Mexican camp sites seem to have a frustrating tendency to disappear just before I want to visit them. The camp site in Huatulco, as described by my tourist guide and shown on my map, does not exist anymore. Desaparecido. The friendly tourist police however told me I might camp on the public beach at Tangolunda, four kilometers away.

Over there I am welcomed by a sign in several languages, including near-Dutch. And on the beach itself I am welcomed not only by mosquitos, no-see-ums and cockroaches, but also by an aggressive ant army which succesfully launched a nightly attack on my baggage and tent, twice.

It was worth it, though. Just behind me was a beautiful little mangrove forest with frogs, birds, lizards and very colourful crabs, the orange-yellow-blue-purple ones I remembered from Costa Rica. At night there were bats and fireflies. And in front of me I had an almost private beach, only to be shared with my Argentinan neighbours.

The ants were a real nuisance, but didn't keep me from sleeping well. Not so my neighbours: a three-foot iguana kept the girls awake all night.