Puerto Escondido is a Mexican city-port and tourist center located in the municipality of San Pedro Mixtepec Distrito 22 within the state of Oaxaca. The name "Puerto Escondido" originates from a legend regarding a woman who escaped her captors and hid in the area.
The region was not inhabited as a town prior to the 1930s due to a lack of potable water, although the bay had been used intermittently as a port for shipping coffee. The original Nahuatl name for the area was Zicatela, which translates to "place of large thorns." Today, that name is most commonly associated with the area's famous beach.