The Sunday Times - UK (2022-02-06)

It’s New Year’s Eve and I am two-stepping on a podium

on Zipolite, Mexico’s only nudist beach, next to a man in a

gimp mask in the shape of a rat’s head. From this vantage

point I have an excellent view of the crowd, moving

rhythmically to a remix of Born Slippy by Underworld,

bronzed and slightly sweaty flesh undulating in the light

of a hundred fireworks. Out of the corner of my eye I can

see Instagram comedian Jordan Firstman gesticulating

animatedly at the bar, and in the distance the unmistak-

able blonde tresses of Sienna Miller dancing around a

campfire blazing on the beach. Every now and again a head

appears in the crowd belonging to someone I haven’t seen

since my primary-school days in west London, like a

bizarre game of Whac-A-Mole — if the moles used to do

karate with you and now work in insurance. A couple of

hours later the sun comes up over the rugged stretch

of sand along Oaxaca’s Pacific coast, and revellers nurse

bottles of warm Modelo beer to usher in a new year and an

off-the-charts hangover.

Welcome to Puerto Escondido, which, until recently, was

solely a refuge for surfers, backpackers and locals looking for

a quiet seaside getaway. Unlike Mexico’s Caribbean coast,

the Oaxacan coastline, with its multicoloured markets and

impregnable waves, has remained crystallised in time. But

then Kanye West decamped here with his family in the

summer. And in the weeks since Omicron single-handedly

ruined everyone’s Christmas like a viral Scrooge, it appears

that half of London and a roster of A-listers such as Cara

Delevingne and Douglas Booth have received the same

memo and sought sanctuary along these shores.

This is partly thanks to Mexico’s open-door travel policy,

making it one of the few long-haul places Brits are allowed

to fly to without any restrictions, hampered as we are by our

international superspreader status. At the moment the only

requirements to get into Mexico are a valid passport and a

completed health questionnaire and border-control form.

Despite this, infection rates remain low and in the cities and

beach towns locals take their own precautions, wearing

From Kanye West to Sienna Miller, anyone who’s anyone right

now is partying in a small town on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

Juliana Piskorz reports from the hippest holiday hotspot of 2022

Getty Images

See you in

Puerto

Escondido?

26 • The Sunday Times Style