Travel to Puerto Escondido, Mexico with Me!

Three years later, I am back living the digital nomad surf life in Puerto Escondido! I want to share with you why I chose to come back and how the town has changed making it an ultimate destination for digital nomads travelers and surfers alike.

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Welcome to Puerto Escondido! 

Hello from Porto, Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico. We are back after three years. The last time we were here was 2020. It is now April of 2023, and I’m happy to say that even though I didn’t rate it highly the first time we were here, I’m so happy I gave it another chance. And we are back because I feel like my life, my business is at a different stage now. So all that’s to say, you know, if you don’t enjoy something at first, give it another chance. Be open-minded. You never know how it’s gonna play out for you. It’s also crazy to be recording today’s episode three years later, how much the podcast has grown, how much my business has grown, how much my client’s businesses have grown. So humbling the fact that everything I had wanted back then is now my reality.

Wanderlover Business Academy 3.0

And so much of what my clients had wanted back then is now their reality. So after you know two act two and a half years, so much can change. And the most important thing is to just get started. As a reminder wait list for the Wanderlover Business Academy 3.0 is now open. This is our signature eight week online course where we walk you through how to start and scale a successful online creative or coaching business. We really hone in on what your unique strengths are and apply the Wanderlover online business model so that you can experience time freedom, location freedom, and financial freedom.

We are all about building an impactful, aligned online business that you can take anywhere in the world. So if this speaks to you, the link is in the episode description, you’ll be the first to know when it launches, and you’ll also receive a hundred dollars off. And honestly, like it’s a life changing program, there are students who have seen the possibilities within themselves of what they can do with their business and their lives. They’ve quit corporate job, booked one way flights. It’s created by me. So obviously I want you to have this life and experience, this freedom. So the framework that I teach, if you follow it, if you do the work, you know that this is on the other side.

What to expect in Puerto Escondido 

So today I’m gonna share with you everything I know about Porto Escondido, why we came here in the first place, what you can expect if you desire to travel to Oaxaca, Mexico, which by the way is spelled O A X A C A. So when I say Oaxaca, it sounds like it starts with a W, but it actually starts with O A X and that is just how you pronounce it in Nahuatl, which was the ancient language of the Aztec. And so Puerto  is on the coast of Oaxaca. By the end of this episode, I would love for you to be painted a picture and visually kind of see what the vibe is like here and you can make your decision on whether or not it would potentially be a great destination for you to visit or maybe start your digital nomad journey or visit in the near future.

Puerto Escondido has changed – 2020 vs 2023 

The first time we arrived was in October of 2020, or maybe it was September, around September, October of 2020 straight after Brazil. We were in floss through the pandemic and we wanted to leave. So we flew to Porto West Gudo because one of our friends from Brazil, she spent a lot of time here. She said it was great for surfing. And at that point I had only ever visited the Caribbean side of Mexico and Baja California. So I was like, wait, this is amazing. Like let’s go check it out. We flew into Mexico City, the capitol, they have a giant international airport, and then we took a domestic flight from Mexico City to Porto Escondido with the code P X M, they used the Mexican peso, which back then was around 21, 20, 21 pesos per one US dollar.

Now it’s between 17 and 18 pesos per dollar. And we went to the car rental company today and I saw on their wall they were exchanging $1 to 16 pesos. So it’s definitely dropping and it’s not the greatest, but it’s also still very affordable. After you fly into the local airport, it’ll be around like a five minute drive into the city center. And depending on where you stay, it’s all very close and the transportation is really easy to navigate. You can rent cars, you can rent a scooter, you can rent a motorcycle, or you can take like local taxis or local collectives, which are like little buses that are apparently really, really cheap to take.

I’ve never taken them. But then transportation is just really easy. And I would say it’s a very convenient and comfortable place to live in because there are so many available options. So not only the transportation, but like restaurants, you can go from street tacos to really fine dining. You can find hostels to like five star luxury resorts. You can go grocery shopping and there’s like giant supermarkets, right? So it’s a coastal town with a lot of modern conveniences. And it’s really refreshing because after a month in Las Salita where there was like no grocery store and no mini more even, and just after experiencing that, it’s a breath of fresh air.

Areas of Puerto Escondido 

There are three main areas of Porto where you can, where most people stay in north of the main beach we have Riata, and then the beach itself that’s known as the Mexican pipeline. Really, really heavy shore break, mainly only for, you know, professional surfers, not for beginners at all. It’s called. And then south of this beach is called La Punta, where there’s also a really mellow surf spot where a lot of beginners are. And that’s usually where the surf schools are. Renata up north, there’s a lot of other beaches. They’re mainly like little, there’s one other mellow bay called Zao, and that’s also where beginners can go surfing.

And that’s usually where I walk to and it’s just really easy to get to and it’s so, so beautiful. If you rent a car or have a vehicle an hour away, you can explore other places like Mazuk and Chiwawa and all of them have their own charms. So there’s a lot to explore on this coast. And what I personally love about Mexico is that it is so close to New York where my family is from, where my friends are. One of my friends is having, having her wedding in Mexico City next year. So it’s a lot closer to home. And personally, like I spend so much time in Indonesia and every time I have to go home, it’s at least a one to two day journey.

So it’s also really convenient because it is close to my home. You can find Airbnbs anywhere in the three areas I’ve mentioned and every area in between. You can have a really nice one, one to two bedroom apartment with a full kitchen, five minutes walking to the beach, a living room for 1000 to 1500 U S C a month. You can definitely go lower and you can definitely go higher. Obviously if you’re renting per night or per week, you’re not gonna be getting these monthly discounts. So for, you know, there’s such a huge range. You can go from hostile rooms that are $20 a night to luxury resorts, oceanfront for a thousand dollars a night.

So depending on what you are looking for, how long you are coming here, just know that there are so many available options and you just kind of have to do your research. Personally, I know what I need in a home. I know what I’m looking for in an Airbnb, I need my own office, I need my own kitchen, I need to be walking distance to the beach. So with all of those criteria for monthly stays, I’ve found between 1200, 1500, maybe going upwards of 2000, that is really the sweet spot and those are the numbers you can be looking at. 

The Lifestyle in Puerto Escondido 

Another reason why I love Porto Escondido and why we came back is because of the food. Oaxaca is one of the culinary capitals of Mexico. They have local sauces like moles, they haves so many dining options, street tacos, they have mescal, which I personally prefer over tequila. So there’s just so many things to do and tribe, there is nightlife. If you’re looking for nightlife, there are co-working spaces if you’re looking for co-working spaces and networking. So it does attract a digital nomad, surf entrepreneurial community. The other community I’ve noticed that it really attracts is the American retiree community.

We’ve actually met a few people who just retire in Alaska and they have these really nice houses and it’s a really cool vibe because you know that it’s relatively safe for them to want to do this at such an old age. Overall, there is a really nice mix of expats versus locals and a really nice balance between entrepreneurs with their own businesses versus just travelers and backpackers. Also, I think this place attracts a lot of remote workers for people working either Eastern or central or Pacific time. And it’s so funny because I think that’s why starlink has taken over and fiber optic internet is everywhere.

And I swear everywhere we go, if there’s starlink, it’s like the main selling factor. They’ll have a giant sign in front that’s like starlink a key, and they just want to attract the digital nomad online business owner type of traveler. Other things you can do within Portos Guino, if you don’t surf, there is a lot of snorkeling. You can go dolphin watching on a boat, whale watching. If it’s the season, you can hire boats and go fishing. There’s yoga classes, there’s, I just took a photo because someone’s offering like a ceramics class. There’s a lot of healthy eating health foods and it can get a bit like Tulum vibes I would say, where it’s really bohemian, very spiritual going for the hippie vibe, although not as hippie spiritual and Bohemian as Maunde.

I would say if you’ve been to Bali and you love Ubud and that is your vibe, check out La Punta and check out Mae because I feel like they are very similar in the people that they attract. So that is basically what you can expect in Porto Escondido, Mexico. A daily day in the life, I will go for a surf in the morning, I will come back and shower, have my breakfast, have a smoothie, and maybe go out to a cafe, maybe go to a co-working space or just start work in my office. You can expect download speeds between 20 to 300 megabits per second and upload speeds between one and 50 megabits per second.

So it’s a huge, huge upgrade from the last time we were here where I was struggling to get like one megabit per second download. I think that was the main factor in why I didn’t love it the first time. But now that internet is so easy to come by and so abundant, we are actually talking about maybe getting temporary residency for Mexico. That way we can purchase a vehicle in the future. We can look at investment properties and really maybe having mexico as one of our bases. Of course not forgetting about Indonesia, or the states or our other locations around the world. But we’re really thinking of planting roots here because we really enjoy it!

Life Design

And that is the concept of life design. You find what you like and don’t like. Maybe you have these goals for yourself, but you don’t know until you try it out. Once you do experience it, maybe you don’t like it! You never know how your life could change and how that one option that didn’t align before, aligns now. The name of the game is happiness, joy and fulfilment so if this is something that you aspire to have and you’re ready to take action, check out the links in the episode description where you can Sign up to the waitlist for The Wanderlover Business Academy 3.0!

I’m going to go for a surf now, and will see you in the next episode! Have a fantastic week my loves x

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