Rock n Roll lifestyle in chilled out dreamland!

I finally made it to Puerto Escondido after a bit of a fiasco with the buses. They all seemed to be horribly booked up so I ended up getting a second class bus to a random destination in the middle of nowhere and then a first class bus at 2 in the morning from there. The first bus was absolutely hideous- i was wedged into a back seat in between several large ladies and when the person in front of me reclined their seat i literally didn't have anywhere to put my legs! The bus left at 4pm and by 7pm we'd been stopped three times by various officials and i'd had to produce my passport. I felt like saying "yes, i'm STIL bloody English, about as English as I was an hour ago and an hour before that!" God knows what they were looking for! The bus was supposed to take 6 hours but took 8 and I was thoroughly relieved to get off and stretch my legs in a random place called Juchitan (which I couldn't even pronounce, mexican pronounciation being so odd!)

The onwards bus was, of course, late but fairly comfy and I arrived to a very sunny day in Puerto Escondido. Any residual stress and tiredness evaporated straight away when i arrived at my accomodation, Quinta Lili. I had decided to treat myself for my last few days (and after the hammock experience on the boat!) so I'd booked a hotel that looked amazing online and definately didn't disappoint! Quinta is a boutique hotel with only 5 rooms, all of which have cable TV, an ipod dock, a lovely comfy bed and a fab bathroom. I was in HEAVEN! The hotel also has a pool and sunloungers which i barely left for the next few days!

The only other person at the hotel for the first 3 days was an aussie girl called Kate and we got on really well and hung out together a lot. We visited Zicatela beach, part of Puerto and did a sunset horseride down it. It was pretty sedate but very lovely apart from the fact that my horse didn't seem to like walking in a straight line! There were lots of surgers out doing the famous pipeline (3rd best in the world!)so the,ahem, views were pretty darn tasty too! We also had a night ourt in Zicatela but were both so tired and relaxed that we were in bed by midnight!

Other excursions from the sunlounger involved heading down to local Carazillo beach for a swim and a look around and going into Puerto itself for souveneir shopping and lunch on the beach. Other than that, most days were spent on the sunlounger, pausing for a long boozy lunch at the local restaurants and then returning to the lounger again... perfect bliss!

Most evenings were spent drinking wine and chatting with Kate, but we had a treat on my last night there when I got upgraded to the master suite as other guests arrived. The master suite has an amazing roof top jacuzzi where we sat and watched the sun set whilst feeling like rock stars! It was a truly fantastic experience and one I certainly didn't expect to have whilst roughing it travelling!

I was really sad to leave Puerto and my new mate Kate but very excited about going home to see everyone. After a 19 hour bus journey from Puerto to Mexico City (not as bad as it sounds... I must be getting used to it!) I am now in a hostel for my final night and trying to savour as much of the ity as I can. Today I wandered around and bought souveniers and tomorrow, as I have the whole day before my flight, I think I'll visit the palace and a temporary dinosaur exhibition in the big city square. Coupled with a long decadent lunch, that should pass the time til I fly home!

I've had the most amazing 10 and a half months away- I've learnt so much about myself and other people and feel truly privileged to have seen so many amazing things. I am so excited to see my friends and family again but also glad that I'm off again for more adventures in October as I think that reality can wait for a while!!