It was a funny thing as we started this adventure, we couldn't pronounce any of the ports we were going to and generally had little or no idea where they were and what they would have in store for us. So Huatulco pronounced WULTOOCO or for those of us now more educated in all things Mexican - Santa Cruz.
This particular port and area was specially designed and built for the tourist market and especially the cruise industry, but there are a lot of lovely resorts in this area, with beaches that are clean, white and bustling with traders of all kinds.
The port itself is right on the beach and there is a lovely little town center right here with beach restaurants. To be honest for us it was a little too pushy in this part of the town, I like to be able to walk into a shop and look around, but they were big on trying to drag you in and do their fast talking.
We like to do excursions at every port because I like to hear about the culture, the town and see and learn from the guides, so given we were here for 2 days we took first excursion of the 1st day electing to just get a lay of the land - La Crucesita & Scenic Drive tour for 3 hours. This was a good introduction to the town and learning a little more about the culture even though La Crucesita is only about a 15 min walk from the port itself, however our guide was very informative and essentially the drive around takes you to look outs etc that you wouldn't be able to walk to, even those who got taxi's didn't learn too much about the port, the people, the customs.
La Crucesita is a lovely little town center, with the usual garden square, church, cafes and shops without the hard sell, the tour ensured we got to see all the up market resorts but also wild life (including tarantulas, bird life etc). The town looks like its been there hundreds of years, but like most things in Hautulco it is relatively new. Visiting the museum which was really just a very large souvenir shop in the guise of a museum given they had a spinning demonstration, tequila samples and my favorite - grasshopper legs (yes I did try them - with some chocolate mole and tacos) was fun and probably gave us our first real taste of a more traditional Mexico (as compared to Cabo's up market tourist interpretation). We enjoyed this excursion and it provided us with exactly what we wanted for our 2 day stay, a good understanding of Huatulco and was reasonably priced and when we chatted to others after we left who didn't do any tours we felt they probably did miss out on some good information including that the schools each choose one of the bays (I can't remember now if there are 7 or 15 bays - I know we saw 5 of them) which they are required to keep clean and pristine for the tourists.
With still a day and half up our sleeves to spend in this fantastic port we had fun touring on our own, heading to the beach cafe for you guessed it, some Pina Coladas and more yummy Mexican foods, while soaking up the sun, swimming in the beautiful warm waters, and strolling through the shops (although as I said earlier, didn't buy anything at all here given the hard sell mentality, which I don't like). The good thing is the pier is only the length of the ship, so it wasn't onerous walking from ship to shore as and when you felt like it. There are plenty of water based activities, such as boat hire, jet skis etc as well all available right here on the beach front. My recommendation though if you don't want to be hassled as you walk along, go via the beach front. All in all a great port and a nice place for a holiday.
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