A day in Puerto Angel, Mexico

A small fishing village with Mediterranean vibes next to Zipolite

My second trip to Zipolite this year was as chill as the first. I blended both in just one blog entry, but the second time around I actually went out of my comfort zone, and by that I mean the ten blocks that make up Zipolite’s Roca Blanca neighborhood. I wrote about my trip to playa Agua Blanca in a different post.

No one had suggested I check out Puerto Angel. I had passed the village on my way back to Huatulco airport and in fairness it hasn’t seemed like much. I decided to give it another chance. After all, I love to write about places that people usually don’t want to give a second look to, so this was my chance to make it right by Puerto Angel.

Puerto Angel is a fishing village, and the smell of fish was everywhere.

I shared a cab with a local and two tourists heading east and after about 15 minutes of winding roads and brutal topes (the ubiquitous Mexican speed bumps), we reached Puerto Angel. I saw a sign for Playa Panteon and I thought, not all is lost, there is at least a beach to check out. The taxi actually dropped me a little after that sign, on the village’s main street, where, once you get off, you realize the sea is right behind the line of building lining up the south side of the road.

The first thing that hit me was the smell. Puerto Angel is a fishing village, and the smell of fish was everywhere. The fish? Not so much, probably because a lot of the small fishing boats were still out at sea. The main street was blocked by a military convoy. There is a small naval base right by the beach on which work was being done. I went straight for the beach and promised myself to walk down main street later.

In the 1960s, tourism drove a little bit of a renaissance.

Puerto Angel was founded in the middle of the 19th century when the government built a wharf in the bay, to help export local merchandise, namely timber and coffee, to other parts of the country. At that time, the whole region, now known as Riviera Oaxacana, was fairly isolated and poorly linked to the rest of the state, let alone the rest of Mexico. It drove the town’s economic growth for a while, until roads (and at some point a rail track) were built and made the wharf much less relevant.

In the 1960s, tourism drove a little bit of a renaissance and today, Puerto Angel is a small resort catering to the Mexican middle class. I saw no foreign tourist during my day there, probably because the hotel offer doesn’t really cater to them. On the bright side, it makes Puerto more authentic.

Puerto Angel sits by a small horseshoe-shaped bay that bears the town’s name and helps the water stay relatively calm. Filled with small fishing boats, it makes for quite a stunning view. I was already regretting pre-judging this cute little village. Because of where the sun was in the sky, I decided to head right on the beach to take a panoramic picture. When I got to the end of the beach, I realized there was a narrow, uneven paved path along the shore. My thoughts immediately went to playa Panteon, and I ventured to check if I could get there on the path.

Path may not be the best word for what was surely at some point a very nice and well maintained promenade (known locally as the andado) along the shore but now looked like a little bit of a war zone. I almost turned back at some point as a big hole in the path, above a deep cut in the rock filled with fast moving water, almost blocked my way. I powered through however, and was rewarded by the view of a quiet cove filled with turquoise water and pristine sand that looked like it was taken straight out of a travel brochure for coastal Greece.

Turns out this was playa Panteon – see what I did there – the even-more-secluded beach within the bay of Puerto Angel. A few people were playing in the water as I walked down the stone steps leading to the sand. Playa Panteon is safer for bathers as the fishing boat traffic is almost non-existent. It’s true that the beach felt more relaxed, away from the hubbub of the pier and the comings and goings of the lanchas.

The view looked like it was taken out of a travel brochure for coastal Greece.

I walked along the beach, which is small enough that it took me about 120 seconds, and sat down to enjoy a bit of shade, as the sun was getting pretty high in the sky. I felt again like I was in Greece or Croatia, and I realized it was the combination of the sun giving the sand its strong yellow hue as well as the shallow water reflecting a clear greenish blue that was making me feel this way. The crowd, the flora or the architecture around me were clearly Mexican, but for a moment, looking at the water ahead of me, I remembered summertime in Croatia.

After challenging myself to walk back on the andado, I found myself on the town’s main street, boulevard Vigilio Uribe. You can feel Puerto Angel is a little bigger of a town than its coastal sisters Zipolite or Mazunte: main street features a bank and a supermarket. Most people staying in Zipolite go all the way to San Pedro Pochutla or even Puerto Escondido, the bigger towns for shopping, but Puerto Angel definitely has options and is closer.

As I was reaching the end of the pier, I saw a fishing boat head back and beach on the sand - the maneuver requires dexterity as one needs to wait for the right wave to push the boat towards the shore and ride high enough that the boat almost parks itself, without needing a human push. The day’s catch coulnd’t wait as people immediately came to the boat to unload its fresh fish and carry it away in wheelbarrows.

I was tempted to walk back to Zipolite, one hour away by foot, but the vision of a shared taxi killed my resolve and I hopped on with the driver and another passenger on the front seat (yes there were three of us upfront, not the most comfortable ride of the year). When I got off the taxi in calle Pelicano, I remembered how chill Zipolite. Gone was the noise of the fishing boats, and instead I could hear birds chirping in the trees and a vaguely territorial dog in the distance. I walked slowly back to my hotel, ready to crash on a lounge chair with a drink.

Images: Puerto Angel’s main beach, the view from boulevard Vigilio Uribe towards the sea, Playa Panteon, Gualalupe chapel from the pier.

All images are mine.