The best meal on the coast was whole fish smothered in chipotle sauce. The other fish preparations we tried were only so-so, but the whole fish was absolutely luscious. With our delicious shrimp-stuffed avocado appetizer, it easily could have fed all three of us; I should certainly hope so at 120 pesos! I wish I'd noticed the price wasn't listed on the menu. (I shouldn't complain I suppose...I was on paid vacation.)

Other Oaxacan specialities like tlayudas were not nearly as good on the beach. But we did stumble upon something special in the form of chocobanana...that fabulous Oaxacan chocolate milk blended with banana was good at all hours.

When the 19-year-old German boy approached us during dinner, shorts barely supported by his skinny naked hips, Jasmine thought we'd hit the entertainment jackpot. But when she told him she was Indian, and he chortled, "dots or feathers?" we knew there was no point in continuing the conversation. We were invited to participate in "fire-dancing," but the sweltering heat made me cranky and I just can't hang with hippies.

Bird-spotting in the lagoon

Drinking from fresh coconuts

Normally on my beach trips I prefer to sleep early and wake early; with friends sharing a room this wasn't as much of an option. There was nothing to do in Mazunte at night but the girls insisted on optimistically walking around a while just in case. No bars, not even a place for ice cream (even tiendas were closed), and my staunch refusal to get involved in fire-dancing meant we ended up buying beers at the hotel and sitting on the roof (of course, the hotel also closes early so we only got 2 beers each).

Woke up lazily late on the second day, but having determined this beach wasn't that interesting, perhaps it was no great loss.

Playa Ventamilla was a short taxi ride away, offering a boat trip created by the community through a lagoon filled with local fauna. Due to the slow morning, we didn't take the trip until the blazing heat of noon, so crocodiles were a bit hard to spot (but super thrilling when we did!). However, the diversity of birds was delightful; they covered the trees as thickly as flowers.

So hot in the lagoon!

The boat trip ended at a small island, which featured a small zoo of local creatures and a refreshment shop. The most popular item was whole coconut: first a hole was made for drinking the water, then the coconut was sliced open to provide access to the meat. With some hot sauce, it was delicious.

On the ride back through the lagoon we draped our towels over our heads in an attempt to block the scorching sun. There was no shelter on the road, however, as the taxi driver who'd promised to return for us apparently forgot, and there weren't any drivers hanging out in the lagoon's parking lot hoping for fares. At least we hadn't paid up front! We were forced to trudge back up the road in the muggy heat, and reached the halfway point to Mazunte before we found a ride.

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