Puerto Escondido

Puerto Escondido runs on one geological gift: the beach break at Zicatela, the "Mexican Pipeline," where deep-water swells hit a sand bottom and throw some of the heaviest, most photogenic barrels on earth - a world-tour venue whose big-day season, roughly May through September, fills the strand with international chargers and spectators watching bodies vanish into blue caverns. The town wisely never matched the wave's intensity. Behind the break spreads a barefoot grid of surf shops, mezcal bars, fish-grill palapas and hotels that peak at three storeys; the Rinconada district and the cove of Carrizalillo - a stairway-accessed horseshoe of calm turquoise - handle swimmers and beginner surf schools, while Playa Manzanillo and the fishing-panga bay of Puerto Angelito keep family water. Mornings run boat trips for dolphins, turtles and seasonal whales; evenings converge on Zicatela's sunset or La Punta's mellower point break, where the longboard crowd trades waves until dark. It is the Pacific coast's honest capital - salt, surf and no dress code.

History

There was no town here before the 1930s; the bay was used now and then to ship coffee, but it lacked drinking water. Its old name, Bahía de la Escondida, "bay of the hidden woman", comes from a legend of a Mixtec woman who escaped from a pirate ship and hid in the jungle, and the Nahuatl name of the area, Zicatela, "place of large thorns", now belongs to its famous beach (Wikipedia, Puerto Escondido).

The landscape

• Zicatela's barrels - the Mexican Pipeline at full throw.
• Carrizalillo cove - the turquoise horseshoe down the stairs.
• La Punta - the point-break village end of the strand.
• The panga bays - dolphins, turtles and fried fish by boat.

When to go

November to April for dry days and manageable surf; May to September for the giant-wave spectacle and rain-green hills. Sunsets perform year-round.

Things to know

Zicatela's ocean is genuinely dangerous for swimmers - rips and shorebreak command respect; swim at the coves instead. The town's growth is straining its easy charm in peak months. Nightlife thumps hardest around La Punta and the Adoquin.

Nearby

The Manialtepec bioluminescent lagoon and Chacahua's boat-in surf park lie west; Mazunte and the Zipolite coast an hour east.

Key facts