Puerto Escondido is near Zipolite in the state of Oaxaca. Escondido is known as the home of the Mexican pipeline. There are a lot of American surfers who stay at the semi-developed holiday destination. This is where we spent New Year's Eve. We had a fantastic time. Andrew and Rich had stock piled fireworks especially for the occasion (see Mexican fireworks page).

In the early part of the evening we played gambling games with coins and drank mezcal (similar to tequila) . To call this a home brew type of mezcal would be to rank it too highly. Basically, if you can think of the cheapest, nastiest drink available then it would be in this mezcal's class. We then adjourned to the main street mall of the town where the night spots were. It was a huge street party. Hundreds of people were in the street throwing streamers and fireworks in every possible direction. We spent one and a half hours letting off fireworks. We had an audience for the whole time, as although many other people were also letting off fireworks, they didn't have our class of El Grande fireworks which were continuously applauded. New Year's basically went off with a bang!

We also met up with our volleyball playing band friends who indulged us in a song when they played on stage at one of the nearby restaurants. I will remember that New Year's eve for the rest of my life.