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Zipolite, a magical beach where bathing suits are optional

© Geri Anderson

"The people, they are afraid," said Roberto, a young man sitting next to me in a collectivo taxi. I was heading to Zipolite beach from Pochutla and noticing broken windows, hillsides littered with fallen trees, and thatched roofs tilted sideways on the ground,

To Roberto's "The people, they are afraid," I would add, "And the people, they are busy." After getting whammed by windy Pauline on Oct. 8, 1997, and then pelted by rainy Rick a few weeks later, hurricane-battered residents along the Oaxacan coast near Puerto Angel have been shoveling, hauling and hammering ever since. Here and there, heaps of sticks and rubble hint of where a home once stood. More often than not, there's a new half-built concrete house next to a temporary lean-to shelter.

Mile-long Zipolite beach, a few miles from Puerto Angel, is one of the few beaches in Mexico where officials look the other way and allow you to swim, sun, and surf in the nude. Shopkeepers say that Pauline flattened most of the stick and thatch open-air cabanas, where off-the-beaten track travelers while away hours in hammocks, listening to mournful sounds of flute music and rhythmic lapping of cresting waves. Today, along the beach, tree stumps and half-buried limbs of once proud trees look like driftwood turned gray by the ocean's waters.

If you knew Zipolite before the hurricanes, be prepared to meet a new look. New beams hold up thatched roofs and concrete restaurants sparkle in white stucco and antiseptic tile. For the most part, thatched roofs withstood the battering of Pauline and Rick, needing only a patch here and there before being placed on their new supports.

Be prepared for a four-story, concrete lodge mid-beach. No matter how airy the design, this type of construction is bound to absorb the heat and humidity of southern Mexico more than the twiggy cabanas of yesteryear. Nevertheless, in spite of new spit and polish, Zipolite is still rustic and remote, with a what-the-heck ambiance that no windy duo could destroy.

At the Monte Bello Cabanas, you can rent a hammock for 20 pesos a day, and 50 pesos gets you 24 hours. You can book a room with bed, desk and private shower for 80 pesos at Posada San Cristobal. It has a new open-air beachfront restaurant, serving full menu, as well as snacks. Two bucks US gets you a sandwich and beer.

The restaurant and some of the rooms at the Shambhala meditative center at the west end of the beach have re-opened, while repair work continues.