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The Pacific Coast of Mexico, was started in December 1994 as The Pacific Coast of Oaxaca, Mexico by Tom Penick and expanded to include Jalisco and Colima in 1997. See 10-year Anniversary Message. It is a collection of information about these areas obtained from a variety of sources and depends heavily on input from readers. The web page continues to grow and now consists of about 1400 HTML pages and 5400 images. The original URL was www.eden.com/~tomzap and as of July 27, 2000, the URL became www.tomzap.com. Optimized for NETSCAPE browsers.

This travel web site differs from most in that I try to present a complete picture of the area which includes both the good and the bad. So in addition to the "brochure level" information that you can find here and in most travel publications, you will find reports of crime activity, rebel activities, and dangerous surf. Additionally in the Visitors' Comments sections you will hear of some unpleasant experiences of travelers. Actually, the areas are quite safe and anyone who visits can expect to have a great time. The candid information that you will find here is provided to help make sure that you do.

The Maps

There are a number of large (scrolling required) maps of the area. By using a limited number of solid colors, the file size has been kept to a minimum so that these download quickly considering their large dimensions and detail. Other maps are in PDF format, making them ideal for printing. Available maps are: far western Oaxaca coastal region (185K) topographic including San José del Progresso and Pinotepa Nacional west to the Guerrero border. 14 pixels/km. western Oaxaca coastal region (96K) topographic including Puerto Escondido west to Río La Arena. 14 pixels/km. west central Oaxaca coastal region (60K) topographic including Puerto Escondido and Puerto Angel. 14 pixels/km. east central Oaxaca coastal region (121K) topographic including Puerto Angel and Huatulco. 14 pixels/km. Map of Melaque, Jalisco, Coastal Area, including Barra de Navidad and Cuastecomate. 79 pixels/km. Map of Tenacatita, Jalisco, Coastal Area, including La Manzanilla, Boca de Iguanas, and Tecán. 79 pixels/km. City map of Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca (42K). City map of central Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca (152K). City map of Playa Zicatela North, Oaxaca (173K). City map of Playa Zicatela South, Oaxaca (126K). City map of Oaxaca, Oaxaca (95K). City map of Puerto Angel, Oaxaca (32K). City map of La Crucecita, Oaxaca (35K). Area map of Bahías de Huatulco, Oaxaca (45K) showing La Crucecita, Santa Cruz, and Tangolunda. City map of Barra de Navidad, Jalisco (31K). Small map of Laguna Manialtepec(9K) area. A language map (8K) showing native languages in what is now the state of Oaxaca at the time of the Spanish conquest. More maps will come but you'll have to be patient; it takes time. If you are interested in purchasing maps, three sources on the web are omnimap.com, tamassee.com, and www.mexicomaps.com.

Graphics and Photos
	Mixtec Graphics   Some of the graphics are Mixtec designs that come from the architecture and from surviving codices of the Mixtec indians. Photographs   There are about 5000 photographs displayed on tomzap.com and I continue to add more. Many of the photographs I took myself, but I also depend on others to send them in, and I've gotten a lot of those. If you've got something that you see lacking here, please let me hear from you. tom@tomzap.com. I am trying not to overload the pages with graphics because there are a lot of pages and I want them to display quickly. But when I do include photos, I tend to use a higher resolution and lower loss compression than most web sites so the file sizes are large. For this reason, most photos are on separate pages from the majority of the text so that they can be avoided if preferred. Also, some large files such as Visitors' Comments archives have the file size given so you can decide whether you want to embark on such a large download. I haven't forgotten about readers using dialup connections. Aerial Photos   In 2008, I began flying a small plane into Mexico and taking thousands of aerial photos of the beaches and enroute. You can read about the Huatulco, Puerto Escondido 2009, Puerto Escondido 2014, and Manzanillo flights. There a links to enroute photos or go directly to Huatulco enroute, Puerto Escondido 2009 enroute, Puerto Escondido 2014 enroute, Manzanillo enroute, Oaxaca beach photos, Jalisco beach photos, or Colima beach photos. There are more than 1000 high-resolution aerial photos online spread across numerous pages; just follow the links or use the Search Function at the top of this page to find a particular spot. Color Coding   Background colors are done with .jpg tiling mostly. I have made some effort to color code the pages to particular areas, matching the color of the page of a particular town to other pages that describe aspects of that town.

The Seawater Surface Temperatures

Seawater temperatures may be found on the climate/weather pages in the form of a color-coded map. This is the surface temperature at sea. Water temperature at the shore can be lower due to currents bringing up cooler water from below. Scuba divers will find somewhat lower temperatures at depth as well. A light wetsuit is recommended for divers in Oaxaca in the winter and spring months. Divers in Jalisco and Colima may need more temperature protection during late winter and early spring. Swimmers may find the water too cold in late winter and early spring despite quite warm air temperatures.

With Help from Friends

A number of people have contributed articles, photos, and comments to these pages. All are appreciated. Special thanks go to: Alvin & Arlene Starkman for numerous articles on Oaxaca; Stan Gotlieb, for many more articles on Oaxaca; Wayne Adams, who provided photos of Puerto Escondido and maps; Richard Malmed, for photos, comments, and an interesting article on his unique experience at the Pochutla prison; Christian Lyman, for his article Surfing at Puerto Escondido, and surfing photos; Murray and Chris Redd, for surfing photos; Southern Living magazine, for permission to reprint the article on Huatulco Lost in Paradise; Travel Holiday magazine for permission to reprint the article Hotel Binniguenda Santa Cruz, Mexico; Tom Bachmaier for his article A trip to the Mountains; my good friend John Williams for answering a lot of questions and his many articles; Anna Johansson de Cano for answering more questions and providing information about the Piña Palmera rehabilitation center; Herb & Carla Felsted for permission to reprint the articles Of Turtles and Things, Puerto Escondido the Hidden Port and Puerto Angel, Oaxaca, from the Mexican Meanderings newsletter; James Kitts for the article Ecotourism and Coffee in the Shade; Giorgio Sandonà for his article on Fishing in Huatulco, Carlos Ramos for answering questions and the article Descripción de los Fondos Marinos en Bahías de Huatulco, Garnet Beach and Sheila Clark for information about Foreigners Living in Mexico, and Gina, the information goddess, for help with maps and answering all sorts of questions. If you would like to contribute your travel tips, suggestions, anecdotes, an article, etc. relevant to these pages, please email your correspondence to me, Tom Penick: tom@tomzap.com. If you have questions, I will try to answer them, but practically everything I know is already here. You may find the Visitors' Comments section to be more helpful.

Advertising

Catering to advertisers is not the focus of tomzap.com, but it is possible to advertise here with certain risks and limitations and many do. Advertisers, like everyone else, are subject to review in the Visitors' Comments. See more information.

GPS Data

GPS data is being added to these pages to assist travelers equipped with these devices. Accuracy should be to about 300'. [example]   Readers are encouraged to submit coordinates for any of their favorite locations, especially the hard to find ones.

Disclaimer

An attempt has been made to provide useful, accurate information on the Pacific coasts of Oaxaca, Jalisco, and Colima, within these pages. However, it is entirely possible that information herein may be in error or out of date. Please report corrections to tom@tomzap.com.

Home, Home on the Web

The Pacific Coast of Oaxaca (now Mexico) was first hosted on eden.com, a commercial server located in Austin, Texas. eden.com got bought out by Info Highway, Inc. www.infohwy.com, a functionally-challenged organization in Houston, Texas. I think they got bought up by somebody in Alabama, then they sold the eden.com domain to someone else and there was only one thing to do... Move!

July 27, 2000: The website became tomzap.com, hosted by cedant.com. The result has been faster performance, less downtime, and new features such as the automated Visitors' Comments.

February 2003: Due to increasing popularity of tomzap.com and high bandwidth charges at cedant, the web site became hosted by Ventures Online.

January 2005: Ventures Online was bought out by Data393 and increasing traffic and high bandwidth overage charges have made this plan impractical. As with most companies who purchase their customers, Data393 is not a good place to be. There are no FAQs or other online resources, Data393 support is unfamiliar with the concept of moving a live web site from one server to another uninterrupted, and Data393 is pushing Plesk control panel software. Stay away from Data393 and Plesk software; use Cpanel software. The new web host is lunarpages.com, what a relief! At a fraction of the cost of Data393, this solution should last until somebody buys lunarpages. See my Review of Lunarpages.

November 2009: Its been 4 years with Lunarpages and their service and uptime has deteriorated. Also it is time to move from a shared server to a virtual private server due to the growth of tomzap.com. I selected JaguarPC for their list of services and cost.

Connecting to the Internet: Off course to maintain tomzap.com, I have to be connected to the internet and that hasn't always been easy. I live in the country where there is no cable or DSL. More about that.

Costa Rica Corner

As of February 25, 2007, I have added a section on Costa Rica called Costa Rica Corner. Information for this section comes from friend-in-residence, Jay Lindley.

It's a Party

Through interaction in the Visitors' Comments, the web site brings people together. This group decided to organize a "Tomzap Party" in Barra de Navidad, Jalisco. The party has become an annual event and moved to nearby Melaque, Jalisco.

Reviews

Here's what Excite, America Online, Magellan, and Business Mexico have to say about this web site:

Excite & America Online:

"The Pacific Coast of Oaxaca, Mexico
Checking out this well-constructed travel guide could be a nice prelude to soaking up the romanticism of Puerto Angel, Huatulco, or Puerto Escondido on an Oaxaca odyssey. This is one of the few travel guides on the Web which reports bad news, in this case revolutionary military activity (aimed, they tell us, at the government, not gringos). You can also find the current value of the peso, maps, a Spanish language helper, town guides, and even the current water temperature."

Magellan:

"Surfing, scuba diving, and a special turtle page are all features of this site, which is more of an educational tour than a commercial tourist guide. Not that the site isn't suitable for tourists. In fact, it's a great resource for those who want to visit lesser-known places in Oaxaca, or hit the trendy spots. Find out about ancient history and art, archaeology, dance, and food and brush up on your Spanish with the help of a pronunciation guide."

Planeta: www.planeta.com

"Rating: 5/5 Stars

"Another top choice for information on Oaxaca is Tom Penick's excellent Pacific Coast of Oaxaca site which has profiles of Huatulco, Puerto Angel, Zipolite and Puerto Escondido. The site combines information about hotels and restaurants with details on surfing, scuba diving and the regional history.

"Webmaster Penick is a Oaxaca aficionado, living not in Mexico but in Austin, Texas. Created in 1994, this archive was one of the first travel-related websites on Mexico. The site is simple and efficient - not graphics heavy though what is depicted is excellent - photos and Mixtec designs. There are city and topographic maps. A language map shows the native languages in what is now the state of Oaxaca at the time of the Spanish conquest. Geographic Positioning Systems (GPS) data is being added to these pages to assist travelers equipped with these devices.

"Sometimes physical distance limits a website's growth - but in this case it helps the webmaster keep an objective eye on the impact of tourism. Penick explains that the site differs from most because he presents a complete picture of the area, including both the good and the bad. When Hurricane Pauline crashed into Puerto Escondido last fall, it was this site, not the government site that had the most up-to-date details. Be sure to check out the Visitor's Comments page (http://www.tomzap.com/ph5)."

Business Mexico:

"Created in 1994, this archive was one of the first travel-related websites on Mexico. The site is simple and efficient, not graphics heavy, though what is depicted is excellent--photos and Mixtec designs. There are city and topographic maps. A language map shows what the native languages were at the time of the Spanish conquest in what is now the state of Oaxaca. Geographic Position Systems (GPS) data is being added to these pages to assist travelers equipped with these devices.
Sometimes physical distance limits a website's growth, but in this case it helps the webmaster keep an objective eye on the impact of tourism. Penick explains that the site differs from most because he presents both the good and the bad. When Hurricane Pauline crashed into Puerto Escondido last fall, it was this site, not the government's, that had the most up-to-date details. Be sure to check out the Visitor's Comments page."

Electrical Engineer

2x2 lay-in 42W LED light fixture

Being tomzap the webmaster is just a hobby for Tom Penick. Another hobby is flying. My day job is Electrical Engineer, hence the zap in tomzap, where I design circuit boards for a variety of applications.

After many years as a controls electrician, I graduated from the University of Texas with a BSEE (May 2001) and now work with printed circuit design of access control and energy systems. Here are my class notes. Here's my resume.

I have been working at Ringdale, Inc. in Georgetown, Texas for several years. Here are some products for which I have provided the electronic design:

• LED Lighting A power factor corrected current source drives high-output LEDs for an array of products such as high bay fixtures, street lighting, billboard lighting, and replacements for lay-in fluorescents. Efficiency exceeds all other types of electrical lighting. The power supply has provision for wired or wireless networking, motion sensing, light sensing, thermal management, serial-controlled dimming, and battery backup. Solar-assisted and solar-only systems are available.
• Quadrature Temperature Compensation Device Used for fuel flow measurement to compensate for the effect of temperature on the volume of fuel. Most fuel measurement systems don't have this yet, so you don't get as much fuel for your dollar when you buy fuel on a warm day.
• Temperature Sensor Probe This is a brass temperature probe that screws into a 1/2-inch NPT threaded hole. It was designed for use with the above, installed in the fuel pump to measure fuel temperature, but can be used in other applications.
• Quadrature Output Rotary Hollow Shaft Encoder This is the device that mounts on a fuel pump (or other rotary equipment) that provides a signal describing the rotary activity of the device.
• 3-Phase Energy Monitor This device can be connected to 3-phase or single-phase electrical equipment (or service) to monitor voltage and load. It connects to an ethernet network and you can also store data by plugging in a flash drive. It can be configured to alert you by email of any unusual activity. Also available as a USB-connected device.
• Network Programmable Logic Controller Does the world really need another PLC? This one is different. It is controlled and programmed through your web browser. It will actually permit simple on/off control of its outputs right out of the box with no programming. To program the unit all you need is a computer and a text editor like Notepad. There is no software or programming device to buy.

Top of page | The Maps | Graphics and Photos | Seawater Temperatures | Friends | Advertising | GPS Data
Disclaimer | Home on the Web | Costa Rica Corner | Tomzap Party | Reviews | Electrical Engineer | Other Web Sites

Other Web Sites

I am involved in Tomzap, the rock and roll band, that has web sites at www.tomzaptheband.com, www.reverbnation.com/tomzap, and www.myspace.com/578850009. Other web sites that I have been involved in are www.teicontrols.com, a former employer where they build control panels for water and wastewater treatment, the WWII Glider Pilots page which is about the book my father-in-law wrote about his experiences piloting combat gliders, the Lajitas section of this web site about the Texas border town resort, and the Rama Llama Ranch, where your next llama is waiting. You can also find my notes for various classes such as Physics, Calculus, Differential Equations, Circuit Theory, etc., at www.tomzap.com/notes. You can see my niece's web page about gardening in Austin, Texas, at www.penick.net/digging.

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The Pacific Coast of Mexico www.tomzap.com Tom Penick:  tom@tomzap.com