'coastal towns' - yes, I like Puerto Angel ... haven't seen them all by any means, though .... Todos Santos is coastal, just tucked behind a hill out of the wind, you can take your beer and tacos and hike up on the hill and picnic with a panoramic view of the Pacific. I wrote this to Kerry last night in a PM;
"Do you know the coast of Oaxaca? ..... Puerto Angel is xxxxxxxxxxxxx ..... great place, tourists are the hippie sort and not overly numerous, excelente atún asado con cebollitas de Cambrai [grilled fresh tuna with shallots], great turtle museum and beaches to the north." ..... I should add to this that walking along the Zipolite road is not advised, especially after dark, as there are bandidos, just as in Chicago. Cabs and buses are cheap, though.
The bus system throughout México is far superior to American/Canadian standards and also far cheaper. Definitely the way to get around, imho. For a real wild experience, take the second-class bus from Salina Cruz up the coast road towards Puerto Angel ..... do not go to Huatulco, it's a gringolandia, one of the most boring ones .... another great ride is the bus from Pochutla to Oaxaca .... second class bus on a second class road -g-
The Lonely Planet lonelyplanet.com.au Guides to México are great, imho. Not cheap and not light (1 lb min) but worth packing around. They tend to be aimed at the younger backpacker who wants to get to know the country, and provide details useful even to locals. Their website has general stuff and pretty pictures of México; lonelyplanet.com.au
While my people there are more oriented to the east coast, I much prefer the west coast. I've never seen Cancún, but know people who have worked there, and I've seen the other gringolandias and several towns on the Golfo de México ... one of the smaller ones I like very much, but it would be difficult without the language and some degree of acclimatisation.
The key to español, if you want to get into that -g- , is the verbs.
'501 Spanish verbs conjugated in all the tenses' by Christopher Kendris, published by Barron's Educational Series, is cheap and effective. Then Berlitz has a great little compact 'Latin American Spanish' phrasebook ... good basic stuff, weighs about 2 oz and is sturdy .... they make phrasebooks for everybody, I always take a few of their 'North American English for Spanish Speakers' to México and give them away. Then Bantam has an E/e & e/E dictionary compiled by an Edwin Williams, likely the best in its price and weight class.
The other keys to the language (any language) are time and beer, imho - lots of both. |
