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Hound Dog

Apr 11, 2009, 4:40 PM

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The Very Best Beach in North America

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OK. I´m a big beach fan but beaches as best places are personal in nature. I grew up in Alabama just north of the beaches of Northwest Florida known in those parts as L.A. or Lower Alabama and those beaches, especially around Destin, Florida, are beyond beautiful but then I moved to San Francisco and lived for some ten years on a cliff overlooking the Pacific just south of an unstable coastal area known as "Devil´s Slide" and man was that a fabulous place to live with huge waves rolling in from the open sea and crashing on the cliffs 30 feet below and then we had some problems with significant beach erosion arising form winter storms in the 1980s but that is another story.

Anyone who seeks to define the perfect beach is unworthy of response. I cannot tell you the number of nights I slept like a baby under the influence of huge waves crashing below my deck on the Pacific in Northern California or the number of nights I slept like a baby overlooking the Gulf of Mexico at Destin, Florida or Gulf Shores, Alabama or the Mediterranean Sea or Atlantic Ocean in many parts of France so don´t talk to me about "favorite" beaches.

What makes life interesting is diversity not sameness. Today I live in a fabulous garden at Lake Chapala and simultaneously in an urban setting in Chiapas. You tell me what scene is better.

wendy devlin

Apr 11, 2009, 4:50 PM

Post #2 of 9 (1130 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] The Very Best Beach in North America

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My favorite beach(es).
Are prone to decline in criteria, by sheer percentages to the number of people, of people I tell.

Therefore. Upon my demise. Pry open my coffin.
And read the tiny slip of paper, grasped in my bony fingers.

Hound Dog

Apr 12, 2009, 7:59 AM

Post #3 of 9 (1095 views)

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Re: [wendy devlin] The Very Best Beach in North America

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Wendy:

You are one funny Dudette - much funnier than your droll companion Arbon.

I suggest you read my soon to be accomplished posting on the best beach in the Bays of Huatulco in Oaxaca State. I amuse myself to no end with these stories even though I make other selective readers nauseous just by having had the temerity to have existed alongside themselves at this point in time on this particular planet.

(This post was edited by DavidMcL on Apr 12, 2009, 6:05 PM)

Hound Dog

Apr 12, 2009, 8:31 AM

Post #4 of 9 (1086 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] The Very Best Beach in North America

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San Agustin Beach (Oaxaca)

We had driven down from Carretera 200 where that road intersects with the road from San Angel to Oaxaca City some seven hours away over spectacular mountain passes which must be seen to be believed and instead of turning right to Oaxaca City at that point we turned left toward the beach and San Agustin over some twenty kilometers of very fine dirt road at least during the dry season and then we came upon this beach that is one of the most spectacular I have ever seen and I have seen many hundreds of beaches all over the world and the reason is that, within a few yards or so one experiences open and untamed sea, a magnificent and beautiful cove and a placid and gorgeous bay and port.

We are standing there and this eight year old kid pops up out of nowhere and the following dialogue ensues:

"Well, here you folks are on my beach and you are certainly welcome but since you have enjoyed my beach I wish to inform you that we also request that you come to my cafe in town for a drink."

Now this was a clever and charming kid and we could have used a few drinks at that point and we also felt this was an appropriate bargain so we followed this little pissant to his family´s cafe and bought some beers and as we sat there on the beach in the harbour enjoying our beers the little pushy kid informed us that the family also had cabins to rent and boats to rent for deep sea fishing or tourist trips to Puerto Angel and other points around there and we declined those invitations as we had to get to Oaxaca City that day but otherwise we might have accepted the little man´s sales pitch as this beach and port and cove are among the most beautiful we have ever seen and then we finished our beers and as we were leaving this tiny opportunist informed us that he was entitled to a 20 Peso tip and we told him that seemed a bit dear so he collected ten pesos from my wife and ten from her cousin and informed us that the reason he wanted 20 pesos was so he could have ten pesos to spend and ten pesos to stick in his hidden hole in the ground that was his savings account until he accumulated enough money to buy a motorbike and so we felt we had done some good this day for this little punk who entertained us immensely.

By the way, if you take the boats out into the sea from the port of San Agustin and catch some fish they will barbeque that fish for you upon your return to the port and that fish and accompaniments and cold beer and the company of this endlessly entertaining kid who goes by the name of Ezekiel, will make your day and maybe your month or as is the case with me, go down as an experience you will treasure as long as you remain lucid.

If you are ever on Highway 200 in the Bays of Huatulco region skip the terrible craphole of Puerto Angel and head down that dirt road to San Agustin Beach for beaches and seas that will astound you and then, as you drive to Oaxaca City from there, stop for lunch on the other side of the mountaintop for some fine tasajo crudo and beans and Oaxaca style tortillas and you will never regret that you lived that day.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Apr 12, 2009, 10:47 AM)

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RickS

Apr 12, 2009, 10:19 AM

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Re: [Hound Dog] The Very Best Beach in North America

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To quote the Dawg, "Anyone who seeks to define the perfect beach is unworthy of response."

But that was yesterday....

Hound Dog

Apr 12, 2009, 10:24 AM

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Re: [RickS] The Very Best Beach in North America

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OK. Whatever.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Apr 12, 2009, 10:55 AM)

Hound Dog

Oct 23, 2009, 4:36 PM

Post #7 of 9 (339 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] The Very Best Beach in North America

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We had driven down from Carretera 200 where that road intersects with the road from San Angel to Oaxaca City some seven hours away over spectacular mountain passes which must be seen to be believed and instead of turning right to Oaxaca City at that point we turned left toward the beach and San Agustin over some twenty kilometers of very fine dirt road at least during the dry season and then we came upon this beach that is one of the most spectacular I have ever seen and I have seen many hundreds of beaches all over the world and the reason is that, within a few yards or so one experiences open and untamed sea, a magnificent and beautiful cove and a placid and gorgeous bay and port.

We are standing there and this eight year old kid pops up out of nowhere and the following dialogue ensues:

"Well, here you folks are on my beach and you are certainly welcome but since you have enjoyed my beach I wish to inform you that we also request that you come to my cafe in town for a drink."

Now this was a clever and charming kid and we could have used a few drinks at that point and we also felt this was an appropriate bargain so we followed this little pissant to his family´s cafe and bought some beers and as we sat there on the beach in the harbour enjoying our beers the little pushy kid informed us that the family also had cabins to rent and boats to rent for deep sea fishing or tourist trips to Puerto Angel and other points around there and we declined those invitations as we had to get to Oaxaca City that day but otherwise we might have accepted the little man´s sales pitch as this beach and port and cove are among the most beautiful we have ever seen and then we finished our beers and as we were leaving this tiny opportunist informed us that he was entitled to a 20 Peso tip and we told him that seemed a bit dear so he collected ten pesos from my wife and ten from her cousin and informed us that the reason he wanted 20 pesos was so he could have ten pesos to spend and ten pesos to stick in his hidden hole in the ground that was his savings account until he accumulated enough money to buy a motorbike and so we felt we had done some good this day for this little punk who entertained us immensely.

By the way, if you take the boats out into the sea from the port of San Agustin and catch some fish they will barbeque that fish for you upon your return to the port and that fish and accompaniments and cold beer and the company of this endlessly entertaining kid who goes by the name of Ezekiel, will make your day and maybe your month or as is the case with me, go down as an experience you will treasure as long as you remain lucid.

If you are ever on Highway 200 in the Bays of Huatulco region skip the terrible craphole of Puerto Angel and head down that dirt road to San Agustin Beach for beaches and seas that will astound you and then, as you drive to Oaxaca City from there, stop for lunch on the other side of the mountaintop for some fine tasajo crudo and beans and Oaxaca style tortillas and you will never regret that you lived that day.

OK, so I perhaps should not have reprised this post but I´m about to return to San Agustin and wanted to talk about this drive again because the original post was six months ago and maybe some of you who are new hereabouts don´t know of this magical place so I have brought this back to life because this is a special place and who the hell is going to uncover this information by randomly posting an inquiry on "San Agustin"?

I treasure isolated and lonely beach areas I guess because I was raised spending summers in my youth in the 1950s in a place known as Mary Esther, Florida just west of Fort Walton (now Fort Walton Beach) and what was inticing to me about that area in those days was that it was on Santa Rosa Sound just across from Santa Rosa Island which in those days was totally deserted and had the most astounding pure white beaches on earth stretching into eternity with not a structure or even a soul in sight for seemingly an eternity and that gulf coast with its crystal aguamarine waters was a child´s dream and by the time I had become a middle aged adult and could afford to live there they had covered that island with wall-to-wall condominiums as far as the eye could see and had desecrated Dawg´s OZ so that gulf coast from roughly Destin, Florida to Gulf Shores, Alabama had been turned from a child´s dream mysterious landscape wiith no structures or occasional modest beach cottages into a vile honkey tonk of drunken revelers and families feasting on cheesy breakfast buffets and watery coffee over the Birmingham News or the Montgomery Advertiser at two bit Holiday Inns and I´ve never gotten over that so now you know where I´m coming from.

Later we settled on Northern California beaches north and south of San Francisco and overdevelopment was not a problem on beaches fronting the wild and untameable Pacific with its freezing cold waters and recurring fogs and unstable cliffs and homesites overlooking magnificent surf with dangerous undertows and rogue waves and, man. was that a nice place to live with no chance delelopers would come in there and compromise such great natural beauty but now, here in Ajijic, an electrical storm has descended that may blow out my electrical systaem so I will be back when things become more settled.

OK, the electrical storm has subsided so if I may I will continue.

Those 1950s days at Santa Rose Sound induced me to look for beaches in Mexico not yet exploited or inhabited seasonaly by irresponsible drunken adolescents and here are my favorites so far in this country:
* Oaxaca beach lands roughly between the Isthmus of Tehuantepc and about Puerto Escondido.
* Gulf beaches along the shore from about Progreso to Isla Holbox
* The so-far isolated beaches in Quintana Roo some 200 kilometers north of the border with Belize. This area will, in my opinions, soon be destroyed by massive development.

OK. That´s an opening for discussion. Have at it.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Oct 23, 2009, 5:55 PM)

RickS

Oct 24, 2009, 11:53 AM

Post #8 of 9 (282 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] The Very Best Beach in North America

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Ahhh, Mary Ester and Santa Rosa Island!!! Dawg and I must have crossed paths in the late 40s/early 50s in that wonderland. Spent time there many summers and just took for granted that it would stay that way forever. And Destin was nothing more than a small marina (and the didn't refer to it as a Marina back then!) by the inlet bridge..... miles of unobstructed fine, sugar white sand. Wading in those aqua clear waters chest deep and still able to see crab and flounder scurrying around by my toes. And, Dawg, spent some equally nice moments during that timeframe across Mobile Bay at the Fairhope Yacht Club that family friends managed. Yes, priceless years.

Although I haven't seen nearly enough Mexican beaches, my favorites to this point, in no particular order, are:

* Isla Holbox - remote and pristine (at least it was before the hurricane camped over it for 2 days a few years ago; hope it's OK)
* Below Tulum - previously just a few kilometers below but now one has to go farther towards Punta Allen to 'get away'
* Below and Above Majahual - again, now one has to go farther down the coast to escape
* Bahia Tenacatita - not Mar Caribe, but.....
* Chacala - maybe it has been developed by now but used to be a perfect little getaway bay west of Las Varas Nayarit

But in the final analysis, just give me back the Mary Ester/Destin area of the early 50s and I'd be good to go!

(This post was edited by RickS on Oct 24, 2009, 2:14 PM)

Hound Dog

Oct 24, 2009, 1:45 PM

Post #9 of 9 (271 views)

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Re: [RickS] The Very Best Beach in North America

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Good God, Rick:

I was beginning to think the 1950s poverty-stricken fisherman´s cinderblock village of Destin at the East Pass with its indescribably beautiful multi-colored waters flushing from Choctawhatchee Bay into the pristine gulf was a dream I had had since that village today has become a monster of high-rise butt-ugly condomininiums and sterile golf courses and nondescript plastic developments with names like Sandestin and guys from Toledo running around in bermuda shorts and knee socks and all-you-can-eat buffets at the Ramada Inn for $9.99 featuring frozen shrimp from Indonesia with "cocktaiil" sauce and iced sweet tea and Saltine Crackers and bland coffee with banana pudding and, for an extra $7.50 a Cuba Libre for dad and all of a sudden you expect me to believe that that Destin of my childhood actually existed but I can confirm this:

Tulum and Isla Holbox and Dzilam de Bravo and the desolate beach areas between Majahual and Xcalak and Lake Bacalar are still there. We can still find magical places but you and I know how quickly these places can be desecrated.