Did you go to the Beach

Hector, my Airbnb host, suggested Playa Gaviota Azul when I asked about where I could go swimming. A major concern for me was that I was alone. How could I manage changing and protecting my iphone etc at the beach?

Hector said that at the end of Playa Gaviota Azul there was a break water made out of fake rocks. He puts his "valuables" in a pouch in a crack in the breakwater where it is above the waves but also where he can watch it from the water.

I was able to be looser. I just carried my swim suit, towel and valuables in a back pack. After lunch in an Hotel Zone restaurant near this beach, I would change into my bathing suit in their men's room and then just leave my back pack on the sand, but in an exposed area where I could keep an eye on it. Here are lots of pictures of Playa Gaviota Azul.

These firsts two pictures show the entrance to the beach. It is at Kilometer 9 along the hotel road, right in a very busy commercial section. As one goes out the Hotel Road, the hotels are all on the left, Ocean side, of the road. At several points, especially kilometer 9 and 13, there are not just bunches of hotel but also many malls and restaurants.

The above pictures give you an idea of what the beach looks like as you first come upon it after leaving the road, walking down an entrance and then emerging onto the sand.

I always love features like the rock above. Gives the miles of sand a little character!

Now I have walked to the left of the rock. In the pictures above you can see the break water. This part of the "public" beach is far enough from the entrance that only a limited number of people take the time to walk this far.

Above is the view back, looking toward the entrance.

So this is a public beach. I like to think that it is part of the Airbnb ethos. Hector recommends it because it is a place where he is comfortable and tourists are comfortable. You can see the hotel. In the pictures below you will see how they "own" the beach front by putting their "guest only" chairs out. But the rule in Mexico, UNLIKE the FREE US, is that the people own the beach, not the hotels.

The man is digging a "stair" so the hotel guests can easily walk down from where the hotel chairs are to the beach were we common folk are.