By Julie Etra

It was 2007, Día de los Muertos in Oaxaca City. We left the Valley of Oaxaca and drove over the Sierra Madre to the Bahías of Huatulco for the first time. This area was suggested to us by a client of mine, an engineer who had visited this coast, and who also suggested we watch the Mexican movie ‘Y Tu Mama También’, which included gorgeous yet poignant scenes filmed on Cacaluta beach. We were fed up with Los Cabos and were looking around, for new experiences and opportunities, fewer people, more nature, and a swimmable sea. Mexico. We passed fields of agave (maguey) as we headed south to the Sierra Madre Sur. Up and over via the sinuous one-lane highway, crossing oak-pine woodlands, cloud forest with tree ferns, tropical perennial forest, selva seca (deciduous semi-tropical forest), and the gorgeous coast. The sea, the air, the flowers, the birds, the wildlife, the food, the people, the music. A day on the ocean, a Saturday night on the zócalo, La Bocana, Zimatan. Another day up to the Rio Magdalena, Hagia Sofia and on to Pluma, west to the Lagunas of Manialtepec and Chacahua. The diversity. That’s is what I love about Huatulco, the diversity, right here, and so close.