The New Tulum
Coastal Living|January - February 2018

Go west, idyll-seekers. Mexico’s “it” destination is tucked away in the culture-rich, food-loving, bliss-inducing coast of Oaxaca

Emma Sloley
The New Tulum

AS WE REACH THE OUTSKIRTS of Puerto Escondido, my driver grins and gestures with his chin for me to look in the rearview mirror. Just above the horizon hangs a full yellow harvest moon, which washes this Mexican surf town on Oaxaca’s Pacific Coast in a magical light. We drive farther on into lush farmland, finally leaving the highway to traverse a rocky dirt road. In the silvery beam of the headlights, dozens of tiny frogs scatter into the jungle. Rounding a corner, we startle a huge white owl by the roadside, and it lifts off with languid grace, wings beating slowly as it disappears into the night. Oaxaca is wild.

It may feel like I’ve landed in some antediluvian land, but civilization lies close at hand in the form of Hotel Escondido, a stylish hideaway on a stretch of pristine beach. Well-traveled friends had returned from here the previous summer, rhapsodizing about both the property and the region, which reminded them of Tulum and the Riviera Maya before those hot spots had been discovered. They were speaking my language—I fell in love with the Yucatán Peninsula years ago, and the chance to add another Mexican beach idyll to my roster was irresistible.

This story is from the January - February 2018 edition of Coastal Living.

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This story is from the January - February 2018 edition of Coastal Living.

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