Puerto Escondido agencies and guides conduct outings to several attractions in the area and beyond. The Hidden Voyages Ecotours of the Canadian husband-wife team of Michael Malone and Joan Walker (he’s an ornithologist; she’s an artist-ecologist) lead unusually informative tours seasonally, December through March. Besides their excellent bird-watching and animal- viewing boat tour at Laguna Manialtepec, they also offer a Lagunas de Chacahua wildlife tour and a sunset tour. Their trips run about $40–65 per day, per person, depending on amenities. Contact them in Puerto Escondido December 1–April 1 through the competent Viajes Dimar travel agency (Av. Pérez Gasga 906, tel. 954/582-0734, 954/582-1551 or 954/582-2305, viajesdimar [at] hotmail [dot] com or michael [at] peleewings [dot] ca). In the off season, contact them in Canada (tel. 519/326-5193). For more information, visit http://www.peleewings.ca/ecco.php.

Other Dimar tours include a full-day jaunt east to the turtle museum at Mazunte, continuing to Playa Zipolite, where you can stop for lunch and an afternoon of snorkeling around Puerto Ángel. Evenings during the dark of the moon, trips can include night snorkeling when algae coat everything underwater with an eerie bioluminescent glow. The cost runs about $50 per person. Additionally, they offer an all-day hiking, picnic, and swimming excursion at a luxuriously cool mountain river and cascade in the sylvan Sierra Madre foothill jungle above Pochutla for about $50 per person, or $95 for two days, one night (minimum four persons).

Alternatively, you could also try one of the excellent tours guided by very experienced and well-equipped Lalo Tours (tel. 954/582-2468, laloecotours [at] hotmail [dot] com or laloecotours1 [at] yahoo [dot] com [dot] mx, www.lalo-ecotours.com). Their several tours (full day tours about $45 per person, half-day $25) include Laguna Manialtepec bird-watching by boat or kayak; bird-watching by footpath in Laguna Manialtepec’s barrier sandbar forest; an ocean sunset cruise; and a fascinating night exploration by boat of the ghostly glow of Laguna Manialtepec’s phosphorescent waters.

For more guides and tour providers, check with your hotel desk, the local tourist newspaper El Sol de la Costa, or visit www.tomzap.com (and click on Oaxaca, then Puerto Escondido, then Tours).