June 28, 2015, Sunday, Huatulco, Mexico

Huatulco is pronounced, wah-TOOL-co.  It is in the state of Oaxaca.  It thrived as a port after the Spanish Conquest under Hernando Cortez.  We arrived early in this little beautiful Mexican town at the Santa Cruz pier.  We went on the 5 Bay Catamaran cruise and swim.  The coast line is beautiful with 9 bays, and plenty of snorkling.  They pride themselves on being a safe, clean, green part of Mexico.  The language is Mextico.  There are coffee plantations in the mountains.

After our cruise we visited the coffee cafe in the center of the village square.  They sell the organic Huatulco coffee.  We met the Mother of the woman serving us.  She brewed a very nice cup of coffee. We bought 500 gm. and some of the chocolate as well.  All for $20.

Tourism is the main economy, which is 80% domestic.  Our guide explained how they have grown and how many more hotel rooms they expect in the future.  Now it is 6,000 rooms.  70% of the tourists are Canadian said our guide..  Before 1980's, the area was all coffee.

We ended up swimming in one of the bays.  The water was warm and inviting.  I was the last one back on board.

Near the President's vacation home here

Around the bend to the first bay

We saw a pair of very friendly sea turtles in the ocean.  As many as 15,000 come to lay their eggs on one of their beaches each year - next month.  They used to have leatherback turtles but the jellyfish are almost gone and so are these turtles.  They also have humpback whales in the winter.

The President of Mexico has a vacation house here, as well as some very wealthy Mexicans.  We learned in the lecture about central America that Mexico is poised to be the next China.  The illegal immigration is slowing down because there are jobs now here, and in the next years to come, we will be losing our Mexican workers who will return.  Mexico makes a lot of automobiles and imports a lot of our food.  It is a fast growing economy.