Aug 8 - Puerto Escondido

The little convenience store near us didn't carry cereal, so we bought some packaged muffins for me and burrito ingredients for Lauren. Having eaten at the hotel, we walked into town to find an ARM, since the little one on Adoquin that I used yesterday stole several hundred dollars from me. We also found Super Che, a Target-like store. Having bought some groceries, we hung out at the hotel and watched TV until the hottest part of the day passed. After the Truman Show was over, we made quesadillas with the Oaxacan quesillo from Che's. Then we visited an Internet cafe on Adoquin and bought a Telmex card to call my bank on one of the ubiquitous public phones, since I was getting no cell phone signal in Puerto Escondido.

Three public phones and 10 minutes later, we were still unable to call the bank's 1-800 number; we tried everything, but the phones would not work for us. Giving up on Puerto's phone system, we consoled ourselved with ice cream and went to the beach. We had picked out a spot in the sand and sat down when a dog came over to investigate. With some effort we shooed it away. Before long, however, we found ourselved encircled by several dogs. One started barking loudly, so we made like trees and headed towards Zicatela, passing about a dozen more dogs. No one else seemed to notice the animals. Normally I don't mind dogs, but for some reason these ones seemed to be attracted to American tourists.

Of course, our little friend followed us all the way to Zicatela. Soon his buddies came to join him as well, so we left the beach, frustrated. The black dog actually followed us unceasingly all the way back to the entrance of playa principal, but did not come onto the street. Maybe Lauren accidentally put some bacon in her pocket? We took our only shower of the day (it was cooler today... maybe this explains the preponderance of hounds) and, seeing the hotel kitchen was packed to the brim with about 20 backpackers, ate a romantic dinner at Estrella del Mar on Adoquin. Or at least it would have been romantic if we hadn't been bitten repeatedly by blood thirsty mosquitoes.