfriendly here etc.

Still torn about what to so. If I do stay (in Oaxaca, never mind where, tho probably dorm here) tomorrow night, I an on the night bus to San cris Fri night so would get there sat and probably go on to comitan on same day. If I would kind of like (but am flexible and may not even go) to be back at old San cris hostel for Thu, that gives me Sat-Wed nights (and prob a fair chunk of the day on Sat, given night bus prob arrives early and comitan not far from sc, albeit I will be a bit knackered) so 5 days/nights for comitan and environs which isn't too bad, and I could probably also avoid wanting to be in San cris thu night to make that up to 6. If comitan is a bust I night skip staying in San cris again completely or just stay there (say) Mon/Tue nights while I try the sumidero tour again and then put the rest of the time towards doing stuff en route to cancun.

If I stay here in oaxaxa another two nights that feels like it cuts comitan time down a bit too much - sort of just 4 days, maybe 5. There is stuff to do but nothing is an absolute must do and as I have said I am likely to pass through again on a subsequent trip so no harm in having some things left to occupy me then.

If I push on and get night bus tomorrow night I maybe have too much time in comitan before a weekend in San cris afterwards, and I get to san cris a bit late (I am there Friday, but maybe knackered) to really take full advantage of the weekend just starting and I have already eg missed poss to go to el paliacate on this when it may be quieter etc. It also has an uncomfortable albeit probably OK interaction with collecting the laundry tomorrow before the bus goes.

I really don't think pluma hidalgo and San Jose del Pacifico are good substitutes, given they are even further by bus from Cancun and are in the wrong direction and i would feel a lot more relaxed being san cris-ish distance from Cancun -from sc it is a doable but unpleasant 17-24hish single-ish night bus to Cancun.

I could forget comitan and maybe sc too and just push on (albeit a night or two in sc to break journey and do sumidero would probably be smart) to somewhere like Tabasco or Campeche, but comitan night be good and it does kind of work nicely and if it sucks I can cut my losses after a day or two and almost be on that "just go to Tabasco or Campeche" plan.

So I think I am probably staying one more night here in oaxaxa and no more and therefore despite mild suckiness it is probably as well to accept the slightly reduced hassle of staying in a dorm here tomorrow night rather than moving to another hostel for just one night.

For better or worse it looks like comitan has affordable privates but no hostels or dorms, so it may be a bit lonely but can't be helped and maybe if I do overnight stays in nearby towns there will be some social aspect there. Just possibly this should argue against going to comitan but I think there may be hiking tour type possibilities round there and it would be good to see it and it isn't as if I have any must do (except ideally a cenote somewhere, and there may be some round comitan anyway) anywhere else in Yucatan before I go home.

I am not super energised about a probably 2hish trip each way to mitla tomorrow but it is also probably relatively low stress (modulo having to leave bag at reception, unless I get lucky and can get into dorm at say 8am) and would be kind of cool and would give me a feeling of having done something.  and then Fri ivwould probably leave bqg at hosfel before night bus and mooch round town and maybe do the odd museum etc.

There is a lot of guesswork here but it isn't as if I am going to have any rational basis to think eg "if only I had moved to another hostel in oaxaxa and stayed for two nights I might have got to hang out with people", and equally the flip side of not staying two nights in oaxaxa is that I will get to spend that time around comitan where maybe I will meet people. Plus staying one night does at least open up some prospect of maybe an enjoyable language exchange. And while I won't want to be badlyhungover as I will be homeless the following day, I will at least have the whole day to "recover" (in the unlikely event it is necessary) before I get the bus in the evening.

1833 OK it may be foolish to trust it but the guide book does make conitan and encirons sound good and it also suggests there is a decent ability to get to places via colectivo without your own transport. I think it has to be well worth a gamble, there is also an (open) cenote fwiw. It may not be very social but you never know and I have at least some hope of social stuff at san cris hostel the following weekend and still some chance of it at wherever I go en route from sc to Cancun.

1843 back in room  fwiw due to a missing bit of tape barrier I ended up standing on top of I think edificio b at Monte alban and someone whistled at me from right across the site and told me I shouldn't be up there. Felt mildly marked given the barrier was missing. But hey, at least I got to go somewhere I shouldn't.

Had quick look on meetup, nothing here tonight but lang exch is listed for tomorrow at wombat 6-1130.

No obvious staff around to discuss accom with fwiw.

Comitan sounds from guise book as if it is just off the beaten track enough that it might feel kind of excitingly adventurous to be there and thus be a little unlike the well trodden albeit quite cool nature of places like San cris and oaxaca etc.

1857 OK WhatsApp chat with hostel. They want 190 for the dorm which isn't fantastic but is comparable to other dorms in town and as waffled for just one night I guess the hasle of changing isn't worth it, especially when I plan to be out at night on my own account anyway. And it is one night in dorm before prob night bus then two nights in a private in comitan. It is all single beds no bunks so the main possible objection of an upper bunk isn't an issue. Some other dorms do have aircon and I am 99pc sure they don't here but it is not so hot and for one night it just isn't a huge deal.

OK, I can probably put my bag in a locker in dorm at 9 and I may be able tobleave it at rception before then if I push it. I will close with the deal and then maybe go out for a wander or coffee or something, albeit probably try to have an early night and take advantage of the privacy while I have it etc.

It is a bit of a shame not to be able to leave earlier than 9 or to have the flexibility to lie in, but since I am probably trogging over to mitla neither of these is a huge deal.

2013 on upper terrace, deserted except for big fluffy dog. Went out for maybe an hours walk roind town centre. Toyed with going to Trebol but it was (not too surprisingly) shut so just walked. Will have a bit of water and read a bit up here then probably an early night.

I checked night buses before going out. They are slightly shot but not utterly terrible. Bloody expensive at maybe 50 quid for the most expensive (the same one I came out on) and only a smidge less for others. I may go with a slightly cheaper one assuming it has a toilet (it probably does) just cos the timing is a bit better. I an likely to be getting into San cris an hour or so before sunrise and therefore depending on when the buses run even with some hanging around I could be in comitan by 8 or 9ish which is likely way too early to check in but at least I can probably leave my bag and with a private room especially I can maybe go to bed very early in the evening. It is a bit of a faff but probably not utterly awful.

Not feeling super chipper but also not too bad, it feels like I have a plan and while not perfect the plan is reasonable both in terms of results and pain of execution.

I may hold off booking bus and comitan accommodation until Fri morning (eg just in case I learn anything at lang exchange which changes my plans) but we will see how it goes. If there is good free cancellation I may book accom earlier to get it locked in.

It was sort of cool to be wandering round main square etc. I will be sad to leave etc etc. But as I say, while it may be a few years (but maybe not, depending on cheap flights and my willingness to maybe take a perhaps short trip in autumn sometimes), it is quite likely I will be back in oaxaxa given its position on the bus routes.

I have some ideas where to get a bus or collectivo to mitla and it just may only be an hour each way, but I can also maybe ask at reception at 9 when I do the room swap. The relatively early start would also argue for going to bed early tonight. I haven't drunk alcohol by the way, I an thinking I may have a beer on two on the zocalo friday during day when I am hanging around. I may also force myself to try grasshoppers (I have seen street carts selling them, they are red)  eg tomorrow afternoon.

For random reasons (I wanted something to read and it was in Gutenberg top 100) I am reading Middlemarch. I have no idea what if anything is going to happen but I can't help feeling Dorothea and/or her husband are going to get badly fucked, maybe by themselves. Mr Brooke's description of marriage as putting one's head in a noose and him not having loved anyone enough to risk it feels super apposite, maybe more so today than it was back then.

FWIW I took way too many crappy photos at Monte Alban but I guess they are nearly free and I don't really think taking them spoiled my appreciation otherwise. One or two of them are probably not too bad, but it is so hard to capture the feel of the place in general and yet I feel obliged to try to snap everything.

I suppose to some extent I can also have a bit of a lie in on Friday, subject to not feeling edgy about the prolonged homelessness looming that day and the next.

I did have one mildly aggressive beggar on the street earlier BTW during daylight but not a big deal. He was just slightly rude when I said "no, sorry" before letting him get his whole spiel off.

2038 I might go down to room and move towards bed. The dog left not long after I came up. I feel OK and nothing is wrong but I am the tiniest bit tired and a bit bored sitting up here. I am not gagging for social contact, which is lucky as the chances of any feel slim.

Yeah, let's go down.

2042 there is a room on the roof off the route to the actual terrace and a bloke seems to be giving haircuts in there with clippers. Odd.

2052 done teeth. About to go to bed.

Youri told me that at some major archaological site - let's say chichen itza - the local vendors would make a noise with some toy and call out "Jaguar! Jaguar!" (In Spanish, so J souned as a Y). This amused me, but today I actually got the hear the noise as the relatively small collection of marketish stalls outside Monte alban had people doing exactly this, including the Jaguar! Jaguar! Cry. I have some very bad video and audio recordings which just may have caught this.

I can't be sure if you could hear them doing this while in the actual site, but I would guess you could at the bits nearer the entrance.

Oh, and that reminds me that while waiting for the bus in zipolite one of the local journey trucks went past and I half overheard some probably Americans sitting waiting for bus near me and they obviously had the same thought as me about what if our bus was one of those, because they sort of looked at it and one said something about it would be funny and another said he would probably cry. Maybe I utterly misinterpeted their looks and the partially overheard conversation but I suspect I didnt and the shared independent thought was somehow oddly cool.

(The seats are benches down the side with no padding.)

2057 lets go to bed.

Zipolite-Oaxaca City

Tue 0744 just paid 370 for seat. Bus only had about four seats left, I couldn't get a solo seat but I did at least get an aisle.

0758 just been and got 2 conchas from a bakery. Back home only eat at night but here my diet is so poor that I am dubious about my ability to comfortably go without food all morning. Yes j have the cakey thing but rather not touch it.

At least 4 cats/kittens playing in rubbley garden area behind this mini terminal.

Feeling a bit hot and vaguely edgy about bus but should be fine. Didn't sleep super well but not terribly. Can't believe the new hostel is going to be social but then I am just assuming and you never know what is going to turn up plus tbh it would be good if I could have  quiet evening in with private room and so a few chores (nails, book flight seat, book train ticket for visiting family when I get back).

I fly back three weeks today. Still quite a lot of time and as I said yesterday mixed feelings about going back.

Also some chickens scratching around next door, presumably they dont have trouble with the cats.

Well overdue for laundry due to being in dorms and not eg getting chance to ask if I could've wash plus I knew it would be hard to dry anything in the climate her|, tho there were clothes out on balcony so maybe it would have worked - but it was only two nights and the first evening I didn't see the staff guy again to ask. May be able to get a bit done in Oaxaca, private room help a with drying but it is a shared bathroom and may be a very small hoatel so perhaps more scrutiny and of course there is always the possibility the sink is held on with chewing gum whether you have a shared or private bathroom.

I just may take some clothes in to a laundry tomorrow but we will see. If I am only staying two nights - it could well be more, but still only booked for two right now - picking stuff up before I go might be a smidge stressy.

0816 on bus. Seat not too bad, is aisle at least and legroom not awful. Clear hints of Aircon. Guy sitting next to me is male half of a couple taking a slightly tearful farewell as we were waiting. They seem Spanish speaking. He seems a smidge upset which is kind of touching actually, for all my mixed emotions of sympathy and jealousy at seeing them in terminal (which is just a shed/roof). I had been assuming she was a tourist and he was some local she had got off with. Of course there are a billion possibilities etc. This may also just be a parting of a few days and they are milking it. Etc etc

I am in the front-most passenger row.

Jesus, I really would like to get my nails cut. One has been snagging in beg the last two nights but the file is buried in the tube cube in locker and never got round to digging it out. I need to make these sort of things more accessible.

0821 we're off.

0825 driver is playing mushy type Spanish language songs and I suspect it isn't helping the chap. Maybe my imagination. I actually do feel quite sorry for him.

Eg "me vas a hechar (sic) de menos" playing now.

Squeezed out a tiny and possibly illicit piss in not V nice little bog at terminal before getting on bus.

1020 beetlejuice is on. Not really watching it, if nothing else screen is right overhead and it is a bit uncomfortable to look at (and my left arm is also a bit sore from sitting funny) and it oddly reminds me of going to see a Superman film with grandad and his friend David when I was very small and sitting in the front row and it hurting my neck.

Feeling a tiny bit intermittently stressy. Not too bad overall. Eg stupid but I wonder if not having AC in oaxaca is going to be awful. Even though I got by fairly happily without or even a fan on last visit.

Very little mobile reception en route. This semi explains perhaps why starlonk is used in zipolite, though of course mobile data isn't same as cabled access.

I am also needing to remind myself (generally, not wrt heat) that eg last night I was feeling fine, so any minor wobbles today are just transit stuff and buses and maybe chap next to me making me think about some stuff.

Put sunblock on back at hostel as though not out in sun this morning I expect to be on sunny streets in oaxaca  also may help soothe back of neck, though tbh it doesn't feel noticeably burned so probably fine anyway. (It may be red, I haven't looked, but overall not been doing too bad wrt sunburn.)

Not sure if actually true but some of the irregular chequerboard floors in BJ are reminding me of Steppenwolf.

Macarthur park sequence in BJ is a bit weird.

1049 throat keeps feeling a bit dry. I think it must be the (not over fierce, tbh, but still OK) aircon.

Film just finished. I guess I kind of sort of watched it enough to get the gist. It is dubbed in Spanish of course.

Organic maps estimates 1h22m to Oaxaca. That would indeed be about 4h total. Fingers crossed. I don't feel too bad but it would be nice to get off the bus all the same.

"Promethea" might be name of new film. Even less interested and probably won't have time to see it all anyway.

1158 getting close. Bloke next to me has headphnes on and intermittently air drumming and sort of dancing in his seat. My sympathy has mostly disappeared. :-)

1219 bum hurts a bit. Film - something about boveda (arch?) Hunting - seems to be maybe nearly finished but not been paying much attention.

1220 just realised I can have an ice cream in oaxaca! Not that I couldn't and indeed didn't in Zipolite and environs, but still.

Eli Roth film. Maybe something to do with computer game borderlands. Which makes me think of Shamus Young.

1223 pulling into lineas unidas terminal.

1300 at hostel. All ok, they are cleaning room but had a piss. There is a pissy sign in bathroom saying water is scarce and they will charge a penalty if you wash clothes in the aink. Because of course washing clothes in the sink uses far more water than a washing machine.

There is a tiny dog (Chihuahua?) Here. Quite nice but seems a tiny bit scared of me. I am not sure if I should go out or hang around. I don't want to look stroppy - check in is not til 2 - but unless the room is practically ready I might as well go out and come back in a bit.

Plan for today is to wander round and eat and unless something comes in my way (unlikely on a ruesday I suspect) I will come back and eg hanf around on roof terrace a bit sunsetish and see if any chance of chat and otherwise just try to get a few chores done and enjoy some private space.

It is warm here in Oazaxa but not boiling, especially in the shade.

I may take some laundry in somewhere tonight if there is somewhere local open after my sunset ish shower, otherwise maybe first thing tomorrow. If I sleep well I may see about extending another night here. Maybe tonight need to try to flesh out draft itinerary for rest of trip. I am toying with a self guised trip to montealban tomorrow but have to check up on details later.

1836 So, I went out and I gorge myself stupid at Los Sabores de la Chef. The menu didn't seem quite as good buffet Oh, it is west-west. Yeah, it's west-west, west-west, west-west.selection that is as the other day but it wasn't too bad and I had quite a few of these sort of vaguely pizza but get type things. I had three glasses of different flavour juice. It didn't seem to be any coffee. Anyway, it was hot as well and I thought I'd eaten quite a lot but when I left I realised I was absolutely be stuffed and felt almost sick.

So I came back to hostel and lay down for maybe an hour or two. Feels a bit wasteful but OTOH I really had no major plans and it was good to maybe over eat semi healthy food and SL on.

I went out about 1730 and has a bit of a wander and tried to find nearby laundry but no luck, though I did discover @ little square up some steps with lots of ice cream places, though I ended up eating at la Michoacana anyway even though it wasn't that hot by this time and I briefly wrestled with ideas of not having anything went to check put a bia to montealban I has seen before and found it though slightly disappointingly the first bus isn't til 9am. There are probably multiple options though. I did have some isea of getting up ans trying to get an 8am bus to help beat the heat. Will have to look into this later but 9am isn't terrible.

Found a street with lots of small local bars as wandering back but probably not breave enough to go alone. One offering 3 caguamas for 150. Also while it is kind of tempting to go out and maybe eg have a drink in the main square (the protestor tents seem to have gone compared to last time a few days ago, but mahbe I just went down wrong street) I think it would be good to have a day off the beer, if only on appreciating it grounds rather than health.

Chihuahua is female BTW, if is obvious now ice had a better look at her.

Room has no wndow and is a tiny bit stuffy but not big deal.

Got a coke zero on way back and was and an going to go up to terrace with it but they were cleaning steps up so temporarily put it on fridge. A woman has turned up and is  checking in slowly, we have exchanged a few words on practical stuff, no idea if there will be any chat opportunities.

There is also a hairless dog here, have a bad photo. C seems to be getting reasonably friendly with me, not see hairless one much so far.

May ask about extending tomorrow but we will) see. Need to sketch out draft itinerary. Even if I stay in oaxaxa longer, which is quite possible, it may be best on cost and social grounds to try somewhere else.

C is called Cata, new woman just asked  I should have done really and nearly did earlier. And it is a chihuhahua, she asked that too.

1854 up on terrace. Saw a bloke briefly, possibly staff, not sure. Bit of a breeze which is kind of nice but may be wearing after too long. I will have my coke and then maybe go have a shower and perhaps come back up here.

Not absolutely ruling out going for a walk or to buy eg more coke tonight but gut feeling is I won't.  Sign up here says you can't smoke marijuana.

I waited about 40-50 mins when checked in before I got room  not complaining as I could have asked and tbh it was kind of nice to sit in relatively cool shade of reception and read.

Do wonder if sabores de la chef has two nearby locations or something, the layout was different to last time and I had to pay at a kiosk with a window on the way in.

Occasional flashes of sheetish lightning, sky is quite cloudy.

Feelong a bit bnm generally but I can't make people to talk to materialise out of nowhere. As I say, maybe I am making excuses but in general it does feel like there are not people around to be talked to, rather than me just lacking social skills or youth or whatever.

Half wish I had booked three nights and half glad I didn't. There was no strong motive beyond the usual "try not to over commit" in booking for only 2 nights to start with. Rightly or wrongly I just have a feeling it may be hard to extend here at a decent price if at all

I feel a strong disinclination to deal with shit like booking flight seats and train tickets and faffing with onward plans. I don't know if this is laziness or procrastination or trying not to think about the trip ending or having to make decisions or what.

I am about halfway down the coke. Nothing stops me going out for albeit probably overpriced coffee eg on the main square, but tbh it would be kind of nice to have an early and or quiet night in given I have got the private room. I will probably try to put in some time on terrace post shower just to be around in case there is any chance of chat but not overoptimistic.

WiFi appears not to reach up here which is a mixed blessing.

Quite a neat sort of model (life size) of a man sitting on a seat up here made of straw or wire or something.

Misc minor irritations to "solve" if possible which have been meaning to make a note about for a while:
- the way stuff like nail clippers or (though lately it is in fleece pocket) headphones are often buried away in locker and getting at them is so much FAFF I often don't bother (they are usually in tube cube and I often put eg passport and money in there ans put it in my locker in a dorm while chaining backpack next to my bed so I can get to most of my stuff without constantly going into locksr while protecting the most valuable stuff) - on some sense solving this is as trivial as keeping eg nail clippers in a plastic bag in lid under pocket of my backpack instead of tube cube
- although I think carrying toilet paper is sensible, I have ot in a ziploc type bag in a knee pocket and it is quite bulky and possibly also inhibits breathability.
- likewise I have my hanky in that tpocket, back home I keep it in phone pocket and that works fine but on trip maybe cos it is hot or cos pocket is somehow together or Cos of zip the hanky tends to get in the way or keep coming out and this doesn't seem practical, so I have it in that knee pocket where it adds bulk and makes unwanted insulation

1922 OK that was nice, woman (Andrea) came up and asked if I was volunteering here and we talked quite a bit. She recommended San Marcos (near San Jose) where you can do like a 12km self guided hike (possibly to San Jose) and get a colectivo back at end and there is a hosfel there. This is unfortunately like half way back to mazunte. But it is a possibility. This is in the mountains and it is cold. And depending on buses etc (presumably there is a direct one if she came from there today - she is doing a months long yoga instructor? Course in Mazunte and is just up for a week) going back halfway wouldn't be the end of the world. Or if not then maybe for another trip.

She also did temezcal at San joss which sounds kind of cool but also not my thing, though she said she was feeling a bit "trapped" during first round which I could identify with. But she was with friends. Also I am not big on this whole mother earth religion local culture Respect type wank. But I did actually ask and she said doing the hikes (and there might well be people to meet in hostel to do them with, or might meet people on the hike) would be worth it even if you didn't do the other stuff.

I think she is on a 4.5ish month trip overall but is clearly not rushing round (which I agree with/respect etc; I do feel I am maybe slightly rushing round but since ibdont have a major goal like eg studying Spanish in a school or learning to surf it is a bit hard to judge what is "right").

Anyway, that little bit of conversationwas definitely welcome.

Nearly finished coke so I will go have a shower and cut nails and then maybe come back up here, though if there is no internet that makes it less practical.

She did say she felt proud of herself for doing the temezcal afterwards and I could totally see that. I very much doubt I am going to even try even if I do go to San Marcos though.

2034 Had shower - gave uw a water only wash as it is most critical (though I still had maybe 2ish never worn pairs from the wash back in palenque, as been reusing a smaller subset and washing those) if I can't find a laundry handy tomorrow or my travel plans don't allow loitering to collect. Though tbh I suspect all else being equal I might as well hang around to thu on offchanxe of lang exchange, tho some are shit ime of course.

Also cut finger and toenails. Left big toe is a little messy looking but not really hurting any more BTW. Looks basically like the nail is partly cracked across the middle but presumably this will just grow out, and there is maybe some slight bruising under it.

Feeling really kind of torn about going out, if only for a snack or coffee or wander, but tbh probably shouldn't. I have had a quick look for trains to visit family when i return which is at least a tiny step towards getting that chore done.

I also had a shave fwiw. No hot water in shower but not huge deal. (In zipolite hosfel it was just a cold water pipe, but it's hot enough there a cold shower is not a problem and the water is actually warmish anyway.)

I am going to take a bottle of water and both phones up to roof but may not stay there long.

2045 on roof. One bloke up here playing with his phone. Ah, Andrea just come up after me and also sat on her own. Sort of makes me feel better about doing the same.

2118 just me and bloke. Doesn't feel awkward but obviously not matey. Neither phone can get WiFi up here. I could use my data but rather conserve it.

Been poking at guise book and trying to sketch out a rough itinerary. I need to be careful and not over stretch myself.

Gut feeling is that I will try to be in San cris *next* weekend, as there may be social activities at hostel and failing that I can go to eg el paliacate for live music solo at a push. Since there is some chance of social axtivity and at least solo going out, I am probably not going to overweight the prospect of being here in oaxaca city for the weekend.

I may have got the name san Marcos wrong. However  guide bookbsoes got on about San Jose del Pacifico and I am thinking subject to accom etc it may make sense to go down there for say 2-3 nights when I leave here. Even if I don't or can't hike much the area sounds cool. Say thu/Fri/sat night. I might then come back to oaxaca for sun/Mon night and then an overnight bus back to San cris.

The problem there is that I maybe get to San cris too early. I am toying with going to comitan and exploring round there, but I maybe don't want to be blippong back and forth between comitan and San cris to be in sc for the weekend. Maybe it is OK, it might only be an hour or two.

Comacalco and Tabasco in general would have to wait for another trip.

I think tbh if I can fly back from Tuxtla or Villahermosa to xancun I do have time to spend nearly a week around comitan after spending weekend after next in San cris, but it is maybe cutting it a bit fine if I am bussing it.

While I don't see myself all that likely to go back to zipolite or mazunte on a future trip, I am reasonably likely to come through Oaxaca especially if I have flown in via Cancun. So I could prioritise comitan now and say that san Jose and environs would be a naturalish side trip from Oaxaca in future, as (say) I pass through towards Puebla or Cuernavaca or whatever.

So maybe| instead I should so whatever (and I have some separate rough notes) hikingish and other day trips I want to do from here in oaxaca, then move on to San cris via a night bua and depending on the time of the week perhaps go down to comitan first rather than putting up at the hosfel in San cris straight away.

If comitan is somehow a bust I would probably have time to cut my losses and go not too hurriedly by bus through Tabasco and Campeche city etc.

I probably need to check some bus travel times and so on (eg push comes to shove, can I get a bus from say tuxtla to Cancun and how painful is it?)  This is not feeling quite like a plan but it is maybe vaguely starting to come together.

It does feel like since there are other hiking possibilities (albeit nothing too "epic" and I do somehow wonder If I've lost physical condition compared to eg paramillo last year, but I have to assume not), with less than three weeks to go by the time I get there and needing to get back to Cancun, putting in maybe 3-4 nights in San jose del Pacifico and environs may not be a great idea. If I had say 5 weeks it would be fine but as it is it feels like I am going to feel a little bit harried there which in turn is probably going to make it harder for me to have the confidence to relax and do hikes etc and I'd be constantly thinking about getting back for the flight.

Comitan and nearby towns (which I might hope to stay in overnight, and I probably wouldn't do them all either as don't want to over stretch myself) are probably coolish. If I end up in tabasco it is probably warm away from the coast, but at least I'd have had some mountain time first after my recent coastal jaunt and with a return home in a week or two on the cards there might be some pleasantness in even excessive warmth at that point.

I do kind of wish I'd made the trip longer but all of my "2.5" reasons to keep it short were reasonably sensible and I had to decide and I can't say I was actually wrong to go with 8 weeks. There have been just enough homesick wobbles, for example, that maybe a longer trip would have felt even more overwhelming earlier on.

I have some vague hopes I might find a cheap flight to come back via Cancun for a month or so in autumn. But let's not get ahead of ourselves or write off the remaining three weeks yet!

2138 OK, I think I will go down to room and just maybe slack off a bit and maybe look at some rough bus timetables. It is just me up here and I see little chance of chaf and albeit it was only 5 minsish with Andrea earlier that was still a nice little break in the no chat streak.

I may well extend here in oaxaca for a couple of days to do some nearby stuff so quite likely to be here for lang exchange thu anyaay, but I am unlikely to hang around specifically for that. It could be good, it would probably be at least OK, but there is enough chance it sucks that I won't burn a day *just* for it.

Plan tomorrow is still probably to get 9am bus to montealban and spend 3ish hours there, then maybe in afternoon I will do a museum or two and decide what I might do the day after and if I want to extend (be it at this hostel or another).

2152 Okay, super quick look on the web suggests that there is in fact multiple bus services from San Christabelle, direct to Cancun, although it takes about 22 to 24 hours. There also seems to be a 15-hour service from Tuxtler to Cancun, and that's only an hour or two away from San Christabelle. So, although I don't particularly want to do it, I could essentially be hanging around in And the San Christobao, Komitan kind of region, until a few days before the flight and still get back without too much trouble. There is also the Tren maya as well, potentially from some parts of that region.

There's also a service from San Cristobal to Campeche in something like 14 or 15 hours, although it gets there about 3 a.m. in the morning, which is a bit awkward. And then from Campeche to Cancun, you can get the train, I think, but it's also about 7 or 8 hours by bus.

So I think basically it is reasonable to sort of not too hastily finish up here in Wahaka, do some day trips, side trips, hiking trips for the next day, two, three days, however long feels appropriate. Then move on to the Saint-Christavale comitan region via a night bus from here. Don't overdo time at the Saint-Christavale hospital, but you know, see if I can enjoy myself there and get some sort of social life and nightlife in. But you know, that still gives me, and then I've got a week or two around that to do comitan or maybe some other things there because obviously I could choose to head over to Villahermosa or Campeche earlier. Probably be fairly flexible without too much pain the last few days, you know, and I do still have three weeks, so I think there's a rough plan emerging there.day 354 bed. Dwiw there is free water here but I think the kitchen where the dispenser is located is locked 2200-0800ish. Not a huge deal.

Feel OK. Not omfg wow amazing living the dream, but OK. Am slightly tired and be good to go to bed. Shame it is a slightly early start tomorrow but nothing too bad, and a say trip out is not as stressful as having to actually move somewhere new as I did today.

Zipolite, Monday

Mon 1502 on deserted terrace  at La Palapa cometa in Mazunte. Vaguely dissatisfied. Was going to have a kombucha but they has not so getting white coffee.Solidish morning(ish) touristing but I think I have burned back of next (90pc sure I put sunblock on this morning but maybe I forgot or maybe my top collar rode low or something).

Slept okish, aircon and or cooler night temps did help. Got IP about 830-9. Felt hacked off with heat and wondered what the fuck to do with the day. Went and had half decent breakfast at Sol y Luna and that probably made me feel better.

Got truck over to mazunte and had a wandsr and hiked over punta cometa, which is pretty cool and while not deserted was nicely quiet while not feeling utterly scarily deserted.

Hiked length of mermejita beach and found a cool sort of folk sculpture vaguely animal looking wood construction in a little bay up at the end. Hiked back and had a quick look at playa rinconcito. Time is now hanging a smidge heavy.

I prefer mazunte to Zipolite, the resortness and the counterculture (ie petted and mainstream smug middle class mildly edgy culture) vibe has been dialled back about 50% but there is still something annoyingly smug and irritating about the place (eg posters advertising a course on how to tie people up or get tied up yourself, judgment-free women dance/twerking sessions). I would (subject to half decent accom) rather put in another night or two here in mazunte than in Zipolite but tbh I would kind of like to move on, maybe to somewhere higher up where it isn't so hot, I don't feel so weird wearing my usual travel gear (yes I could wear trunks as shorts etc but I don't really want to), where there isn't the irritating resort/"counter" culture vibe and so on  it doesn't feel super congenial to be hanging round here "just chilling". Problem is I am really not sure where to go, especially without doubling back. I probably need to do some desperate poking at ado website and rome2rio later when I have net access. This all feels vaguely stressful and uncertain.

If didn't say I photoed a slightly scraggy (but maybe it had just got wet) dog with a red neckcloth yesterday at Beach and wondered if it was a stray, and the story was rather pleasingly closed out when I went to beach for sunset yesterday and was the same dog leaving with iirc a couple, so it presumably is owned.

I had a look at San agustinillo as we passed though on way to mazunte this morning. It looks quieter but still on the resort spectrum and I think I also has a V quick look this morning and the Accom there is super expensive. It isn't a tremendously tempting option.

Junior senior move your feet playing. Mixed memories of this.

I don't really want to end up back in San cristobal too soon. I think there isn't much point over speculating where to go until I can check out buses online. (At one point guidebook would have had - I only want to be with you cover in Spanish playing - bus routes in, but they don't seem to bother any more. And they also annoyed me by abbreviating "pizza" as "'za" in one of their smug arse where to eat recommendations.)

I don't feel bad. While hot as hell except for the odd welcome brreze, the hike round punta cometa was a solid bit of touristing. I just feel a bit at a loose end, slightly lonely and not fitting in or super comfortable and I am not sure what to do or where to go. I half anticipate some awkwardness with an onward trip, given I need to get an (admittedly probably easy) truck to pochutla and then go on from there. I don't know how well connected pochutla is. To be fair, I am pretty sure getting back to oaxaca city is not going to be hard and that wouldn't be a terrible option, albeit I would probably prefer not to back-track.

The end of the trip is also just close enough I need to bear it in mind and that feels like an extra conplicating factor. Ignoring the logiatics, I have mixed feelings about the end of the trip - it will be a shame to have to go home and I can hardly remember what it was like back home before the trip (albeit it is always a bit odd round christmas / new year anyway). On the other hand, it would be nice to relax in my own home and not to be feeling hot and so on.

1534 guy just asked if he could take my menu, not sure why he didn't ask if I wanted anything as been toying with getting a beer but fuck knows. Maybe it is just in my head but I don't feel super welcome. Even though I am the only customer and even if not super lucrative so far am hardly occupying space that a high spender could be using instead.

As per some reviews, hosfel has no toilet seats BTW. And about half of the toilet/shower cubicle doors are so badly fitting you can't actually shut them and thus can't throw the latch across. Hoatel is OK really for the money but not over keen to go back there, it may just be my head but doesn't feel super comfortable to hang around there.

Waifress who served me is nowhere to be seen  there is a guy washing tables down but not clear if I can ask him for something or not.

1541 duck it, I am going to go down and ask for a beer and then I might have another coffee and then get the truck back "home".

1544 did that. Really didn't feel welcome or remotely valued as a customer. Maybe it is just in my head. Fuck it.

1549 feeling a bit down. I think not having a plan is the big issue.

If I didnt already say, mazunte feels a bit bigger than Zipolite and though it all feels (devuelveme a mi chica playing) quite touristy with no real non tourist shops or restaurants it feels a bit better, cheaper and more natural than the not that long main drag in Zipolite which is a little claustrophobically "all there seems to be". That is unfair as during my wanderings yesterday there is a little bit more to the town than the main drag, but it is heavily dominated by that.

1555 I think I might not bother with a coffee.  maybe go get an overpriced ice cream and then get truck back to z (I have seen what I want here) and maybe have a beer or something on hoatel tetrace and start to poke at online routes etc.

Really though the lack of a plan is I think fucking with my head, the realistic worst case is I have to go back to Oaxaca tomorrow which is probably a truck then a single bus and 4ish hours travel. Hardly the end of the world, I can almost certainly semi enjoy myself for a couple of nights in oaxaca (and I might splurge on a private room or something) and from there I can probably get a bus to just about anywhere.

I would still rather not backtrack but we will see. That worst case is hardly terrible.

I think it may be whale watching season here but I am not (and wasn't before this minor depressive patch today/this afternoon either) massively in the mood. Something about the atmosphere of Puerto escondido and now zipolite and mazunte just puts me right off paying for a tour.  The vaguely tourist ripoff atmosphere doesn't sit right. I am sure any kind of whale watching tour would be from somewhere with a similar vibe though. But no, not in the mood.

I am aware I haven't done much in the way of "energetic" stuff this trip - no hikes or treks etc. It just doesn't seem to have worked out that way. I would like to at least swim in a cenote (I think the splashing around on the tour in bacalar that gave me fever technically counts, but not really) but hopefully that will be easy as I return to Yucatán en route to flight because the whole place is riddled with them. And I didn't actively *not* swim in a cenote when I had the chance, I just seem not to have really come across any the route I happened to take.

1605 finished beer. Don't need a piss but will go anyway then pay up and head out.

1704 just got off ytuck in z. Vit annoyed as there was a chicken place in M which was 70 for quartet chicken with soup and rice and I dothered (I had gorged on a 30 peso pack of canela rolls) and didn't and now half wish I had. Oh well.

I went and had an ice cream on a stick and wandered down to beach before coming back. Just leaving that restaurant/baf helped somehow, and I think ice cream did too. Still feeling vaguely uncertain and hacked off and uncomfortable.

1721 back at hostel with coke zero. FWIW suddenly remember last night guy on corner as I went down to beach for sunset offered me weed. It is clearly everywhere here and you'd almost think it was legal given how common it is to smell the stuff - I assume the cops could be pinching people left right and centre if they wanted - but this was the first time anyone offered to sell me any.

1831 On beach voice typing, I'm actually wearing my swimming gear. Not that I'm going to swim, obviously. I brought my phone with me. But after I had a shower, I just couldn't bring myself to put those bloody trousers back on again. Maybe if I give them a bit of a break, they'll de-sweat or something.

So I had a look at the buses, it's a fuckfest. It would be really nice if the guidebook actually said, oh from here there are buses that run to places x, y and z, but of course it doesn't. In all seriousness, I probably should bring an old out of date guidebook with me. You can check the information online, but you cannot find it. So an old guidebook that says those destinations I could check. The current guidebook just says nothing and you can't search on the internet for where can I get a bus from place X to where are the possible destinations that are easy to get to. It doesn't seem to be possible.

Anyway, all the buses from Petootler run super early or incredibly late and they get in at shitty times. Basically, I felt a bit panicky even though obviously I know it's kind of possible. There is a bus, the only bus during the day. The last one, next one's about  five o'clock at night. There is an OCC bus from Petootler to Puerto Escondido that nine, which would mean dicking around with a collectivo thing to get there. Petootler is pochutla.

Anyway, a bit of parking on Rome to Rio and blah blah. I went to the linear Tsunadass not far from the hostel. There'sa mini bus, it's for about 370 pesos. There's one just after eight, another one just after eleven, which goes direct to a hacker. I probably am going to have to aim for the eight o'clock one, which means shitty packing in the dark, in the dormitory, blah blah.

I haven't booked a ticket yet, I'm just assuming I can get one tomorrow and if I can't get one for the eight I'll have to wait till the eleven. It's about four hours which seems reasonable even though Rome to Rio insists it takes like six hours and I'm sure some websites also insist on stupid times. I guess the staff there ought to know. The woman seemed a bit bored with me but you know at least you answered the question.

Not super happy at having to go back to Oaxaca and I haven't looked in the accommodation yet. I'll have a look at doing that when I get back to the hotel, hostile. I've come down here to see the sunset, there's a lot of cloud, but I figured what the hell. I am feeling slightly sad to be leaving and also to be leaving in a bit of a rush. I could stay tomorrow night, E.G. in either here or Mazunt, what's it? But then this bus goes from Zippod Lite, so I don't really want to be in Mazuntay.

Of course, looking on the web, I found all stuff about how Warhacker is dangerous at night. You should always take a taxi after 9 o'clock and someone got mugged who live there for three years. Then this is a 2025 article in theory, although it looks a bit like it's been updated and who fucking knows. Anyway, can't be helped. I'm not sure exactly where I'd go from Warhacker, but, you know, I'm assuming there's options heading basically back towards Chiapas and Tabasco.

I've got a beer with me. I might even have another one back at the hospital. I'm feeling a little bit disconcerted and I also overpaid for some sort of chocolate pastry thing on the walk back from the bus terminal. I had like a hundred peso note in the pocket of my trunks and that's that. So anyway, it's fine. It's 45 for the pastry. I might eat that now.

1909 Still on the beach, the chocolatey pastry thing was nice, a bit overindulgent maybe and I had a beer drinking not too much like in necessary absolute terms but because I'm drinking nearly every day it's maybe not got the fun factor it could have anyway

I'm feeling a bit annoyed, a bit fed up. It's like I'm a bit sad to be leaving here, but absolutely nothing stops me staying another day. Especially if I stay here, but even if I really wanted to, I could go over to the M place. I don't really want to. I've been feeling hot all day. It doesn't feel like the hostel at least here is anywhere I'm going to get to chatting to people. I don't really like the beach atmosphere. It isn't so quiet that It's just super relaxing to sit around doing basically nothing like you know it was in Brazil a few years ago so I think it makes sense to leave it just I don't like rushing off and as always I suppose it's good to be a bit sad rather than happy

I'm sure I could probably get a bus to Watoco, but for personal reasons, I really don't want to go there. And even if we ignore the personal reasons, I think I'm not in the mood for any more beachiness, unless there was some sort of super quiet out-of-the-way beach, you know. But I don't think Watoco is going to be that. (Huatulco)

It is annoying to backtrack but it's only four hours and I only spent two nights in Oaxaca before and I'll do my best to try and find a different hostel, maybe one where I might get to chat to people. I mean, we're not even looking at an epic, it's just like in the first few hostels, I did at least chat to people a little bit, just a few casual words. But since, you know, the hostel in San Christaval, I've been in places and it's like, it doesn't even feel that I'm too old or too boring or too shy, it just hardly feels like there's anyone around, I don't know.

It's also a bit annoying because although the two nights is just a default and I could extend to three if things go well, this timing with Wohaka means that I will again miss the Thursday Night language exchange by one day but not the end of the world and of course I may choose to stay on any way depending on what I find to do and how much fun I'm having.

And of course it's a bit of a pisser to have a superish early start, but it's not absolutely insane and the bus stops just around the corner, it's only four hours and you know, at least I do know some nice places to eat in Wahaka now and you know, notwithstanding with new security worries it seemed a reasonable place.

No idea what the onbound bus is from whacker gonna be like, I'm not entirely sure where I want to go, whether you know, maybe Tabasco, Chiapas, but I'm sure there'll be something even if it means another overnight, or maybe I can reasonably get a day bus somewhere to a halfway point. I've still got three weeks as of tomorrow, so while I need to be careful, I'm not too tight for time yet.

If I didn't say there was a cruise ship slowly crossing the bay I'll call it when I was here on the beach last night probably if I have the directions right maybe bound or past Acapulco maybe even going to stop there well anyway I took a photo of it but I didn't if I remember rightly mention it in the blog.

Kind of don't want to go back to the hostel more because I don't want to have to deal with booking something in with a hacker than anything else. But I probably ought to go back. The sunset, by the way, I mean, you know, the sun doesn't set visibly. There's a lot of cloud. The sky's very dark now. There was some color effects, but it really wasn't anything like, for example, Puerto Escondido. So, here's what it is.

At least the beach is right around the corner from the hostel here. It wasn't a big fact to come down. Anyway, I guess I should go back. I don't really want a lot to drink or anything, but maybe after I've gone back, I'll pop out and buy another beer at the corner shop and take it back to the hospital or something. Obviously, it's an early-ish start. I might also try and pack my bag when the air conditioning comes on about nine, but hopefully before most people go to bed. And then everything's kind of set up. for tomorrow.

And I'm going to have to look what accommodations available. I don't think I'll stay at the same hostel if there's something half decent because it was still a dorm and it was also not terribly sociable. I mean, I think ideally a private room in a nice hostel, but I may or may not splurge on a private. We'll see how it goes. I always struggle. But anyway, I guess I just have to see what's available.

Anyway, look, I might as well go back. I'm not super enjoying it here. It's fine enough, but since I've got to leave tomorrow, I've got to make preparations and maybe going out and getting another snack or something for the bus. Although, of course, I could maybe go to that buffet tomorrow after I've checked in. Anyway, I think I'm just milking it here, so I'm probably going to head back to the hostel in a second. Voice typing this in the beach, because as you know, no one can hear me. Not that I'm saying anything terribly exciting anyway.

1925 back at hoatel with coke zero. There is something nice about the music from the nearby bars etc. Maybe change of cloithes helps. (But I am not walking around dressed like this in the sun.) But still probably best to clear out. Let me look at booking.com.

Dido no surrender playing blurrily in distance. (White flag?)

1936 poked on booking. There is a hostel about six blocks from zocalo (smidge out bit hardly insane) which will do me a double with a shared bathroom for I think less than 500 for two nights  the 6 bed dorm has 5 beds free so it is probably hardly rammo. But then what guarantee is there anywhere else is?

I am probably going to book. I am 99.9pc certain I can get to Oaxaca tomorrow, even if things go wrong with the bus I intend to get there are lots of options even if it turns into a minor nightmare.

I just half wonder if I should stay here another night. But I think this is just vague what iffery. People round me are chatting in Spanish and I do mostly understand if I concentrate but no one seems massiveely inclined to talk to me. And of course you never know and maybe tomorrow might o will be changing with the one other guest at the hoatel in Oaxaca and delighted I have gone. And putting utterly hypothetical social stuff aside, nothing alters the fact that while I see some appeal to z now I am leaving, the reality is it is an annoyingly overpriced beachy resort half full of gringos and you can't even swim in the sea here. I could maybe move to mazute but based on what I saw today even if you can swim on the main beach if doesn't look super nice and I have no idea if I could get a hoatel near enough to let me swim early before UV gets up and it is still resorty even of not too bad and while I like punta cometa I struggle to imagine myself going there to watch the sunset (it is a bit of a trek) and I have swim on sea twice recently and so the value in doing it again (not that a single night stay would help much) is limited and what I really want is a swimming pool for safety or a cenote for novelty. And there is always whatiffery and maybe if I stay another night or two in this "region" I will have a brilliant time but equally maybe leaving for oaxaca tomorrow will somehow lead to a brilliant time.

Putting glasses on and looking up, there is an attractive ish woman on here own playing with phone and two possibly couples chatting. It is hardly as if this feels like there is a general social group chat vibe. And yes another hpstel might be different, but then so might oaxaca.

And Oaxaca might be more fun, even if I am AF least at first annoyifgly there mid-week, you never know. It also sets me up to move on somewhere with relatively minor fiss compared to here.

There is a borderline OK bua from here to Tehuantepec (well, from pochutla iirc) but I am far from clear I want to go there, it is in-likely to be a deathbed regret if I don't go and if I do following calmer research want to go it is highly likely I can get there from oaxaca anyway.

There may also be a chance of some tranquil obscure small town beach up on north coast of Tabasco if I get over there without wasting time.

Also I has no doubt about leaving here after two noghts until tonight when whatiffery and vague sadness at leaving came in. Excitement and adventure and really wild things can happen anywhere and I really don't see any strong reason to hang around here. While beaches can work for me, it isn't as if I feel I do or want to fit in much here andreally the slightly physically cooler and urban but not terrifyingly huge atmosphere of somewhere like Oaxaca is far more my kind of place.

1956 done bloody Duolingo. I think I'd be slightly annoyed if that private room has gone which is maybe a sign. There is no really wrong option here but I think getting on to Oaxaca is the right thing to do on balance.

2010 booked. This feels fairly right. I will go get some more cash from dorm (trousers are in locker) and get another beer and some emergency snacks for the bus at tbs ittle shop next to host, though I plan to try not to eat and go to either the buffet or Charlie's to eat, especially if I can get the 8amish bus.

FWIW attractiveish solo woman now has a female friend. I half suspect these are all people who are travelling together and there is no general random social mixing chat even ignoring age personality and language barriers.

2031 went up to dorm and did quick count up of clothes and got some clean out for tomofrow to reduce fuss in morning. Shop next door shut bit another one down street open. Perhaps stupidly got 2x473ml xans of 2.5pc mixed stiff (Vicky mango and a sol Clamato) but this AF worst will induce pissing in night and is not really more alcovol than one more regular best  have a nasty feeling I have lost a 50 peso note out of trunk pocket but maybe I didn't and can't be helped and what goes around comes around etc.

Not feeling too bad generally. Glt some bimbo pan con pass which don't intend to eat bit good to have in reserve for bus if I really feel peckish.

2045 Some possibly Irish guy is singing next door. He's doing the times there are changing now. He's alright. He's not the best. But you know, it's live music and I'm not paying so kind of cool.

I didn't actually realise there was a bar on that side of the hostel, but presumably there is because it sounds like he's amplified rather than just some guy singing in the street.

This is mango chamoy beer and just did web search and chamoy is apparently a sauce made of fruit chillies lime and salt.  I think I had a mango chamoy beer the other day actually. It is quite nice, both sweet and salty.

2055 oberheading a converstion the WiFi here is apparently starlink (it is in the name but wondered if it was a joke) and I have seen mention of this in other signs outside accom here. Hard to believe there is no cabled internet here maybe 60km from puerto Escondido but maybe there isn't.

On ransom note the weed selling guy yesterday (utterly non threatening and pushy) spoke to me in English and he called it "weed". I said no thanks of course.

2101 Bakc of neck feels a smidge sore but not too bad. I put some sunblock on it after showering in the hope it might soothe and lubricate (no UV to block at night of course) and apart from being slightly wasteful won't do any harm and I still have a second small bottle of sunblock with me I haven't cracked open yet.

Feeling mildly relaxed, bit bnm but it is is sort of nice sitting here. I finished the first beer, will have the other in a bit and hopefully be in bed before 10.

Last nights shave was terrible but it was something and while I'd sort of like to shave again I am not going to waste time and blade sharpness doing it again tonight, especially in equally poor light. It is not really itchy, just mildly annoying perhaps due to heat, and I can shave properly tomorrow. Not shaving every single day in general anyway, just every 2-3 days to stop it getting insanely long and annoying and hard to cut.

Fingernails need cutting (not to mention toenaols) but with luck I can do this in private room tomorrow or day after and avoid the otherwise usual furtive and perhaps scrotey act of doing it in shared bathroom and inevitably not finding most of the clippings so cant pick them up.

2126 some xhap going upstairs spoke to me in English a bit ago and owner/staff type chap spoke to me briefly in Spanish, said it is always quiet sun/Mon. Quite a lot of people sitting around chatting but mostly in Spanish and while a tiny bit bnm it also feels fairly broadly companionable sitting here with people around.

Closeish to finishing second beef and will probably move towards cleaning teeth and bed soon. Have set alarm for 7.

2139 mildly busting for piss. General vibe of people sitting round chatting quietly with friends or just looking at their phones. Dont feel too bnm or as if there is much I could have done to get into chat. Feel okish really. Nearly finished beer and heading up soon.

Occasionally someone will wander in off street as if to see if this is a bar and then leave. There is a bar but I haven't seen anyone including guests served at it.

It is warm but borderline tolerable/pleasant in swimming gear (which includes short sleeved tshirt). I still hope the aircon is working in dorm and it will be nice to be in *relatively* cool oaxaca. (Private room has a fan, no ac, but didn't even have fan at last oaxaca hostel and it was OK although fan probably nice.)

Free water here and I was also given a towel, credit where due. The water is hand pumped out of those big cooler type water bottles, rather than rechargeable electric pump of gravity feed as in other places. Not a problem, just a bit of a novelty.

2144 OK, bed.

2158 in bed. Bit warm. Mattress is on floor so nothing can tuck under the bed. Can hear some music from adjacent bar. Feelong broadly OK, I think having made plans to move on made me feel a lot more chilled.

Puerto Escondido-Zipolite

Sun 1120 on OCC 1130 bus to Pochutla. Ivgot here 1100 but there was an epic queue and I was and am not so sure there is in fact another bus before 1730 despite what cgap told me yesterday. Anyway, I am on and it is blissfully ac.

Didn't sleep too badly but not brilliantly. Very brief pip pip with roommates and points but naturally not much. One was apparently sick in night and cleared off for a private room and his travel buddy was a bit miffed.

Went over to antojitos jenny for a poss Ott 5 quesadillas and watermelon juice (180, made 200 with tip, broke a 500) - super hot in there and as had left bag back at hostel was feeling a tiny bit rushed. As it was it was fine, got back to hoatel and finished packing (I had already counted up clothes and uw before leaving to go eat) and came over here.

Jim has arrived in Bonfil, I went him a message saying I am probably not going  I guess he didn't go because of me so while he may be slightly disappointed presumably not a big deal.

Booked hosfel in Zipolite this morning, have asked for a lower vunk. It is apparently ac in the dorms anyway. To be fair I suspect the heat hasn't been a huge problem with sleeping but who knows. Bed not maybe super comfortable albeit not too bad pillow perhaps a bit small and the undersheet not staying tucked under the mattress don't help.

If I didn't say Aziz in san cris told me about buying a little chick when he was a kid, possibly outside school, and it died. Just like Z. I assume this is a very common thing. He went to school in us for a large chunk of his life iirc but presumably was at school in Mexico at one point.

I think they has no electricity at jennys, the waitress may have told me when I paid and despite it being baking in there none of the ceiling fans were running.

Feel vaguely headache-y but I think it is just the heat and the stress of getting to this bus and wondering about making connection on to zipolite.

2040 on hostel Terrace voice typing quietly, suede head playing from some nearby bar.

I was a bit whiny and confused when I got to pochutla but
eventually manage to find a sort of place where you could get a truck to Zippalite. That was sort of cool, also the seat was very hard after a while, but you know it was fine, 30 pesos.

I got checked in okay, guy seemed to be acting like I was a bit hyper, stressed out, I don't know maybe I was, not in a nasty way he was saying this but anyway, dorms a bit crowded but it does have air conditioning from 9 o'clock and I've got a lower bunk and it has a sort of curtain on.

Feel a bit BNM and there's people talking around but in Spanish and you know what you're going to do.

So I went for a wander along the beach after I checked in. Basically the place is like a smaller and slightly nicer tamarindo. There is a lot of nudity on the beach, not everyone, but a lot. You know, and there's a bit of a gay thing here as well, but not exclusively. It's actually kind of okay. It's not as bothering as I expected, slightly weird, but not a huge deal.

After that, I think I came back to the hostel for a piss, went and had a couple of overpriced cold lattes at a coffee place near the hostel, wandered down the main drag again, although I'd already been down it when I walked to the hostel from the bus.

I think tomorrow I might see if I can get like a collective or something over to some of the other small towns. I think we came through the one beginning with M on the truck because it came the opposite way to what I expected. I wish I'd paid more attention although I couldn't see that much anyway, but it didn't really look very different or chilled or underdeveloped, you know.

I came back and had a shower just before sunset, super hot even so and then I went down to the beach for sunset and I stayed sitting on the sand as it got dark. The sunset wasn't super impressive in itself. There's a lot of clouds, some very weird, almost stalagmite looking clouds, quite cool in its way. Anyway, I stayed there as the sky got dark and it was very much like sitting on Tamarindo Beach, albeit the sunset wasn't as good at least tonight. But you know, there were beach bars and I was sort of half enjoying the music from the nearest one and there were even some fire performers and I perhaps milked it, but it was kind of cool to sit there. I was thinking like the other day, eight o'clock in the morning or whatever it was, after swimming, I was like, what the hell am I going to do all day today? But the time does seem to feel itself somehow. I guess some stuff takes longer than you expect, and there's always some wandering around to do or something to fill the time. And it doesnt really hang that heavy.

In some ways, this place is perhaps worse than Puerto Escondido. It kind of feels nicer, but at least in Puerto Escondido, if you walked a bit, there was the real town and not just all the tourist businesses, which are probably slightly overpriced. Whereas here, it kind of feels like there's nothing but the tourist drag. The actual businesses, there's more of them and it feels a tiny bit more acceptable than the ones near the hostel in Puerto Escondido, but still. for at least two nights and we'll see what happens.

I'm having a second beer here at the hospital. I thought I might get to chat to someone but it doesn't look very likely. Not a huge deal. I'm probably going to go to bed not long after nine because that's when the air conditioning comes on.

2118 half decent woman seems to be singing and playing guitar at a nearby bar. I don't really want to go but may sit here and listen a bit more. Feel vaguely down but nothing major. (Dong regret not being en route to Acapulco. I didn't give the chance of some nice chat up to come here, plus it is aort of interesting, I gave it up to improve the whole of my remaining time on this trip.)

2139 OK she is still singing but I am somehow not enjoying it. Let me go clean teeth etc and move towards bed.

2158 in bed. Slightly weird but not unpleasant interactions with three prob national tourist guys who were hanging around near dorm entrance then cans into bathroom to use sink while I was shaving (badly, razor sucks and it is too dingy). Can hear woman singing from nearby bar in bed anyway.

Feel slightly bnm but not too bad and tbh I don't really feel I could have done any better, so to speak, though maybe I delude myself.

There is aircon in dorm but in actual bed I don't feel it too strongly unfortunately. Maybe the effect will get stronger overnight.

Don't want to be up super late but also no major pressure tomorrow.

Puerto Escondido, Saturday

Sat 1303 Okay, sitting on the hostile terrorists, killing yourself fairly quietly, but not so terribly suspect. [Wtaf? Voice typing. Hostile is hostel of course. I suspect I said I am talking quietly but not saying anything terribly suspect if anyone can overhear me.]

Didn't sleep super well. I've got a vague feeling. I've got some sort of slight cold coming on, but I'm not sure. I dithered a bit about getting up, but I did get up a bit earlier than yesterday. I was in the sea about half past eight, which is not quite 20-25 minutes earlier than yesterday.

I think I was feeling slightly sick at some point, maybe because of the saltwater and perhaps dehydration a little bit. I was in the water maybe 40 minutes, ignoring the fact that I got out once or twice to have a little drink of water from my bottle on my sand. And I was maybe swimming for 15ish minutes, really hard to say. I did a lot of treading water, but a bit of swimming back and forth. Did manage to do some star floats, maybe because of the salt in the water. I was trying to mess around letting some of the big waves carry me towards the shore but they just never seemed to be there when I was more than a meter away from the edge so maybe that's just how it works or maybe I got impatient. There were a few people practicing surfing.

I extended for another night, only paid 200. There was some not quite adding up stuff about booking.com prices and they quoted me something that was more than booking.com and then said booking.com didn't include tax when it does. But anyway, I got the extra night for less than booking.com so I'm not complaining in the end.

So I was going to go pop out to El Cafecito practically next door to get breakfast and then think about things because I'd already sort of seen that EC was one of the more tolerable if still probably overpriced nearby options but there was a queue to get into it and then there was still a queue later on and it's like I draw the line at queuing to pay to get into an overpriced restaurant.

So I went for a bit of a wander, just trying to find somewhere to eat, bit warm. This is maybe about 11ish. Er, I found Antojitos Jenny, which was a super local and incredibly hot inside little, vaguely Tacoish place, although they didn't do Tacos, as far as I could see. I had four pretty decent and large quesadillas and a hibiscus juice, and that came in at 115, and I tipped another 15. I won't say I did the Spanish brilliantly but you know I got by so I can't complain. Obviously it doesn't help but I'm always trying to query saucds and stuff in really weird ways and what's this and what's that and I can't just be free and easy about ordering some random dish and seeing what it's like.

Then I came back to the hostel after stopping at the supermarket to get a litre of sugary coffee, drink, and some pan con nuez, which is very sugary and probably not good for me.

So, I've been thinking about Acapulco and I started looking into it and I was just trying to look up the safety of, like, walking from the ejido bus terminal to maybe a nearby hotel, although probably about 15 minutes walk, maybe a smidge less, and whether that'll be safe at night. And then I start finding all the usual internet, scary crap, and you do wonder if some of these people have any perspective and then you think, well, some of them probably do.

And although I don't want to overdo my reliance on this advice, I did check and not just the US government but also the UK government and I think as a random example the New Zealand government all recommend against all but essential travel to Guerrero State except for a couple of towns which are not Acapulco. I'm also vaguely dubious though i haven't seen any definite advice about the safety of the bus along the coast road. I mean, no one told me this is bad. It's just the way even though chiapas is supposedly basically okay. Sergio the owner at the hostel in the San Cristobal was telling that guy in a motorbike to be careful down south and stuff. He is local and doesn't seem particularly windy kind of chap. You know, so it's sort of thing that makes me realise there probably is some genuine danger. You can't be utterly blase about it, even though you've got to try and keep a sense of perspective.

So long story short, I'm a tiny bit concerned about the safety of the bus to Acapulco that it's probably fine. The timing of it is a bit of a flockfest either way whether I go day or night. I'm not entirely sure about the safety of walking or getting a taxi - apparently there is no Uber as far as I can tell - from the ejido terminal to even a nearby hotel. You then have the issue of getting from there all the way down to the bonfil area where the airbnb and the conference is. And then there's the question of, even if it's only five minutes, is it okay to get local taxis between, you know, some bar and your accommodation late at night down there? It feels like there's a hell of a lot of crappiness and if-iness.

On the other hand, it's like it could be potentially sort of nice. It could also be potentially a washout. It doesn't sound like going to or being in Acapulco in and of itself is going to be a huge amount of fun. If I did want to go, it would probably make more sense another time to either fly in or get the bus down the main toll roads from Mexico City, Puebla, Cuernavaca, whatever. It will be nice to maybe hang around with some people with congenial views and so forth, but honestly it's looking like it's going to one way or another burn about a week because, you know, let's say there's a night bus and then there's a single night in the hotel near the bus terminal and then there's probably four nights in the Airbnb in the Confency kind of region, so that's what, six nights. Then I have to get out. and it's probably not too hard to get to the terminal to get out but still.

On yet another hand I don't really have anything specific I want to do but you know I'm sure I can find something fun to do I could try this little town down down the road from here or I could go somewhere else or I could start looping back vaguely towards Cancun at the moment I have like three and a half weeks if I go to this conference then you're down to two and a half weeks yeah I've been at the conference and maybe it's nice and I've had fun ...but what with the safety issues and the general massive stress of getting there and stuff? I mean Bonfil is near the airport, so in theory, if another time I were to fly in, it would be perhaps a lot easier just to go directly to the Airbnb from the airport and whatever, but I mean I could have done that, although the flights were not particularly convenient from San Cristobello anywhere nearby, you have to change in Mexico City. But it's a bit late for that now.

Obviously there's that element of if you miss out on something you imagine it was the best possible thing ever. The conference certainly was interesting as an idea but honestly I'm really really really torn and I'm kind of thinking it's just not worth it. I mean I was thinking look let's just go because I do have enough time after and it might be cool and serendipity and everything but now...

Oh it's not a huge deal but I had a quick look on telegram last night I think and even though I use a genuine phone number the telegram app seems to want me to sign in again so presumably they've decided my account is in some way fake and I would have to continue jumping through hoops to sign up over and over again. Not a critical factor but a bit annoying.

And that's a bit of an extra thing. This isn't new. Jim told me back in San Cristobal that the fringe kind of event, the guy who was running it essentially collected a lot of money off people and did a runner. So while that's not to say there won't be any kind of fringe events or meetups, the culture around the conference has probably been a bit corrupted there. So there's an extra element of what will it be like and even though Jim's been before he's Not quite as confident as he would be that there is this fringe stuff because, you know, after the guy stole all that money the other year, who knows what it's like now.

1323 Just had a quick look at the flights. The absolute cheapest is coming in about 138 euros and that is for quite a few days in the future. It's like a 6-7-8 hour flight. I can't remember. I'm not looking at it right now. You have to change somewhere in Mexico City. Obviously you've got to get to the airport here as well. That's from Puerto Escondido. I don't like that very much.

1333 Just been having a look at the secret place on the coast that C/M told me about. The closest I can find is some sort of slightly weird, volunteer-y, hostly kinder place that costs about 2,500 pesos for three nights and I think is about 63 kilometers west of here. But apart from that there's like a 40-minute walk from town or a collectivo. Once an hour I'm struggling to find any details about what the town is called.

Got to admit, I'm kind of feeling like maybe I'm in a rushing-around kind of mindset which isn't good. I mean I don't regret coming to Puerto Escondido, you know I did at least get to swim albeit only a tiny bit, it is kind of cool although I've been feeling a bit stressed with Acapulco, the sunsets are quite nice, it's cheapish, I've effectively had a private for at least the last two nights, don't know what will happen tonight.

But maybe I should like go back to oaxaca, put a night or two in there and then meander back, not rushing at all vaguely in the direction of San Cristobal, some of the small towns around there, Tabasco. I don't know. I think I might actually go for a bit of a walk, see if I can see some of the beaches west of the hostel, I went east yesterday. The voice typing just keeps throwing random fragments away. Obviously if I'm going to acapulco I need to get stuff booked, relatively speaking, ASAP. But as I say I'm starting to wonder if I should go at all. It's a huge faff. There are perhaps genuine security issues, you know, like the whole state basically is advised against and stuff like that. It takes a lot of time anyway. I think I maybe go for a walk and sleep on it, not sleep on it, but you know.

Oh, I asked when I extended for the night and they said I can leave my bag behind the bar tomorrow if I do have a night bus, so at least that's an option.

Have somewhat over snacked and feel a bit bloated and it is hot as fuck but let us go for a semi leisurely walk.

1649 went for a walk over to playa baccocho (playa coral appears to be Inaccessible). Nice enough but nothing special, some quite dramatic waves. Hung around a bit feeling a bit bloaty and semi meditative and looked at guide book and walked back.

On terrace at hostel. Checking with suntimes and trail sense apps, the sunset is probably visible from the terrace here so I may try it from here tonkght.

I am toying with going to zipolite tomorrow.  There are others town in That little cluster, which perhaps suit me better, but Zippolito seems to be the easiest to access, and although there's a single bus during the day, which probably goes from the ADO OCC terminal, I need to make sure I catch that. I think once I get to Pochutla, there are lots of collectivos. It would be a dorm, but might be quite sociable, and if I book him for two nights, you know, also I haven't actually shared a room for three or four nights anyway. I'm probably not going to acapulco but I suppose technically this keeps my options open because I could come back do a night bus on Tuesday and be there Wednesday or something but I don't really want to be doing that you know I'm kind of decided and I kind of need to decide nowish really.

Anyway, you know, from Zippelite, if I wanted to, I could maybe go to one of the towns just down the road without it being too stressful in terms of unknown buses and multiple collectivo hops, or I could possibly make my way along the coast eastwards and get back to Chiapas and Tabasco that way, or failing that, I think I could perhaps get a bus from there to from Pochutla to Oaxaca and pick the road up there. This way I've still got plenty of time and I can afford to bumble around a bit and take a chance and see what's nice and what's not.

I am a little bit sick of warm, over warm beachiness, but it sounds quite attractive in Zippoliti. I don't think you can swim, and I'm not super keen on the idea of the beach being clothes optional, but not a huge deal, you know. And, as I said, I only be there for a couple of nights, and it might be attractive, and, you know, it might be a nice vibe in the hostel, or peaceful, or whatever.

I have been using the life straw here by the way. I don't think there is free water and if there is it's very inconsistent. I did notice I think it was last night that I think I'd not quite got the thread right and it was actually leaking the dirty water out when I squeezed it along with the water coming through the filter. I hope I got away with that. I don't think any of that would have got into anything I drank but I think I've just got to be careful to make sure I don't get the thread slightly off And make sure that it's not leaking around that seal after I fill it.

1657 Just saw what looked like maybe a very big spindly spider walking on me and giving it a bit of a shock and it's actually a big stick insect, very, very spindly looking one. I've tried to video it but I don't think it's worked. Sort of cool. Actually, it's not that big as stick insects go. It's bodies maybe like inch and a half long, two inches. Yeah, probably about that. So it's not like the really big ones I've seen. But anyway, that's kind of cool.

I feel a little bit at a loose end. As I say I'm probably going to watch the sunset here. I hope I've not burnt a little bit sitting in what shade I could find. Obviously I've got a long sleeve top on and some sunblock but I do wonder if in the front of my neck maybe got it a little bit but probably not too bad and nothing i can do about it. (I have sunblock on nose and cheeks and ears and back of next but probably not front of neck, but I guess having face down looking at phone prob helps sheild that.)

1808 Okay, just had a shower, also done a cold water wash of a few things, just one set. I went over to the ADO slash OCC terminal, spoke to some bloke who was semi-helpful the second time. Anyway, I think there's actually quite a lot of bosses to Pochoutla, which seems to be how it's pronounced, according to one of the announcements. It's only 180 pesos, and I asked, although it was a leading question, and I'm not sure he really knew. I think there's lots of collectives from there to zipolite.

There were also buses, E.G. to tapatula and tuxla from the terminal here. So even if I have to double back to here, that seems reasonably optimistic and a bit like a plan that I could head eastwards from here after maybe doing the Palite and maybe one or two of the other small towns here. If I'm really lucky I can go without doubling back here, but, you know, coming back here isn't too far.

A little bit sad to be leaving, but as always, that's better than being glad. I haven't done a lot of the tourist stuff here, but I don't fancy the turtle release. It feels a bit fake. Like, where do they get the turtles from, the baby turtles? Like, why can't they just release them themselves? The bioluminessence tour might be cool, but even though you probably wear a life jacket, I can't swim that well yet. Everything feels so touristy here. I'm really not in the mood for it.

There are surf lessons which obviously vaguely appeals but I cannot swim anywhere near well enough yet so I'm still working towards that and of course if I did intend to learn to surf then I would have set aside a big block of time and picked somewhere to go and do it and that would have been a major focus of the trip. It's not something I would ever likely do just casually because I see it somewhere.

FWIW on Carrazalillo beach yesterday morning there was a small half roped off area with a sign in Spanish saying not to disturb as it was a turtle nest. That was quite cool and felt vaguely organically caring rather than some of the mass produced eco tourism.

Feeling vaguely edgy about going to get a beer at bar here and watch sunset but no reason to of course.

FWIW still have dorm to myslef. I suspect I won't in zipolite but to some extent it would be nice to be with other people and maybe chat to someone either in dorm or common area or at bar for a day or two.

1841 watching sunset from hostel terrace with beer. Not as cheap as takeaway from supermarket but OK. Feel slightly bnm but also not actually that many people around and I also kind of don't want to talk.

Vague regrets about pseudo decision wrt Acapulco but it does also feel sort of right.

1845 second beer. Might wander down to the beach "after dark" since I suspect there is some lighting and I have seen people coming up quite late at night before so be interesting to see since it is right there.

2021 Back on the hostile terrace. Looks like there's two more guys. Well, guys are girls. I don't know. In my dorm now, there's just some bags in the other beds. Obviously slight shame, but not in the world.

So I went down to the beach, I maybe spent half an hour, 45 minutes there, it was quite nice actually, all the beach bar type places were closed on that minute, it's not that big a beach, but there were quite a lot of people about and there's some lights and there's a handful of people in the waves, braver than me, but I guess they were only standing and at one point someone played Eres Mi religion on a Bluetooth speaker or something.

Maybe milked beach slightly. I came back up stairs and there was a very big spider, something actually bigger than I would ever expect to see in the UK. Climbing upstairs, I got some video of it and a couple of photos. Obviously hard to estimate, but maybe 3, 4 inch leg span. You know, like not full on grown tarantula size, but a very substantial spider that you would not, I think, expect to see back home.

I didn't see anything but I decided I'd go to the supermarket and I got a bigish packet of mixed spicy things, a tiny fraction of which are takis fusgo and a litre of milk. I've had the crisps and I'm drinking the milk now and then I'll probably clean my teeth and go to bed. I've not booked the hostel for tomorrow, I'm thinking I'll do that tomorrow morning. Time permitting, I just might go out to the place I had the quesadillas today, and have something to eat before I go over the terminal, but we'll see what happens.

2043 quick dump then bed. Quick check on ado site shows bus at 1130 and nothing til 1730 then, bloke at terminal told me loads eg at 1000. I may well aim for 1130 to play it safe.

Puerto Escondido, Friday

Fri 2007 On the terrace, more or less, where I was last night, I can hear the sea, but I don't think I can really see it because of the bushes.

There's a nice little grey and white cat here sleeping on the table in the kitchen which just let me stroke it a bit.

Tying myself in not about Acapulco but maybe some sort of plan starting to form. Let me just bash out the days entries before we talk about that.

So I didn't sleep that well. Maybe it was the heat. I don't think it was. Maybe it was the way the sheets all kept coming apart. When I got into bed, I realised the pillow was a lumpy mess. But since I got the dorm to myself, I was, after a few minutes, smart enough to realise I could swap it with another pillow that was okay.

As of a few minutes ago, by the way, I still have the dome to myself.

I think I was a bit edgy about the swimming and that didn't help, especially when I intended to get up early to go. I think it was a sort of mixture of irrational, oh my god I could drown because it's the sea type feelings and oh my god this is going to be awful because I haven't swarmed in three or four weeks and when I did I was really bad then and I'm gonna be massively out of shape and it's gonna be depressing and or awful.

Long story short, I didn't get up quite as early as I'd hoped. In the end, I went down there. I think it was probably about half-eight-nine, and it was reasonably busy, but not too busy. You know, it might have been a bit later. I mean, I'm not sure 100%. The sun had kind of come over one of the cliffs on the side of the bay, but there wasn't too much sun and fingers crossed I hadn't burned. There were lots of people around, but it wasn't too crowded. I think it might have been low tide, that it didn't seem that different to last night when it was maybe high tide.

The water, so I did go in. The water was relatively warm after the first few seconds. There seemed to be some people having like surfing lessons. I think they were just learning some techniques with what looked like ordinary swimming kickboards. It was busy enough that I had to be careful not to run into people. The bottom seemed to slope really quite sharply and you know it wasn't at all difficult to get out to a depth where I couldn't stand up. I was in the water about 50 minutes. ...just mucking around, some of it was trying to swim and some of it was recovering from the exertion of trying to swim. Maybe I did 15 minutes swimming, I'm really not sure. I did a lot of treading water and a bit of just swimming, not very far at all, with a few different strokes.

Anyway, I think tomorrow I'll maybe make a bit of an effort and go earlier. It probably won't be quite so scary tomorrow. It is nice and close to the hostel, obviously, which is why I chose it. This is Carrazalillo beach.

So after that I came back to hostel and sort of dithered around a bit and then I went out for a walk. Oh yeah, I'd been looking at the buses to Acapulco and I checked again on the website that there were buses but I didn't know where they went from and it wasn't clear. So I asked the guy at the bar, Hector I guess, and he saw the phone number and he offered to call it for me and I suppose I could have done that myself, but you know since he was offering and he's a native speaker He spoke good English as well. We speak in English because that's what he seems to like. He called them. I understood what they were saying, but he asked a really long question. I'm not sure they'd have had the patience to listen to me, ask it anyway.

So I walked over to where they told him and yes, and I spoke to a woman at the counter and basically the buses go from the terminal turistica municipal.

This is in a way quite good because this is the first time I've actually known for a concrete fact that I am in a place and I can get a bus onto Acapulco from that place. So in some sense today is the first day in which I can without gambling make bookings in Acapulco.

Anyway, after the terminal I carried on wandering down Avonida Oaxaca where the terminal is and I was just at this point planning to maybe get something to eat, hopefully not too expensive because it's not too touristy there and to see the place and maybe head over towards the main beach strip. So yeah, I found a restaurant, let me look at what it's called. Sabor Solteco I think. So I had like a steak with a lake of frijoles next to it and some tortillas that was I think supposed to be 80 but I may have been charged 100 and I had a litre of aguade guanabana and jamaica for 50.

Anyway, that was pretty substantial and not too bad. I tipped 15 or 20 so I feel slightly like I might have been ripped off. Maybe they charged me a tip when they said it was 150 but I didn't see the bill and I didn't ask and assumed tip not included. Anyway, not the end of the world. At least it was a fairly substantial meal.

So I kept wandering down the street and I saw a hairdresser but I didn't go in although it made me think about it and I got an ice cream cone for 25 pesos from a little stall. They had to clear the top of the freezer off and I suspect it was just ice cream out of a tub but it was still nice and you know not too expensive.

Anyway, I was found in other barbers down the street and I was staring at the window and someone opened the door and I spoke to them in not brilliant but not too bad I guess Spanish and they said they'd shave my head for 100 so I had them do that.

Some people just come over SL let me stop voice dictating.

Anyway I trogged over to playa zicatela and has a bit of look and didn't go further along than the west ens, but I did go round the hand sculpture and I went up the little castle/model village obaervation point. Not a big seal but couldn't help noticing I had photoed a chunk of palm trunk k  the sand near the hands and then two kids were playing with it while I was up on the observation point so in an uninportant way I photographed it and then it was almost immediately moved and my photo was the only record of where it had happened to be.

I trogged back to hoatel and called home and then went down to Mirador Las Tortugas as last night with a xouple of beers to watch the sunsets. Photos massively over do the collour intensity by the way. Not bas but different tonight, last night orange band with blue above, tonightsome clouds and very reddish all over.

Came back to hoarle via supermarket and got litre of whole milk and some bimbo canela glaseada rolls and anacked on them out here before forcing myself to look at Acapulco.

To be scrupulously honest thinking about onward travel plans and Acapulco kept getting into my head during sunset.

I am probably going to ask if I can extend here another night tomorrow morning post swim. I may also ask if they will let me leave a bag here during day on eg aunday if I get a night bus to Acapulco but not sure if I will do that or not.

2024 just come up to the railing and I can see the artifically lit sea through the bushes.

Okay, I've come into the dorm since it's just me. The walls don't go all the way up to the ceiling. I don't know if anyone else can hear me from the next door, but I'm not saying I think that's shocking.

Obviously that couple, well within the rights to go sit at the next table on the terrace, but I just need to grind this out with the voice typing, it's even worse doing it with the onscreen.

Oh, I bashed a toe on a rock when I was trying to tread water and it turned out not to be quite as deep there as I thought this morning still hurts a bit. I don't think it's anything major, maybe just a bit of a bruise under the nail. I can still feel it occasionally, but it doesn't look too horrific at least the last time I looked at it. Okay, looking at it again now, it does actually look like I've sort of cracked the nail a bit halfway up, but I think it's basically okay anyway, I'm just gonna have to leave it and hope you know. My toenails probably were due for a cut but you know with all the dorms and stuff it's been hard to get the privacy for it and I think I'm probably gonna leave them alone while that's healing or poor or whatever

So look, with Acapulco, part of the problem is that all the bosses are at crappy times. Part of the problem is that Acapulco is pretty huge and I've got no idea if you can use Uber or if you can trust the taxi drivers, blah blah blah.

So basically the bus is from here. Let's ignore the crappiness of hanging around all day and getting a 9 o'clock bus or a midnight bus. I can basically get into Acapulco at about 7 in the morning or 7 o'clock at night. That's roughly it. Now I think the terminal where the bus arrives is absolutely nowhere near where the accommodation I would need for the conferency stuff is.

So, also, since it's probably going to be Airbnb for the conference because that's a swanky part of town and there is basically no accommodation on booking. A lot of Airbnb you can't check in till till four o'clock and I think at best it's maybe a found one that's one o'clock in the afternoon and there's no can i just leave my bag, but it's not a hostel, it's an Airbnb.

I should probably book something tonight, but I'm just dithering like crazy and I'm probably going to sleep on it. Anyway, what I am kind of thinking is maybe I should, let's say, stay here Saturday night and then I either go there on Sunday during the day and I stay in a hotel or hostel near the bus terminal so although it's late, it's night, it's not super late and I can just go straight to that place and I can spend the night or I'm thinking maybe even two nights there and that might get Me a chance to see the cliff divers which I only found out about, although I'm sure I've heard before, from skimming the guidebook in the hope of some useful information.

Or I could get a night bus getting about 7am and at least if I'm booked in at a hostel or hotel near the bus terminal there is at least a chance I can drop my bag off or maybe I can check in early if I'm lucky although I'm kind of leaning towards the day bus but it's not ideal obviously

The alternative is that, you know, I'm not going to get in at 7pm and trying to be checking into an Airbnb right across some gigantic  unknown city. So the alternative is to get a night bus, get there about 7am, struggle across town, somehow with my bag and then check into the Airbnb maybe after hanging around several hours and it's done with. But I'm not in that much of a rush with regard to the conference, you know, if I missed the first day or two. It's not the end of the world. I'm only there for the peripheral stuff and that may well go on afterwards if I want to stay Obviously there's a concern with getting back on to somewhere I want to go and finishing the trip without rushing too much but I can't really worry about that too much.

So I think I'm leaning towards getting the not very promising but at least there is something accommodation nearest the bus terminal and either doing the night bus or doing the day bus and then you know checking into the Airbnb at least with it only being a cross town hop and I can hopefully check out of the hostel or hotel 11 midday-ish and maybe check into the Airbnb 1, 2pm if I pick carefully So what with the travel time I'm maybe not really homeless at all that way I've got the stress of getting across Acapulco but at least I can be fresh for it and although I've sort of wasted a day or two of time and money being in a strange part of Acapulco nowhere near the conference at least I've been there I can maybe wander around a bit you know maybe I can manage to go see the cliff divers maybe I'll see them after the conference maybe I won't see them this time at all I'm not that bothered.

And you know, on this basis, let's say I get the day bus Sunday, I spend Sunday and Monday nights in the hostel/hotel near the terminal, and then, you know, so 9n Tuesday during the day. I go and check into the airbnb accommodation, so I then maybe I've Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, night in the vicinity of the conference. I'm kind of wasting time a bit, but, you know, since I've decided the conference is something I want to go to I have to put the time in. And I don't regret coming to pe and I might not have come had it not been for heading to Acapulco. The big concern is not so much wasting time in the absolute sense as I an sure there will be some value in being in Acapulco even of I just enjoy having an apartment and wandering around and don't meet anyone. The worry is where do I go after Acapulco and how tight will I be for time given I has vague hoped to go to those towns nearish San cris in Chiapas and Tabasco, given that from Acapulco it is probably at least two night buses (maybe via Puebla?) And thus maybe ideally at least 3-4 nights in (say) Puebla to see it and things are maybe getting just a bit tight by then. But it can't really be helped I guess.

I could obviously blow the conference off but it does feel like it might be interesting and I should take a chance and except for the awkward logistics of getting back to Cancun enjoyably and not too stressfully after in time for the flight, if is not as if it is actively preventing me doing something else I desperately want to do.

As much as anything the fact acapculco is huge and expensive is the big pisser here.

2100 just had shower - didn't have one around sunset today.

I am starting to wonder if I should forget acapculco. Chatting with like-minded people might be cool, but there is no guarantee and the general disruption and faff of "having a go" seems to be growing. Ffs. Let me sleep on it anyway. (It would be nice to see Jim again, but maybe not *that* nice given all the faff. And he is going anyway so it isn't as if I inconvenience him if I don't go. the primary attraction is the chance to speak to other like minded people, not specifically jim who I already met.)

If i didn't say it is left big toe which got hurt during swimming. Might have happened even if I had cut toenails of course.

2205 just done fucking duolingo despite being in bed. Feel a bit hot and sticky and while it doesn't hurt as such I am getting edgy about how I can feel my toenail when I accidentally push it against things as I toss and turn and get in and out of bed.

Yes, BTW, I realise it is valentines day today.