Nicaragua...or BUST!!!

We stayed in San Cristobal for the next few nights, as we got rained on pretty much the whole time, but wanted to be able to experience the area at least a little bit. After a few short sessions in town between rain storms, we finally saw some of what we had come for and hit the road heading north to take in some of the other attractions of the area.

After leaving San Cristobal, we headed further up into the mountains, and then back down the other side to a sweet place called Agua Azul, complete with waterfalls, rope swings, rivers with overhanging trees, etc.

We spent the night there after a long drive, enjoyed the sights and activities during the day, and bolted to head up to Palenque, the Mayan Archeological sight in the middle of the State of Chiapas.

Before heading up to Palenque, we made a stop at an incredible waterfall in the Misol-Ha park, and swam our little hearts out, jumping through waterfalls, off rock cliffs, and around the pool at the bottom of a beautiful 100 foot waterfall in the middle of the jungle.

After a LONG day of swimming and messing around, we headed up to Palenque and found a place near the archeological site to stay so that we could visit it in the morning for a day of tourism! Yeah!

Palenque turned out to be better than we thought, much to our surprise, and with the assistance of a guide that we hired for an hour "quick paced tour" through the site, we were able to invest a minimal amount of time with a maximum amount of "trourism." This turned out to be a good decision, considering the heat and the usual "bore" of archeological sites!!!

After the morning at the site, we made a last minute decision to head to the Caribbean coast and down through Belize before entering Guatemala, whiich would require a long day of driving but allow us to see another country, not to mention another ocean.

With a little luck, we made it all the way to the coast, and to a little dot on the map called Bacalar, which was on a BEAUTIFUL lagoon. We stayed in what was probably the most idealic setting that I have experienced thus far, before continuing north and east to the REAL Caribbean coast.

After doing a bit of laundry and getting things dry in Bacalar, we we set off up the coast and east to a Peninsula that looked to be a piece of heaven. I even had dreams of surf near Majahual, but I soon realized that this was totally unrealistic as we WERE in the Caribbean.

We blazed all the way down the Peninsula to Xcalak, where we stayed for part of the night until we were chased out by heavy winds and forced to move north closer to Majahual.

We had a best a fitful nights sleep, and so Lizzy and I were both motivated to move on from the peninsula, although without the gale-force winds this part of Mexico could easily be one of the most beautiful we have seen.

We shot down to Corozal with the intention of crossing the border into Belize, but we found that we had missed our opportunity, as the mexican Aduana was closed for the day by the time we arrived. It worked out well, though, as we stayed just north of Chetumal on another lagoon, where we enjoyed evening and mornng paddle sessions on the water.

The next day, we were all set to cross the border, but had NO idea of what we were in for...

Despite shenanigans at the border, including about a hundred bucks to get Kenzie into the country, we finally were on our way south to Belize City, with the intention of a night in the city to get our party on!

We located an excellent place to park the truck (thank to Lizzy) right beside the Radisson hotel, which provided us with luxury items such as pool, a/c'd toilets, etc. for the evening and the next morning before we continued further south.

We had a bit of trouble finding a decent place to have drinks, but finally stumbled upon a pool hall that had decently priced beers and some interesting characters to chill with. This gave us the green light to get our drink on, especially with chilled Belikin awaiting us...we paid for it in the morning, though!

Although a bit hung from the night before, we managed to get ourselves all the way down to Placentia the same day, but that is about all we accomplished, aside from finding a camping spot that is right up there with the best. We are staying about 15 feet from the sea under a couple of palm trees on a beautiful stretch of beach just north of the Placentia Center (if you can call it that).

We left the excellent points around Salina Cruz in hopes of finding equally good surf spots to the south, but we were nothing less than disappointed when we arrived in Puerto Arista and found long beaches with no points or decent breaks.

Nonetheless, we did have a good time surfing the next morning with our buddy Antonio, an 11 year old that we leant a board for a morning whitewater session. He really seemed to have some good potential, as he was up and riding on his firsts session...that is more than I can say for me!!!

After just one night there, and with shitty weather on the way, we decided to make the trek up to the mountains to San Cristobal de las Casas for some temperate weather and sight seeing in the mountains.

Now we are here trying to decide whether we should head back to the beach, as Lizzy and I are both missing the ocean (can´t say the same is true for McKenzie...she got her personality back after only one day in a more temperate climate...I thought she had lost it to teenagehood, but it turns out it was just the three months of blinding heat that were affecting her).

San Cristobal is a sweet colonial city high in the mountains, with a cool climate, where pine trees abound. We are planning a few hikes and waterfall discovery sessions before we get out of here and either head back to the beach or further inland to Palenque (archeological sight) and maybe around the Yucatan before we head down to Guatemala where I will meet up with Christina for a week of Guate discovery. Can´t wait!!!

We finally found our combination of good camping and good surfing, although the waves never really set up for us while we were at Playa Chepehua.

After a mellow first night, a group of guys showed up in an identical setup to ours and ended up staying for the next few nights with us. Those nights are still weighing on me, as it was a combination of an Englishman, an Aussie, and an American that LOVED their drink. Although awesome surfers and good guys, we had to head south after three nights on the piss with them to dry out.

I caught some good waves at Chepehua, although it was pretty bumpy and wind affected the whole time we were there. Unfortunately, due to a big night with a bottle of tequila and a persuasive Englishman, I didn't make it out for what turned out to be the best day while we were there...argh!

Definitely good times with Charlie (English), Ben (Aussie), and Nick (American).

Lizzy and I are now on our way south again, possibly to Puerto Arista, but we may take a little trip inland, as the waves are being heavily affected by some storms that are looming offshore of Southern Mexico right now.

Hola from Mexico!

As I have yet to be abducted by a drug baron, I thought I'd take an
opportunity to send you all a note to say hello and an update on the
Central American adventures. I apologise in advance for the group
email and as I haven't done much work on editing the address book,
apologise to those who simply aren't interested.

At the moment I'm writing from Salina Cruz which is about 1200 km
south from where I arrived in Zihuatenajo (Mexico). We had a week of
surfing around Zihuatanejo and I then had an incredible week in the
inland mountain city of Oaxaca where I was able to enjoy some slightly
milder weather (dropping back to the early 30s during the day) and
heal some nasty surfing injuries including a severe case of
water-logged ear. The local contemporary art scene is one of the most
vibrant and imaginative I've seen and the local markets are worth the
trip here alone. I could easily have spent another week bartering
locals out of next-to-nothing for their amazing crafts.

I took a bus back to meet up with my travel partner Nick and black
labrador McKenzie in Puerto Escondido and somehow ended up on one of
the buses normal frequented by villagers moving chickens from one town
to the next. The bus driver masterfully negotiated one hair-pin turn
after another whilst listening to the latest Mexican pop sensation
'Miguel' full-blast, plus chain-smoking and chatting to his friends
for the entire 10 hour drive. At one stage I was sharing my seat with
half of a 10-strong Mexican family. All in all it was quite jolly
until I climbed over Maria the goat to find I had been driven to the
wrong town. Those nasty Mexicans with their non English- speaking ways
had viciously taken advantage of my very poor Spanish and put me on a
bus going only vaguely towards where I needed to be, and then in true
Mexican style, tried to swindle me out of 300 persos ($30 bucks) to do
the 3 hour bus ride to my destination (quite rough, given the original
ticket was only $10). I stomped my foot and yelled a bit which told
them the little 'yellow-haired one' was in charge and got myself back
to Puerto but have concluded the old Spanish needs some serious
polishing.

Anyway we took off southwards again and hit some very famous surf
breaks: Barra de la Cruz being one of them. That night we pulled in
quite late and found the entire place booked out by bloody Australian
surfers! I don't know where they come from given the population of
Australia is only 22 million. Anyway, the place is a protected turtle
preserve so couldn't do our usual beach front park. We found a
building site which was level enough so set up for the night and hit
the hay. At around 2am the first of the Big Storms hit, marking the
start of the wet season. I have never heard thunder so frighteningly
loud in my life; the whole place seemed to have turned into a giant
firework display. McKenzie and I were cowering together through the
night (although she was much more scared than I). We awoke to find the
campervan in the middle of a giant lake and most of our bits either
floating downhill or covered in a thick layer of an intoxicating
mixture of goat shit and Mexican mud. We then found an amazing beach
called 'El Mojon' which translates to 'the turd', where we were able
to dry everything off. We were very glad to meet a lovely English
couple who had an amazing custom-built house overlooking the beach and
being somewhat deprived of civilised company they took in McKenzie the
labrador (and after much whining outside, Nick and I), and and gave us
a shower (bliss!) and even several glasses of wine which, after a diet
of Sol beer and lime, was a true luxury.

We've since headed further south again and will spend 3-4 days surfing
the breaks around Salina Cruz: Punta Conejo, La Bamba etc, until we
head south towards Guatemala. The beaches are absolutely incredible
and certainly give Sydney beaches a run for the money ... I saw a
manta ray just yesterday and the other surfers spotted a bottle-nosed
dolphin. What will really frighten everyone is that I'm waking up at
6am most morning and have even been hitting the hay as early as 9.30pm in the evening.

Back to PE to pick up Lizzy and get on the road again! Ended up sticking around for the Monday night festivities before taking off. Lizzy and I had another big night out in Esco before we left that included many cervezas, dancing, etc. before we called it a night sometime after 2 in the morning. Made the next morning a bit late and a bit rough, so we only made it a little ways up the coast to Roca Blanca after doing our town chores.

After our night in Esco, we decided that a short travel would be nice, so we headed about 45 mins north to Roca Blanca. I had checked the beach the day before and found that it was a place that both Lizzy and I could enjoy. Beautiful white sandy beaches, and potentially good surf awaited us.

I was disappointed to find that the surf was less than good, but we did have some fun playing "rich" when we found the house of Grabriel Orozco, apparently a famous artist, was just up the hill from the palapa that we found to camp by. We were officially toured about the property by its caretaker, which was excellent, and we even had a dip in the pool that sat ON TOP of the house before we left the area.

I had a couple of surf sessions in Roca Blanca, but they left much to be desired, so we decided to hit the road and head south of Escondido, back to Barra de la Cruz.

Decided to hit Barra again, which turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. We went back to Escondido to provision and didn't make it out until pretty late, which put us in Barra around 9 pm. Unfortunately, the gate was closed, which left us with no place to crash for the night.

We found a decent spot just outside the gate, but didn't expect the INCREDIBLE rain storm that hit later to wash down the hill and form a puddle under the truck that evening. The rain was so hard that when I went outside to get Kenzie, she was laying in a puddle about 8 inches deep after only 10 minutes of rain. The thunder claps shook the camper and set Lizzy a' screamin' through the night!

In the morning, we found that we were in the bottom of a mud puddle, and began the process of cleaning everything that had weathered the storm outside the camper, which sent us up the road to another beach with less crowds and more sunshine!

We arrived to El Mojon, feeling a bit like drowned rats after our first rain experience of the trip. We were a bit slow in getting everything out of the rain the night before (lesson learned there), so we set up lines on the beach in the sun to dry all of our stuff.

I surfed at the adjacent beach to Mojon that morning and then again at El Mojon in the afternoon, but the swell seemed to have the wrong aspect for both points after the storm.

We met an awesome English couple on the beach that were living just down the way. Kevin and Tess were nice enough to let us come by their place for a shower and then were even NICER ENOUGH to feed us and get us a bit pissed on white wine that they had brought back from the highlands the week before. Thanks guys!!! All this thanks to McKenzie, who developed the relationship through their three boxers that they have living with them.

In the morning, another poor surf session led to our departure, but we first took the liberty of pulling the "Playa El Mojon" sign out of the ground that marked the entrance to the beach, with the permission of Kevin and Tess, of course!

After a bit of a drive from El Mojon, we arrived in the Salina Cruz area and began our wave hunt. Because the coastline is so easily visible from the road, we were able to easily find a few ridable waves, although we didn't take advantage of them right away.

On the advice of the locals, we didn't stay at Punta Conejo, where we really wanted to surf the next morning, and instead opted for Punta Congrejo, about 45 minutes up the road.

The morning brought an interesting adventure trying to find gas before we were able to relax and find La Bamba, a nice jetty break, where we spent the remainder of the morning and most of the afternoon surfing the right.

After a long day of surfing at La Bamba, we were on our way back to Punta Conejo, when we happened up on a road that looked like it headed to the beach. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it indeed did, but not before we had to cut a path with the top of the camper through overgrown brush on the road.

Nonetheless, we were rewarded with a pristine beach with what looked to be a beautiful left point that we would tackle in the morning. After a big spaghetti dinner, we were off to be before 10 (tricked Lizzy into going to bed early... finally) and up early in the morning to check the surf.

We realized in the middle of the night that rainy season is upon us when we had our third night of thunder storms followed this night by a bit of light rain. Sure makes a mess.

After a morning session on the hardest wave that I have surfed yet at Excondida, we were out of there and back on the hunt for the perfect combination of camping spot and a good break!