How to Get to the Magical Laguna Chacahua, Oaxaca — ALONG DUSTY ROADS

Puerto Escondido To El Zapotalito

If you’re already staying in Puerto Escondido, you need to make your way toward the Terminal TUR in the town centre – here on Google Maps. This will simply involve a camioneta from La Punta or Zicaleta, or a taxi for around MX$50-80.

Now, before we share the next stage of the route, the most important thing to know about visiting Laguna de Chacahua is that there’s no ATM in the village and nearly every business will not accept card.

So, you need to bring a lot of cash with you.

Thankfully, there’s a massive supermarket a short walk from the Terminal TUR called Chedraui (maps), which has about eight different ATMs from various banks there, so one is always guaranteed to be working and not to charge an extortionate withdrawal fee. For our British Starling bank cards, the HSBC machine only charged MX$35.84 and we could withdraw up to 6,000 each time.

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A fantastic alternative option as a bank card that offers excellent rates, low ATM fees, security, and flexibility whilst you’re travelling is Wise. It’s currently available to travellers from the UK, the US, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Canada, Brazil and most of the EEA, and is supported by an excellent mobile app.

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We recommend you head to the supermarket, buy any other supplies you’ll need (i.e. suncream if you’re running low), take out your cash, and separate it accordingly. If there’s a few of you, it may be easier to leave someone with the backpacks in the terminal (which has an air-conditioned waiting room), rathe than unnecessarily carting everything over to the supermarket, where you have to go in via the car park.

There are departures from Puerto Escondido to Chacahua every 15 minutes until 5pm, but we highly recommend doing this leg of the journey in the morning or early afternoon to maximise your time in Chacahua, make accommodation hunting easier, and minimise disruption on the next two legs.

The small modern minivans will usually have Pinotepa as their final destination, but you’re going to El Zapotalito (or ask for Chacahua and they’ll know where to drop you off).

The lady at the ticket booth inside the waiting room said we have to pay the driver directly, and he subsequently charged us MX$100 each. We thought this was more than it should be, but didn’t quibble, but he definitely pulled a fast one. On our return to Puerto Escondido, a more honest driver charged MX$70 for the same trip.

Travel time from Puerto…