Puerto Escondido and back up into the mountains

Beach, sea and chilling has been my motto for the last few days, what else can you do at 30°C? Just relax for a few days and stretch your legs on the beach.

Luckily, after I missed the dolphin tour, I got a new chance the next day (01/25/24). This time I managed to get up early, ate a turbo banana and the car was at the door at 6:50. A few minutes later I was on the boat with 2 Germans and a few from the Netherlands, led by Edgar, our captain. First we went out to sea and after a few minutes we saw a dolphin but Edgar said there were more further out. But before we met a humpback whale? I think it was one. Edgar told us that they didn't see any whales yesterday...so it's lucky I overslept. We watched the whale for a few minutes, but after 10 boats had gathered around this poor whale, we moved further into the sea. And wow, so many dolphins! Unbelievable (Unfortunately I only filmed/took photos with the GoPro and I can't upload them here...) Tens of dolphins swam next to us or in front of us, an incredible experience. Edgar always tried to approach a group of dolphins carefully and from the side; other boats didn't fully understand this concept and repeatedly forced the dolphins to dive. Occasionally we were alone with a few dolphins and were able to sail alongside them. But at some point everything is over and after almost 2.5 hours we went back again. But the return trip was just as eventful, we saw 2 sea turtles swimming on the surface of the water in a relaxed manner and then an absolute highlight shortly before the end. A bull whale lifting its huge fluke out of the water. Stunning. So it was absolutely worth it and I was super happy to have been able to experience it. Afterwards it was time to chill out on the beach again. At the end there was a beautiful sunset.

Not much happened on January 26, 2024. Beach, lunch at Mercado Benito Juárez and Joa then went back to the beach. Unfortunately I messed up the sunset because as it turned out you can't see it from anywhere, who would have thought? Well, it was still nice.

And then it was supposed to be the last day at the beach (01/27/24). I still had until 6:30 p.m. and then my bus went to San Cristóbal de las Casas. Take everything easy, have breakfast, go to the beach, then enjoy a delicious coffee and swap my book so that I have something to read again. Then it was already 1 p.m. and I was able to pick up my laundry that I had dropped off for washing the day before. Afterwards, other rather unspectacular things happened like packing a backpack, buying snacks and cooking.

At 6:30 p.m. I was on the bus (I treated myself to a first class bus with more legroom) and a few minutes later we set off. The bus was actually pretty comfortable and I was able to sleep for a few hours.

At 7:00 a.m. (01/28/24) I was in the 2100m high town of San Cristóbal de las Casas, no mosquitoes and no more 30°, also great. In fact, I was able to check in straight away at the hostel and found out everything from the guy at reception. So really everything, every sight, every tour that you can book, right down to strange conspiracy theories. Well, at least he was nice and I was able to find out a lot straight away. After a few minutes of exploring the city on my own, I joined a “free walking tour” (a donation-based city tour). Our guide was very funny and told a lot, some more and others less exciting. In between there was a stop in a small café where we had a mini coffee. Finally, we stopped at an organic coffee shop, where we were told a lot about the production of cocoa and Pox (high-proof "healing" alcohol). There was also a tasting of that. Pure, with hibiscus? and with cocoa...the last one was really tasty. Afterwards I went to a vegan restaurant for a burger. There wasn't much left to do after that, just a bit of chatting in the hostel and some shopping. Let's see what else the place has to offer here.