The Latino beach finale - Puerto Escondido and Mazunte, Mexico

Another overnight bus took us to Puerto Escondido. One of our last long bus journeys and probably one of the most uncomfortable, with 5 or so stops through the night involving lights being flicked on and off. Can't say we will miss this part of the travel experience too much! ......But then it was all made worthwhile when we arrived here..... We'd been recommended a small hostel a little up from the main town, complete with cabanas on the beach. Going shoeless was the policy, as the whole hostel was set in the sand. We whiled away the hours by swimming, drinking Coronas, playing beach volleyball, practicing Spanish with the Argentinian hippies and generally relaxing. A bit of a highlight was a trip to Laguna de Manialtepec and a swim in the phosphoresence. We saw a small amount of phospheresence in Thailand a few years ago but nothing like this. It's created by the emission of light from bioluminescent plankton which glows when the water is disturbed. Without delay we all jumped into th lake and were instantly covered and surrounded by a luminesence that looked otherworldly. If you ever saw the old movie 'Cocoon' it had a certain resemblance. A few hours down the coast from Puerto Escondido was Mazunte. A truly magical small town set in a cove. We'd planned to stay for just 2 days, but ended up staying for 5. The weather was perfect, the water and waves magical and we bumped into a couple who we met in Bolivia 9 months previous. So we had the perfect excuse to stay longer and enjoy our last taste of Latino beach time.