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When the artist Bosco Sodi began coming to Puerto Escondido as a child, it was a rough surf town on a wild stretch of Mexico’s Oaxacan coastline. Getting there entailed driving for hours on treacherous roads filled with hairpin turns. The waves were epic. The local surfers were intimidating. “We were from the city and they didn’t like us at all,” Sodi says. “Now it’s become much more gentrified.” Though Puerto Escondido is technically only the name of the town, it’s often used to refer to the broader area, which extends from the Pacific Ocean and the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains and which, in recent years, has become an artistic and architectural hub. Sodi opened Casa Wabi, an arts complex and gallery with raw concrete walls and thatched palapa roofs designed by the architect Tadao Ando, about 18 miles northwest of town in 2014.
Soon came other projects — including a number of eco-friendly boutique hotels — by a raft of notable Mexico-based architects, such as Alberto Kalach, Jorge Hernández de la Garza and Ludwig Godefroy. Grupo Habita, an upscale hospitality company based in Mexico City, operates three hotels just outside of Puerto Escondido, and also runs a tiny, highly regarded sushi restaurant. “It’s a very specific, niche place,” says the fashion designer Carla Fernández, who’s been working with women in the local Indigenous community of Pinotepa de Don Luis for the past 25 years to make dye from the secretions of sea snails, a centuries-old practice. Though Fernández lives in Mexico City, she visits the Oaxacan coast regularly and points out that many artists (including Deborah Castillo and the sculptor Emanuele Viscuso) have established homes there. Big-wave surfers still come during the rainy season, which lasts roughly from May to October; other visitors prefer the drier, mellower winter and spring. Today, with a new highway from Oaxaca City and an ongoing airport expansion, Puerto Escondido’s biggest problem isn’t access: It’s protecting the wildness and edge that made it so appealing in the first place. The Insiders
Based in Mexico City, the wave and surf photographer Maria Fernanda Bastidas regularly travels to Puerto Escondido. Carla Fernández, founder of her namesake fashion brand in Mexico City, has been visiting Puerto Escondido for more than three decades. Bosco Sodi is a Mexico City-born, New York-based artist who opened the experimental art foundation Casa Wabi in Puerto Escondido. Boris Vervoordt, who co-founded the gallery Meridiano in Puerto Escondido in 2023, is a Belgian gallerist and antiques dealer. Sleep
“Casa Joseph Zicatela is a nice adults-only boutique hotel on the beach. It has thatched roofs and a really good restaurant, Joi. They sometimes do special chef dinners.” (From about $380 a night) — Maria Fernanda Bastidas “You can rent some amazing houses. I like to use CasitaMX [a vacation rental site]. There’s this architect that I love, Ludwig Godefroy, and you can rent some of his houses on there. (From about $300 a night; three-night minimum) “I love the architecture of Hotel Escondido. And you’re truly not surrounded by people. (From about $400 a night, including breakfast and dinner) — Carla Fernández “Punta Pájaros is very special. Alberto Kalach designed these wooden pavilions, nestled in the wilderness with their own private pool. There are also doubles so you can stay with kids or two sets of friends. (From about $350 a night) “Terrestre is a sophisticated eco-lodge, also designed by Kalach, but it’s very different — more Brutalist. It has no A.C. You can only use products that are biodegradable. It’s an amazing learning curve to experience coming from a city, to have to connect that profoundly with nature.” (From about $400 a night, including breakfast and dinner) — Boris Vervoordt Eat and Drink
“There’s always a line for the Peruvian restaurant Chicama. One of my favorite dishes there is seared tuna with black sesame seeds. It’s a good environment with good music, and it’s in the middle of everything. “The pan de muerto that Dulce Tierra makes for Día de los Muertos is probably my favorite. They also have an incredible flourless chocolate cake. “For brunch, go to this cute place called Elephant Garden. You can’t see the sitting area from the street, because they have trees covering it. The shade makes it less hot, too. They sell organic, healthy food: açai bowls, bagels, smoothies. “The local families go to Café Azul, which is farther away from the beach. It’s like a local Mexican kitchen, with good food at affordable prices. Their gazpacho is like a fruit salad; they put mango, cucumber and jicama in it.” — M.F.B. “Kakurega Omakase, close to Casa Wabi, is beautiful and the quality of the fish is amazing — so fresh and delicious. Every time you go it’s different; the menu depends on the fish of the day. They have very few spaces, so you have to get a reservation.
“Almoraduz is outstanding. It’s Mexican. The menu changes with the seasons and they use a lot of local ingredients. “Tino Coffee is a nice place to go for breakfast. They serve bread, eggs, sandwiches, stuff like that. “For seafood, Marisquería Los Erizos is an open-air restaurant where everything is very fresh. They have an amazing tiritas de pescado, a raw fish dish with lemon and spices. “A wife and husband run Non Solo Pizza in the Centro neighborhood. It’s very authentic pizza. They also make fresh pasta.” — B.S. Shop
“There are a bunch of bikini shops in town. I like the ones from Volt Surfwear. The shop is local and the owner is a surfer.” — M.F. B. “Bodeguita Surf Store: It’s a surf shop that sells graphic tees, local art and painted surfboards.” “Amonita: Everything here is artisanal. You can buy handmade rugs, crystals and beaded bracelets.” — C.F. Explore
“See the bioluminescence at Laguna de Manialtepec. You have to go at the right time, when the moon is new and isn’t pulling and it hasn’t rained. The guides take you out on a boat, with the light around you.” — M.F. B. “Go to Roca Blanca, a beach about 14 kilometers [9 miles] from Casa Wabi.” “For surfing, I like Plataforma, about 25 kilometers [16 miles] east of town. You have different kinds of waves for different people, and it feels very wild.” — B.S.
“Hike from San José Manialtepec, about 30 minutes by car from Puerto Escondido, into the mountains. There’s a river that zigzags through the landscape, and there are hot springs at the top of a mountain. Don’t drink the water from the hot spring. It’s supposed to have health benefits, but I’ve never felt as bad in my life.” — B.V. These interviews have been edited and condensed. Click here for a map of the locations mentioned below. Read past editions of Flocking To here.
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