A little more about Chacahua:
Each day we walked down the beach at dawn. This is a simple village with lots of children running around barefoot, dogs being dogs together (mostly frustrated males - guess how they control dog population), free range chickens, free range pigs. In the night, cows wandered into the restaurants, leaving large pies. The ocean is amazingly clean and warm. Beaches are long with few people - we have been swimming without suits. Pelicans skim the waves within a few feet of us. About 7 times each day, what sounds like an air raid siren sounds briefly, followed by a loudspeaker announcement of various occasions in peoples' lives - birthdays, name days - in Spanish, of course. Sometimes a child gets to speak or sing to all over the loudspeaker. We bought coconut tostada from an old woman with 1/2 of her face paralyzed. These are crisp corn flat cakes like chips with little bits of toasted coconuts in them.

Then we caught a collectivo (pickup truck with benches in back) to a launch for a refreshing ride across a lake to a crammed cab to a town at high speed. There we caught a crowded mini-bus to PUerto Escondido. I realized I hadn´t seen glass or a mirror for a few days and of course we are oblivious to world events (so they are running out of control). Then we caught a big bus to Patchoutla, and walked a ways to a corner where people knew to catch packed cabs to Zipolete. There we got into another packed cab and finally arrived at Mazunte - a record day for numbers of types of transportation.
Mazunte is a tiny village on a Pacific Ocean bay that used to be supported by killing sea turtles and fishing, but in the early 90's all turtle fishing was banned in Mexico so they organized to attract tourists while maintaining a clean environment. There is a center for study of sea turtles here now - hoping to educate people about the importance of preserving them. People live in thatched huts in clean swept dirt beneath palms.
There happened to be a big fair in honor of La Senora Esquipula (web search time since I don´t know who she is - but some religous figure) and coincidentally Danielle's and Martin Luther King's birthdays. There were trucked in rides for children and games where if you pop 3 balloons you win a ceramic bank shaped like Tweety. Huge banks of speakers were set up in front of 2 stages and a bus with bands arrived to supplement the local brass band. The local brass band played during a fireworks show which consisted of a guy running around with a bull figure rigged with swirling sparklers and explosions and boys daring eachother to get close to him. There was a large structure which looked like it was going to be a "burning man". However, it went off in stages, the most spectacular part was in the middle when a burning crucifix appeared while around it whirled in burning letters: Viva la Sra. Esquipula. There was also a tortuge (turtle) in flames and at the top "Mazunte 2005" in fire fountains, spinning driven by whistling rockets.

We didn´t stay up to hear the bands - they started about 11 pm and (we heard) continued until 4 am. I could hear them through the loud crashes of the waves because I was being bitten by mosquitoes. The next night during which we could only hear waves crashing - we used the mosquito netting over the bed.

We stayed in Mazunte 3 days - swimming was great and it was hot.

Then we caught another collectivo to Zipolete - a larger village where we stayed in a thatched roof tower (up a spiral staircase) near the beach, and swam again where I suffered my first injury - I hurt my toe stepping in a hole in a hurry to get into my bathing suit between the surf and the rocks where I left it. Today we returned to Oaxaca in a van over a mountain range of pine forests and jungles (5 hours). Tomorrow morning John leaves on a bus to Seattle (I'll miss him!) and tomorrow evening Danielle will arrive (yeaa!).
Love Cathy