Travel. Mexico. Humour.

What to do When You Feel Like a Potato at The Beach in La Punta

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Puerto Escondido is a port town and a backpacker hotspot on the Mexican Pacific coast. It’s known for surfing, baby turtles, dolphin spotting, bioluminescence, white sand beaches and pastel pink sunsets. Yes, it is just as dreamy as it sounds.

I was so glad that Joe had suggested that we stay in the neighbouring town of La Punta as opposed to the town of Puerto Escondido itself. La Punta was both exactly what I had pictured and what I had longed for after two long years in lockdown.

A cute, hipster, surfside, beachy town of cafes and restaurants made up of bamboo pillars, thatched roofs, and twinkling fairy lights. Surfboards propped up against the walls, bright green smoothies lined up on breakfast bars by day and colourful cocktails drank on swings hanging from the roof by night.

One thing I didn’t long for was being surrounded by people that seemed almost impossibly tanned and toned. I didn’t know such creatures existed without photoshop or filters. Did I accidentally stumble upon fitness model commune? I’d entirely forgotten about the concept of abs until now and the more I looked around, the more and more I felt like a potato.

That being said, the constant food poisoning that Mexico had kindly bestowed upon me so far has me looking less and less like a potato day by day. It’s a diet I’ve been involuntarily on, on many travels (India I’m looking at you). I call it the “shit yourself thin” diet! We are sticking to this diet so successfully that on the odd occasion we do have a normal bowl movement, we feel compelled to share with the each other in order to receive a high five.

We spent an evening at an impossibly cool Thai/Mexican fusion restaurant, followed by a night of twinkly beach bars and live music. As we reclined, looked around us, and took in our surroundings, Joe leaned in and whispered in my ear

“Do you see all these really cool, glamourous, gorgeous people?”

“Yeah”

Que a long pause.

“Do you think they’re all just shitting themselves too?”

I snorted with laughter!

“Of course they are! They’re pretending like they aren’t, but they totally are!”

We laughed again.

I think back to this silly exchange whenever I feel a bit jealous of people in this way. It makes me laugh and reminds me that we’re all human. It doesn’t matter how cool you are, we’re all just out here, shitting ourselves. Maybe not a quote to put on a travel poster but it amuses me nonetheless.

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