Work For Stay

The Road Chose Me Volume 2 OUT NOW!!
The Road Chose Me Volume 2: Three years and 54,000 miles around Africa

A while back a friend showed me the great website helpx.net, a site that links travelers like myself with people who need some kind of work done. The original idea began with World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOFing), where as you might guess, one volunteers to work on an organic farm for a few hours a day in exchange for room and board. Helpx has expanded the idea to any kind of work imaginable – construction, teaching, mechanical work… absolutely anything is possible.
I find a place just south of Puerto Escondido looking for someone to build a website. In my past life I was a Computer Software Engineer, and have designed and built many websites over the years.
I organize to stay a week, possibly more more if things go well.

Chirping gecko lizards...as loud as a squirrel

Caroline is very welcoming and gives me the grand tour of her Oceanfront retreat and boutique hotel slated to open early in 2010. Construction is going full steam ahead on beautiful mexican-style concrete buildings, all with palapa roofs and amazing decor. My room is a self-contained villa, with a roof-top palapa and 180° views of the ocean, which is less than 75 meters away. I settle in and find very quickly that Caroline loves to cook, and is amazing at it – before long we are enjoying a cold beer with our huge home-cooked meal of local fresh fish.

This guy came around every morning at breakfast

I settle into a daily routine of waking up at dawn to watch the sunrise over the ocean, working with Caroline before lunch on the new website and having afternoons to explore the surrounding area. Caroline’s property is a 10 minute walk from a friendly little village, and 30mins drive in each direction are lots of little communities to investigate. I’m throughly enjoying having great food to eat and exercising every day with a run on the beach or a work-out followed by a swim every night at sunset. Reading for hours while lying in a hammock quickly becomes a habit.

Sunset from "my" hammock

We head into Zicatela, the main surf/tourist beach in Puerto Escondido to use the internet and hangout in the great atmosphere. There are tourists getting around all over the place, and I’m constantly catching Auzzie accents in every direction, crazy surfers as they are. Everyone is riding really short boards and after seeing the impressive curl to the large waves I understand why. I’m told 10 minutes south at “The Point” the waves are a lot more friendly to amateurs such as myself.

Puerto Escondido beach all artistic like

Surfboards are much cheaper here than anywhere else I’ve been – I can get a junker for $100 USD, used boards in good shape are around $200 USD and brand new is just over $300 USD.
I’m thinking about it.

Dropping in at Zicatela (I took the photo... not me surfing)

In the mean time I’ll continue to soak up the sun and enjoy this little ocean side paradise I’ve found

-Dan