Shhh! Puerto Escondido’s a Secret

Even Californians have to get away once in a while. For me that means Mexico and The Beach. But where? Mazatlan’s tacky, Puerto Vallarta’s ruined, Acapulco is a high-rise rip-off, and I don’t especially like Zihuatanejo, Manzanillo or Baja.

Furthermore, like most people I don’t have a lot of money but I enjoy living well. I want a pleasant room with a comfortable bed and a view of the sea. A swimming pool to sit by and sip tequila would be nice. If the hotel is right on the beach, I ask little more.

I found a place with all of those and more. It’s called Puerto Escondido--that’s Hidden Port, and it is hidden away in the little-known stretch of shoreline south of Acapulco known as Costa Chica.

I hesitate to talk about it because I was in Puerto Vallarta 20 years ago when I thought I’d found The Place, and look what word of mouth has done to that once-wonderful town.

More Pure Beach

And “Pto. Es” is smaller, newer, less of a city--more pure beach. It could be easily destroyed and well may be now that the jets have arrived. The new jetport opened in December.

Until that happened over the Christmas holidays, what kept Puerto Escondido hidden and unspoiled was it inaccessibility. You first had to fly to Mexico City, on to Oaxaca for an overnight stop, then fly on one of two small airlines that make daily runs to the beach town. Eager as I was to get to the beach, the delay was frustrating.

The two small airlines are supposed to make daily runs from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido but you can never be sure of that, so travel agents won’t make reservations for you. You buy your ticket in person at your hotel in Oaxaca.

Flights Filled

As it turned out, only one of the airlines was operating the week I was there and all the flights were filled for three days. So I spent three pleasant days in mile-high Oaxaca at the Hotel El Presidente, a lovely 16th-Century former convent filled with colonial relics.

The entire state of Oaxaca and its neighboring state of Chiapas, bordering on Guatemala, have managed to retain the feeling of what one imagines was the early Mexico.

This is Indian country in the best sense of the word, and the descendants of the Zapotec people who built the amazing temples at Monte Alban a few miles outside Oaxaca are still fashioning exquisite crafts, which are sold in stalls and markets all over town.

At last on Sunday I got to Puerto Escondido after a stimulating half-hour flight over sand-colored mountains in what has to be one of the oldest airplanes in existence, anywhere, one of the old DC-3s.

After discovering that the seat belt didn’t work and that the back of my chair was falling apart, I was grateful when we reached the tiny airport, really only a landing strip and a corrugated tin shed rescued I’m sure from a World War II movie set.

But the trip was well worth the trouble. The sky was blue-blue, the air warm, and attractively relaxed residents waited at the gate to whisk us off to one of several nice hotels dotted throughout this undiscovered Paradise.

Didn’t Pay Attention

I heard about Puerto Escondido from my two sons backpacking their way across southern Mexico: “Hi Mom--this is a great place. Ninety cents a night for a palapa on the beach here. . . .” But my sons’ criteria for what constitutes a great place is not always commensurate with mine, so I really didn’t pay attention.

Then several weeks ago I heard that the owners of one of Northern California’s most interesting import shops had sold their business and moved to Mexico to open a hotel in an “idyllic little fishing village called Puerto Escondido.”

When I learned that the hotel was right on the beach and was designed by Richard Elmore, one of Palo Alto’s more imaginative architectural designers, I decided to see the place for myself.

Dubbed the Santa Fe, the hotel sits at the end of Puerto Escondido’s crescent beach on a point overlooking the sea on two sides. Trade winds blow across the thatch-covered dining room, which is becoming a favorite gathering place.

Professor on Break

One morning at breakfast I met a history professor from a small New England college who has spent the last five semester breaks at PE. He said he discovered it by accident seven years ago while driving the coast of Mexico with friends and has been coming back every year.

He stays at the Najar, a newish hotel on the hill overlooking the ocean. His room cost him considerably less than mine at the Santa Fe--$7.50 a night. “Not bad for a little bit of Paradise,” he declared.

Paradise is a word much used in these days of super-hype. But what else would you call a little lost village with half a dozen beach-front restaurants where you can have grilled fresh fish morning or night for less than $5? It’s where you can get a pleasant room on the beach for $8 to $10 single and where it’s 80 degrees by day in January and cools enough to sleep comfortably at night.

The Santa Fe costs more like $25 for a single room, but it’s considerably more elegant than its closest competition on the beach, the Las Palmas and Rincon del Pacifico.

The Ambiance Is Clubby

Puerto Escondido has a curious clubby feeling. A sort of stranded-in-the-tropics atmosphere. Most of the Americans and Europeans you meet here have a Berkeley ‘60s look, barefoot and casual. Not a yuppie in sight. And the natives go about their business in an equally friendly manner.

Although the tourist trade obviously supports much of the town’s population (the newspaper mentioned that 20,000 to 25,000 tourists visited in December), fishing remains a way of life. Boys of 6 or 7 join their older brothers casting lines into the sea and pulling nets along the beach in the late afternoon.

Everybody comes out of siesta hiding and sits drinking mescal or tequila and watching the fishermen and the fine sunset.

You can feel the anticipation of the impending tourist boom once the jets arrive. The main street is torn up as they work on a new sewer system and all principal streets are expected to be paved soon.

Hotel Santa Fe’s resident manager, Paul Cleaver, says that the pressure for major development in Puerto Escondido may be sidetracked for a multimillion-dollar program to build a vast resort complex at Santa Cruz Hualulco, 100 kilometers south along the coast. Cleaver says that only three new hotels are planned for Escondido. None are high-rise or part of the big hotel development chains. He doesn’t think things will change too much, jets or not.

Still, I wouldn’t count on it; nothing this good lasts forever.

-- -- --

Address: Santa Fe Hotel, Calle del Morro, Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico. Reservations can be made through a travel agent. For more information, contact Mexican National Tourist Council, 10100 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 224, Los Angeles 90047.