Zipolite

This entry is a little out of order. I thought I could switch the placement of it, but I can`t figure it out.

So for some info. on this fun little place .... Zipolite is a beach town of about 1200 people. It`s coined a "backpackers" hangout with a bohemian feel by the Lonely Planet guide. There is 2 km of pale sand and an amazing beachfront with rocky cliffs on either end of the cove. In 1997 Hurricane Pauline levelled most of the beachfront hotels and restaruants, but by now everything has been rebuilt and Zipolite is bigger then ever. We stayed in a place on the west end of the beach that was built after the hurricane. It is a 4 story wood / concrete building, which makes it the highest of the beachfront hangouts.

The highlight of Zipolite was the relaxed beach living we enjoyed. Our hotel was right on the beach, only about a hundered meters from the waterline at high tide. Between the main building and the water was a thatched roof with bunch of chairs and 5 hammocks - just enough for the group of us from WILD that were there. We hung out, chatting and drinking beer from the bar (about 20m away which was run by a chilled out American guy). Zipolite is probably the least "touristy" / developed place that we have been so far, and the swimming was really refreshing.

Jay had one of his first Mexico-bartering opportunities haggling for a single-person "chair" hammock. After barginning the price down from 280 pesos to 180 pesos (about $18) we knew that was the vendors last price when he walked away down the beach. We later saw them again back at our hammock-lounge area and moments later were proud owners of a new locally-hand-made hammock.

We discovered a mind boggling thing related to swimming.... it probably shouldn`t have suprised us as much as it did... but the lifeguards there aren`t really funded all that well. They don`t get paid for the time they spend watching the beach and people. Instead they get money on a per-person rescue basis!!!!!! They welcome any donation, but if you find yourslef in a bad situation and they come save you, we hear the going rate for saving your life is roughly 500 pesos ($50). Taking into account how strong the rip tides are and how many liefguards we saw it`s a little crazy to imagine that they can make at least some money with a system like that!