Jasmine prepares to jump the waves

I can say without any hyperbole that Tropical Storm Alvin ruined my beach trip.

All right, but if I hadn't been with friends, Mazunte would have probably sucked. The main draw for us was the opportunity to snorkel with sea turtles and possibly spot dolphins. But with rough seas and daily rain caused by the storm a full 1000 miles or more away, no boats were making the journey for the 2 days we were in town.

I'm the first to admit I'm not a beach rat. I generally only visit the beach when I'm traveling and the beach has to be special; if I visit the beach in New York there must be at least 4 amusing friends and a whole lot of alcohol. I've loved the more unique beaches on my other trips, like the one with spectacular snorkeling in Egypt and the one that I had completely to myself in Costa Rica. Even the one in Turkey that I kind of disliked due to the hippies had ruins to walk through on the way and phosphorescence in the water at night. Mazunte was like that beach in Turkey, without the ruins and phosphorescence, but still containing hippies. I was so lucky to have Rubina and Jasmine for entertainment.

Wanna buy a hippie necklace?

Affectionate turtles at the museum

It was hot. Freaking hot. At upwards of 95 degrees with chowder-thick humidity, my two days in Mazunte were spent in a puddle of sweat. The water was still icy cold in May, but with the crashing waves, there was no relaxing soaking-off of perspiration; playing in the waves was fun but also exhausting. Without the sea turtle experience, it was just...kind of boring.

On the plus side, low season meant fewer hippies. We weren't really approached until evening, although we had of course seen our share of dreadlocked beach bums stick juggling—argh, those damn stupid sticks! While the locals approached us at breakfast selling shell jewelry, white hippies approached on the beach hoping to sell us the sticks. Sales were low all around.

Other than running from the waves and sweating, Mazunte offered a few diversions. We couldn't see turtles in the wild because of the storm, but the sea turtle museum down the road from our hotel offered a great opportunity to see various turtles up close; a guided tour cost just 20 pesos.

Up the road in the other direction was a store with beauty products made from local organic ingredients; while the products were beautifully packaged, the only thing happening at this store was the packaging. Would have loved to learn more about the process and formulations, but considering how nice everything was (Body Shop quality), shopping was fun and reasonably-priced.

Giant puffer fish washed ashore by the rough waves

Rubina pokes the dead fish

Mazunte was fairly underpopulated in general. I wondered if our hotel owners found it monotonous. I also wondered how the adult daughter running the hotel could meet a husband in this tiny town...she must have already known all the residents at this point. Considering that finding a huge dead puffer fish on the beach was one of the highlights of the trip—a find that amused the locals greatly as well—it seemed like a dull life.

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