23 January 2010 - Those Damned Cucarachas...

Although Puerto Escondido provided a beautiful beach (an isolated cove down 140 steps from the headland) our accommodation there was not quite as salubrious. At first glance our room seemed excellent, almost like a small apartment with a separate living area, a fridge and our own bathroom. However whilst having a beer in the bar on our first evening, other guests were complaining of cockroaches and other creatures in the ceilings of their rooms. Sure enough, when we turned in for the night, we found that several large cockroaches (about the length of fun size Mars bars) had emerged from the wooden rafters above our bed. Having made our best attempts to deal with them (using bug spray) we then put together our mosquito net in order to prevent ourselves being rudely awakened by falling roaches in the night. What followed was a night of fitful, but thankfully 'roach free sleep.

We toughed it out for one more night (as we had paid up front) and then were very glad to get out of there. We caught a taxi to the small coastal village of San Augustinillo and as soon as we arrived the contrast couldn't have been more pronounced. We secured a nice beach front room looking out onto waves crashing onto a more or less deserted beach. It was a little slice of paradise and a place that felt like it wouldn't stay small and undiscovered for long.

We wiled away two days snoozing in hammocks, sun bathing and playing in the sea and generally having the sort of experience that I'd hoped for when we headed towards the coast. I've never been one for beach holidays, but San Augustinillo definitely brought home why so many people find them appealing.