Nicaragua...or BUST!!!

So, we left Saladita (bad decision at first) a few days ago, and have been heading south again. Truth be known, we are heading east now, as Mexico really starts to bend to the east down this far. Our journey after Saladita took us south to a little village on the border of the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca called Puerto Maldonado. We showed up on Saturday, which was basically the biggest day of Semana Santa. By some incredible stroke of luck, we were able to find a place to park the rig, and a bar to chill in for a couple coldies. As we were the only two white faces in town, we definitely received loads of looks from the locals as to what the hell we were doing there! Everyone was super nice, though, so all worked out well.

The following day, with Semana Santa finally over, we were able to have a peaceful day on the beach, without the crowds that we had been fighting for the past week. We surfed the left point at Maldonado, which was decent, but really nothing to write home about due to onshore winds that kicked up in the afternoon. We decided to stick around another night in hopes of an EPIC dawn patrol session that never actually happened. The swell in the morning changed direction completely, so the point was in no shape for surfing that day. With the surf blown out, we decided to make some tracks down the the infamous Puerto Escondido. With reports of big swell arriving, we were excited to get to Escondido to see some rippers on the "Mexican Pipeline" which is apparently the fastest wave in the world.

Monday found us bumping around Escondido, getting out legs under us, trying to find a suitable place to stay. As luck would have it, we bumped into a Canadian couple that were camping right around the corner from the internet shop where we were stationed. The spot was perfect, and right off of Playa Zicatel, which is pipeline. We heard reports almost immediately that there were pro surfers and their entorage (sp?) of photographers in town that would be hitting the MONSTER waves in the morning that were pounding Zicatela that afternoon.

After boon-docking it for a while, Justin and I were pretty excited for a night out. We met three Ausi girls at dinner on our way out, and ended up partying with them 'till the wee hours of the morning Monday night. Apparently the day of the week has no consequence for partying here in Escondido! What luck! Yesterday started a bit slow as we didn't make it to bed until after 3, but eventually, we found our way down to the beach and watched some of the surfers at Pipeline doin' their thing! Pretty amazing shit, to say the least.

With plenty of motivation from the pros, we spent the afternoon at Playa Carrizalillo (yeah, that's a mouthful even for the locals) surfing and hangin' in the sun. Kenzie got a bath last night after surfing, so she is like a new pooch, and has really taken to her new nickname, Kooke! For those of you unfamiliar with surfing, a kooke is the equivalent of a gaper in the skiing world, which is essentially a shitty skier. I decided that I would call Kenzie Kooke until I am actually not a kooke.

Today, we started with a dawn patrol session at Carrizalillo, but the swell was less than favorable, so we are all packed up and heading down the road. Next stop east of here is supposed to be a wicked little right point break called Zipolite, and something like that.

Cheers and peace!!!

Nick