VAN LIFE on Mexico’s Only NUDE Beach! (A Day in the Life)

Driving our camper van across the Americas has taken us to some incredible places, but this is a first for us – a nude beach! But this isn’t just any nude beach… it’s Zipolite, a bit of a name in Mexico and one that’s going to give us a baptism of fire into the world of going au naturel. Join us for a day in the van life as we show you what it’s like living in a van on Mexico’s famous, and infamous, beaches!

+

↠ A BIT ABOUT US
We’re Chesca and Ben, and with our two pups River & Scout (🐶 🐶 ) we live and travel full-time in our self converted sprinter van, Sophia. We spent the first 3 years road tripping and doing as much van life in Europe as we could, from the wild coasts of Portugal to the Syrian border in Turkey, tackling lockdowns and another DIY van re-build along the way. But, as restrictions get imposed on British travellers in Europe, we felt like a new challenge. In the summer of 2022, we shipped our tiny home on wheels to Canada to begin the Pan American Highway – taking us from Alaska to the bottom of Argentina. This is our journey, come and join us.

+

↠ SUPPORT US
Our videos will always be free, but if you’d like to support our channel you can join our Patreon here for bonus content & more – » https://www.patreon.com/overlandingsophia

↠ FOLLOW US
For real-time updates on our van life travels:
» Instagram – https://bit.ly/2YMpHdv
» Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/overlandingsophia
» Website – https://www.overlandingsophia.com

+

How We Get Internet on the Road:
CONNECT+ Global SIM
Long Term Plans – https://www.connectpls.com
Mention ‘Overlanding Sophia’ for 50% discount off your first month

+

↠ IN THIS VIDEO
0:00 – 02:15 – Mornings in the Van
02:15 – 04:21 – Not the breakfast we’re used to
04:22 – 06:30 – Van Life in Mazunte, Mexico
06:31 – 09:09 – We’re Finally Doing this after 4 YEARS!
09:10 – 13:38 – Van Life in Mexico…on the move
13:39 – 20:19 – Zipolite… a nude beach like no other
20:20 – Date night

+

↠ WANT TO WATCH MORE?
Van Life France to Sicily Series
» https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9T0BcGBqYn1NUYY2VXyhlgsLvnXZQWp0
Van Life UK Series
» https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9T0BcGBqYn0ZKqneAbha94jkMnkBBGFr
Van Life Portugal Series
» https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9T0BcGBqYn1NoG9YimtMCTeQpk-aqstn
Van Life Spain Series
» https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9T0BcGBqYn37KGDpBq683reFQuxjlhXR

↠ SEE HOW WE BUILT OUR VAN
Watch our Van Build 2.0 from the start
» https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9T0BcGBqYn09Q7QKe9RSfcmCvu5KgxHZ

CHESCA: One drink and my clothes are down. BEN: We are currently in Mexico driving our UK camper van. The length of the Americas from Alaska to all the way to Argentina. CHESCA: I still can’t get over that we’ve driven our van here. We’re about to push ourselves out of our comfort zone,

As we not only tackle van life on Mexico’s hot and humid coast. Shower with a side of Tas. But we also fully Embrace van life on Mexico’s only nude beach. We’re on step two at the minute. I’m going to go in, I’m going to go in now.

And trust us when we say it is a nude beach like no other. Come and join us. What are you doing? What are you looking for? BEN: Suger. CHESCA: Suger? BEN: Coconut sugar. CHESCA: Yeah, I’m going to bake with that. BEN: This is the famous coconut sugar you’re going to bake with,

And we’ve been carrying it around since California. There’s something on the roof. Get off the roof. Little birds. That flock of birds. That flock of birds, there’s about 20 of them, just land on the roof. CHESCA: I don’t want any water. BEN: I took that out of the freezer last night,

And it was solid. Solid rock through. CHESCA: Solid like a rock. BEN: Solid like a rock and it’s just warm water now. It’s warm. I Had to drink this morning warm. Yeah. CHESCA: Because it’s so warm, we’re sleeping with the windows open. The fan’s blowing air in and the curtains are up.

Nice and early with the sunrise. Which is quite nice. BEN: Got no choice. I feel like I’m a toad in the hole in the van. If you’re not up there quick enough. See me, buddy. Yeah, good boy. Good boy.

CHESCA: You know what? I don’t think I’m ever going to be… Oh, you’re filming. I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to waking up next to Cocnute trees. It’s such a novelty. BEN: I’m going to try and find some coconut for breakfast. CHESCA: Really?

BEN: Yeah, they were closed yesterday and I really fancy the coconut. CHESCA: I don’t think I ever get used to coconuts with breakfast either. BEN: I’m going to see if they’re open. CHESCA: Off he goes. Coconut man. BEN: Let’s see if we can go find some coconuts, shall we?

There’s a stand just over here we’ve been going to every day apart from yesterday. Hopefully, it’s open this morning. I think it might be too early. It’s about 8:00. So, we shall see. Hello, buddy. Let’s have a look. Maybe, we might be in luck.

We’re in luck guys, it is going to be coconut for breakfast. Guys, look. We’re in luck. Coconut for breakfast. I’m going to put you guys down. Also, try and carry these, because they’re really awkward to carry two coconuts and a camera. CHESCA: Oh! He’s got the coconuts. I really thought they’d be closed.

BEN: There you go, she’s just opening up, you got it? CHESCA: Thank you. BEN: Oh my God! That is so good. CHESCA: Oh, it’s going off again. We do have a problem with the max van. It’s like there’s a ghost in the van. BEN: Got a malevolent spirit.

CHESCA: A potter guy keeps turning the fan on and off like this. BEN: It’s not what you want to go wrong. Or what do you want to die when you’re in 35 degrees? CHESCA: We do have coffee in bed every morning, we don’t have coconuts in bed every morning.

That is a nice treat while we’re here. What we do need to do now is go and walk the dogs, before the heat of the day kicks in. Although to be honest, it’s already like 28-29 degrees. We’re going to take them down to the beach and show you the beach of Mazunte.

All the streets here in Mazunte is like this, like sandy cobblestones, lush greenery and angry dogs. I still can’t get over that we’ve driven our van here. It’s somewhere that we would go on holiday, or backpacking and we’ve driven here which is crazy.

Well, there are two dogs as well. In places like this, we think we’d have to leave the dogs at home. Okay, River. She is loving destroying that coconut. As many of you know we’ve been in the van for… this year it’s going to be five years, how crazy is that?

After Brexit, traveling around Europe is it’s just so difficult. We can be in the EU, which is most of Europe for 3 months at a time, and then we’ve got to be out of it or come back. You know what? Driving the Pan-American, it just gives you that freedom,

That van life is all about. and that is just really difficult to find in Europe nowadays. So, if you’re thinking about doing it, this is your sign to just bloody do it. BEN: Before we do anything else this morning,

We got a little bit of work to do. I’m set up here and Chesca is, CHESCA: I got the best office. I don’t honestly know how you can work in there. It is like a sweatbox. There’s no Breeze and here it’s like…Oh. The tiny little sliver of shade we’ve got, I crammed into.

Someone else who’s just parked over there, let us know there is a well behind what look like abandoned buildings. but apparently there’s a well where you can get water to shower with. Now as you know we don’t have a shower in the van, we get buy on flanner washers, most of the time.

But in this kind of heat at some point, you’ve got to admit, a shower is just what you need. So, it would be a bucket shower. Or maybe.. have we still got it? BEN: We’ve got the shower in the… CHESCA: We’ve got a 12v shower pump?

BEN: A shower we’ve never used in four years. CHESCA: For four years we’ve been carrying around a 12vt pump shower that we’ve never ever used. Let’s go and see what this looks like. Because these buildings look a bit dodgy to me. So, it’ll be interesting to see what the water is like.

Oh my God! This looks like a shower with a side of titanus. BEN: The water looks really clean. Wouldn’t drink it obviously but bathing. CHESCA: I don’t know what that is? She is backing all the time. BEN: This is it. Never used. So, we don’t know if it was going to actually work.

BEN: Press that open. CHESCA: Oh my God. BEN: Is it good? CHESCA: Oh baby, I just wash off all my suntime. BEN: Just be careful you don’t splash the back or your camera. CHESCA: Oh babe, I don’t know why we haven’t done this. It’s not even going down much. Don’t waste it.

CHESCA: I’m not wasting it. This is amazing. This is game change, how have we lived in a van for five years this year? What are you doing? BEN: I’m just… so I have a go with it as well. CHESCA: Thet’s have not even gone down anything.

BEN: But the pump doesn’t go all the way to the bottom. You’ll have to go fill it up. CHESCA: I can’t believe we’ve had the pump for five years. BEN: That’s really good. CHESCA: This is the first time we’ve done this. This is amazing. BEN: Oh my God. Yeah.

CHESCA: How good is that? BEN: This is nice. CHESCA: Not nice. Nice nice, nice. Eggs, what do I get? Chilaquiles. I always get chilaquiles. BEN: You always getting chilaquiles. CHESCA: Are you looking forward to getting nude later? BEN: Yeah, as long as there are other people nude on the beach,

I’m happy to get nude. Don’t want to be the first one cause you never know if you get the right beach. So, are you feeling okay about going nude on a beach? CHESCA: Yeah. I’m a bit more nervous than… BEN: Actually, you can probably guess by the title of this video,

But we haven’t told people that we’re going to a nude beach. That is true. Yeah, so, basically we’re going to a nude beach today. We’ve been to a clothing-free spa. So, a nude spa, where everyone is naked there. So, that was a bit more comfortable. With this one,

There’s going to be a mixture of non-nude and nude. and we’re going to be in the nude camp. That’s what I’m a bit more nervous about. So, the orange juice has just arrived. Oh my God. This is amazing. So good. Anyway, we’re in a little town called Mazunte.

There are two kinds of towns right next to each other. One is Mazunte, which is where we are. It’s got this very hippie relaxed kind of vibe, and just 15 minutes over is Zipolite which is the nude beach. And apparently it has a completely unique vibe of its own.

And that is where we’re going to be going tonight. So, yeah. It’s going to be fun. We’re having breakfast and then we’re going to be driving over. BEN: And get naked. CHESCA: Honestly it is like an oven in here.

I think you should run the aircon in the front before we let the dogs in. Cause it’s going to be unbearable in there. Am I alright to use the toilet? Almost left the camera on me to go to the loo. Sorry guys you have to pay for that.

We basically have three parking options in Zipolite. One of them is a campsite. That’s rally popular and is fully booked we message them and they have no room. The second option is some cabanas, or parking there are some cabanas that double as a hostel.

But there you park right on the beach enjoying the full moon, the tide can come up really really high and it is a full moon tomorrow. The third option is Tony’s place or something like that this little parking just off a street back from the beach. Which basically means we got there,

or we’re going to have to risk the Cabacas. Apparently, the cabana owners of them are really grumpy as well. So, let’s hope, Tony’s parking works out. If anyone’s familiar with the song tours that you get in Thailand, they’re the taxis where you sit in the back.

And everyone kind of looks out the back. As they’re going along there’s one right in front of us, and we keep coming up to the speed bumps and getting really close to them. And it’s just really awkward because they’re all staring at us, and we’re like where to look?

There are like six people all staring in at the bar. Looks all right, actually. BEN: This is it. CHESCA: It might do nicely. You can speak to the guy. Well, I think this will do nicely. Don’t you? So, it’s this grassy compound where there’s a gate. It’s in the garden of this guy,

He’s got a little coconut stand here. Feels really safe and really lovely actually. It’s like 1.55 for the night. So, pretty perfect. BEN: Isn’t it? This will od nicely having to make sure that we park somewhere. Where we’ve got a shade for the sliding door. So, the sun isn’t beating into the bank,

Cause it would literally just be unbearable. CHESCA: I think this would do nicely. BEN: Yeah, it’s perfect, isn’t it? This is Tony’s little bar. Look at this. There’s the liquor shelf. There’s one of our coconuts. BEN: So, guys if you’re wondering what the vibe is in for Mexico, this is what it is.

3 o’clock in the afternoon, this is the vibe. Can we hit the beach guys, get in the water? Oh, River. Water? Water? We are not going to take this big camera, we’ll take the GoPro and film what we can. Because there’s a lot of naked people.

CHESCA: Let’s go and see what So, ziplits nude beach is about. Are you ready? Ben’s already outside waiting. Are you starting to get ready to go, one leg out of his be charts. So, I’ve got water, Suntan lotion, your wallet, your phone. You got the keys. Are you playing that?

Tony’s bar which is where we got the coconuts from earlier has been blasting out some tunes. Everything from UB 40 Bob Marley and now is he playing Riders on the Storm. Got the rug as well. Let’s go. So, these are the streets of Zipolite? That’s a dog.

It has an island vibe to it. It’s really feels like on a little tropical Caribbean island. BEN: What way I go, I start, that’s the way we came. Do you want to go that way or do you want to go that way? That way looks more sun loues.

CHESCA: I saw my first naked person. BEN: You have seen your first naked person. CHESCA: I’ve got really really bad eyesight. Especially when it comes to details of things, Ben’s like that person is naked and I just can’t see it. When we start walking, it’s just like everyone’s going for strong naked.

So, we won’t be able to film it but we’ll walk along the beach. CHESCA: yeah, we have to be discreet with filming obviously. It’s a massive beach though. It’s so much bigger than Mazunte, where we were the past couple of days. And even though it’s bigger it’s a lot quieter.

So, maybe cause everyone spread out a bit more. Most nude beaches we’ve heard of are tucked away in a corner somewhere often at the end of a normal beach. But this is like a nude village. A huge place to walk, eat, drink, and dance just as Mother Nature made you.

We’ve never experienced anything quite like it. Okay, so we have made it onto a little beach bar. We’ve seen lots of naked bodies walking up and down the beach. But the beach bar that we’ve come into, everyone is fully dressed. So, I don’t feel so comfortable stripping off it.

BEN: No, especially on these wooden slatter chairs, They do not look the most comfy. You could trap your balls between them. You could trap things between these slats and I don’t want that to happen. But I think what we’ll do is we’ll have a couple of drinks.

CHESCA: We got to have some Dutch courage. BEN: Have some have a few drinks and then we’ll walk back along that way, and put the rug out and everything and we just sl down on out CHESCA: Okay cool. The sea looks so rough though, there’s not very many people swimming.

I’ve read that the name Zipolite comes from the Zapc word for beach of death. Because so many people die here and it’s so rough with such strong undercurrents. So, yeah they don’t recommend you swim here, in fact, there are red flags up everywhere. BEN: Cheers. CHESCA: I have to watch what I’m pointing,

Cause someone just walked straight past us, everything flapping everywhere. BEN: And he slapped you in the face. Chesca is feeling a bit uncomfortable going topless. It’s so nobody’s topless, nobody’s naked here and the bloke just walks in completely naked with his package swinging around up to the bar. Chesca is like…yeah.

CHESCA: Yeah, right tops off. One drink and my clothing down. give me one Margarita. First of all, I’ve lost count of how many naked people we’ve seen. But there’s a naked man on the staff, naked will look like County Reeves. BEN: Naked man of the staff like gandal. CHESCA: Naked gandal,

Ben just said he like….. BEN: You can’t compare that. CHESCA: What? Drink number two, Margarita. CHESCA: You still need to get them off soon. BEN: I’ve told you I’m not getting them off in this statted bit of wood. CHESCA: Is that your excuse?

BEN: Yeah. I dare you to go and order the drinks topless. CHESCA: For the next drink? BEN: Next drink. CHESCA: You’re not even right at all mister, I dare you to do this, and he won’t even take his shorts off.

It’s one thing being in a nude spot, it’s another thing just existing nude. Should I do it? To be honest I’ve got to walk past that man with his… BEN: You got to walk past the man anyway with his willy out. CHESCA: Like a boss. It is happening.

BEN: Three Margaritas in and it’s all out. CHESCA: How are you feeling? BEN: It’s cold on there. CHESCA: Do you know what? There are so many people naked, and so many people not naked, that right now there’s a guy walking past completely starker.

It’s not a thing. No one looks twice at you and that is the nicest thing. Step two is going for a swim in… BEN: How many margaritas have we had? CHESCA: Three. So, step one is getting your clothes off. Step two is going for a swim in the sea.

Step three is strolling confidently along this beach in the nude. We’re on step two at the minute. I’m going to go in now, and you’re going to go in after me, okay? BEN: Okay. There are a lot more men confidently strolling along the beach. then the women, I give you that.

CHESCA: Stage two for Ben. Three other man here is naked, it’s the women who are not as naked as the men. BEN: Yeah, that’s true. This is simultaneously the strangest, and the most normal thing we’ve done if that makes sense. Ben’s busted out and he’s got his four shorts back on.

But I’m going for level three. I’m walking along the beach completely naked. Love it. Honestly, it feels amazing. Here’s our little parking and Sophia. The clothes are back on, we’re going to go for a bite to eat. It’s nice and cool in the van now that the sun has gone down

And because we’re here we can leave all the windows open and the fan on. And these guys look like they’re in need of sleep they look so tired. BEN: You taking the camera? CHESCA: No. BEN: Okay. Don’t put it away then. Put the camera away.

CHESCA: Doesn’t this just look like a little Caribbean island? BEN: It does, doesn’t it? It’s got that Caribbean vibe. CHESCA: This is one so this one of the streets that runs along the beach. BEN: What reminds me of is like Barley but what Barlry was like 20-30 years ago.

I could imagine really rustic. very local small restaurant things. Just people having a really good time. CHESCA: Yeah, it has got rustic barley vibes. BEN: It’s amazing. CHESCA: I’ve gone for prown tacos. Look at the size of your burger. BEN: That looks amazing with some weird potato.

CHESCA: I’ve had this thing where I want to sit on the beach in a plastic chair, eating seafood with my feet in the sand. That’s what I’ve been waiting for. I’ve got a plate of seafood, sat on a plastic chair, and my feet are in the sand. I’m very happy right now.

BEN: You’re one happy girl, aren’t you? BEN: What a day! CHESCA: What a day!