Getting to Monte Carlo

Getting to Our Place First, you must arrive to Oaxaca City, capital of the State of Oaxaca and one of the most beautiful cities in Mexico. From there, take a bus going to the Pacific Coast. There are many lines at different prices, qualities and destinations. The costliest buses travel usually by night and offer TV and goodies like coffee, tea and cookies. The cheapest ones stop very often, travel by day and night and make long hours. There are two bus classes: first and second, and two different bus stations at the city according to its class. You can take the cheapest first class (about $15 U.S.Dlls) going to the Coast, or the most expensive second class (about $7 U.S. Dlls) and get about the same results. The main destinations on the Coast are, to the West, Puerto Escondido; at a center position, Pochutla-Puerto Angel; and to the East Bahías de Huatulco-La Crucecita. Puerto Escondido is a charming city with plenty of hotels and places to stay and offers great beaches for surfing. There are nearby lagoons, one of them a National Park with plenty of acquatic birds. Pochutla is a commercial city, with an interesting market on mondays, quite alive and noisy. From there, Puerto Angel, a little fishing village is just 20 Km. away, offering some good beaches and nice places like the Cañón de Vata hotel, with a very uncommon but pleasant way of hosting the visitor. Around Puerto Angel, to the West, there is a long chain of little posadas and small hotels finishing at the Turtle Museum, that make the so called alternative tourism, involving the guests on the communities life. And 70 Kms. to the East of Pochutla you will find La Crucecita (also called Bahías de Huatulco) that is the newest city in Oaxaca, and the closest to Monte Carlo. La Crucecita is the brainchild of the Tourism Ministery and is a little plastic. But it is located in the middle of the newest mexican National Park and offers a lot of beautiful beaches and coves to enjoy the ocean. It is a little expansive because the government wants to get money there. But you start to find cheap places there. One of the most beautiful beaches, where you can arrive only by walking is the Conejos Beach. There is a small restaurant, the only one, that offers you hammocks to stay, and a simple lifestyle that is quickly dissapearing, sad to say. From La Crucecita, take at the corner of Carrizal and Palo Verde Streets, a bus from the line TRANSISMICOS. They leave town every half hour during the daytime, but try to start early (seven in the morning an excellent hour) because the trip to Monte Carlo by this way take about 5 hours. So, take a bus on the direction to Salina Cruz, which will travel to the East on Mexican Federal Road 200 (Costera del Pacífico). Ask the driver to put you down at the Zimatán Bridge stop (about 60 Km. far from La Crucecita). There starts a dirt road going first to Santa María Xadani (at the foot of the mountain in Zapotec) and then to La Merced del Potrero (The pastureland Gift in Spanish). You will find pick up trucks from boths towns waiting for customers. If you take a Xadani truck, go all the way. If you take a La Merced truck, you will pass Xadani and after 4 Km. on the way to La Merced (Also known as La Meche) you will find The San Lorenzo River Bridge, where you will leave the truck (ask the driver to show you). If you arrived at Xadani, walk 4 Km on the way to La Merced, walking the only paved street that traverses the town and at its end taking the right fork of the roads junction at the town end. You will arrive at the San Lorenzo Bridge. There, before traversing the bridge, at your left, there is a rural road that goes upstream beside the river and after 5 Km. you will arrive at Monte Carlo after crossing two small creeks and two little hamlets called El Mamey and El Istmo. Starting from Federal Road 200, look for two paint patches: yellow and red on the arm of the road junction that you must take. Follow this signal all the way and you will arrive without problems, I am sure. Monte Carlo is a big yellow house with a big red patio around. If you feel a little affraid about this adventourous trip, plan yor trip very well, tell me by e mail where and when you will be at the Coast, and it will be a pleasure to be your guide for a small fee. From Xadani I have a small Jeep and we can go faster. My wife lives at Oaxaca City, phone 5143059, do not hesitate to contact her, she speaks English and French besides Spanish.