Mexico

yeah, that is right...the most beautiful wave that I have ever seen! Keep it a bit of a secret, but it is true! Some of the people here have indicated the same, and they have definitely seen their share of good waves!

We have been chillin' in Barra for the past week or so, basically JUST surfing. I have put in daily-double sessions for the past week, and have actually come a long way, as has Justin. We are both riding green water with ease, catching head-high waves from time-to-time, and having a blast. I would like to say that I am "slashing" off the top of the wave, which was my goal at Barra, but I didn't quite make it there...but I am close!

We are now back in Puerto Escondido for a couple of nights of partying before we part ways. Justin will be heading south (east) to Guatemala City, and I will be heading north to Districto Federal. I will spend a week or so in DF visiting friends, and trying to sort things out for the rest of the adventure. From DF, I will probably return to the coast so that I can once again hit the epic waves of the west coast before I head down south and finally leave Mexico.

McKenzie is still in good health, and loving life. She has become quite a wanderer at night (one brush with a near-loss situation), so I have really cracked down on her and even tie her up at night to keep her from wandering off. She LOVES the beach, and is really mellowing out about me being in the water when I am surfing. I think that she even was calm enough the other day to take a quick nap!

All for now. Much love and more to come.

Nick

puerto escondido. that is where we have been for the better part of 3 days now. very cool surf town of roughly 40,000 people is famous for the zicatela surf break. this beach is also known as the mexican pipeline, for its resemblance to the famous pipeline of hawaii. without further explanation i will share that i did not attempt to surf this. we did however find good surf, oh yes, i almost forgot... i am surfing again! ribs mostly healed up i am out on the water. and doing alright. this is a tough sport. the biggest challenge seems to be location. be in the right place at the right time. see the sets roll in and get where you need to be. its a learning game. i like short sentences. cheers.
anyway, from where i left of last, saladita, we drove to this very remote little fishing town called puerto maldanado. i dont think they see gringos here very often. we were sort of a spectacle but everyone was friendly as we stuck around for a couple nights. most interestingly this area has a pretty good african influence so many of the mexicans are not of the usual brown skin color but actually black. just a interesting thing as once we left this area and traveled south a couple of hours this african influence is not really seen.
so that gets us back to puerto escondido. like i said, cool place, i like it a lot. met some canadians right of who turned us onto a rv camp spot right in the kind of touristy part of town for about $3 a person per night. a small price to pay for a shower. so that night we decided to go out for a drink or seven. straight off we met 3 aussie girls. really nice girls all 23 years old who have completed law school in australia and are now doing some traveling before returning home to careers. they actually just got done with winter resort jobs in vail, co. got me thinking about snow again. i miss it. but who can really complain about a cold night being 72 degrees. so while nick was shopping for a new, shorter, surfboard we also got to meet a local shaper who has been repairing boards in the area for many years now. his name is miguel rodriguez and his is right up there and one of the coolest people i have met. very laid back, but also energetic. just a local ripping surfer turned boardshop owner/ board shaper. to date he claims to have repaired over 40,000 boards. incredible. so cool thing is this guy made nick a deal on a brand new board for 3400 pesos, or about 320 usd. this board would probably sell for 500 back home. so he is stoked. i bought a shirt. 150 pesos well spent.
so after days of saying we are leaving here and not, today is the day. we have some tips on some good surf spots south and we will hit the road. 13 days remain. i hate to count down like that, its just how my brain works. i plan to make the most of it. at this point we are still making surfing the priority. so the coast may be where we stay. i will try the catch us to ya´ll in another 5 to 7. now get out there and enjoy whatever weather you may have.
out.
justin.

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

hello and welcome, and thanks for reading. so we spent a couple days in this tiny village outside of puerto vallarta called yelapa. this village is only accessible via water taxi as there are no roads in. they have only gotten power in the last 4 years. very interesting. so after our stay there we moved down the coast through a couple little surf spots only to find incredibly huge waves. far to big for our intermediate skills. while staying the night at a surf camp called nexpa, we met a couple from colorado who had a similar camper/truck set up and had been traveling for the past 10 months. good advice came in the form of a surf spot a little further south called saladita. this place is a dream spot for surfers. unfortunately i had taken a tumble surfing a couple days prior and banged up my ribs. pretty good too. so this past 3 days i have only been able to view the great surf, not partake. pretty bummed. make that really bummed. i tried to go our the other day but the pain was a little more than i could stand. so here i am reading maxim and soaking up the sun, while taking in a few beers. last night nick and i went out for a little night life. though none was to be had. we found a little bar with ping pong and as nick went to get the ball he got tagged by a scorpion. this little guy got him right in the foot. the local woman assured that he would be okay, that it is just painful. the venom made its way up his leg causing significant pain through the night and into today. enough that he skipped his morning surf. so neither of us are surfing this morning thus we are going to pack up and go south again. this time its to the southern end of acapulco. hopefully my ribs allow me to surf again in the next few days.
for those who dont know yet, i am coming home. its offical. i bought the ticket a couple days ago. april 25th out of guatemala city. i know i know. thats not nicaragua. but i cant stay away the time that would be required to get there. our agenda is very up in the air and i dont even know what i will see in the last 19 days of this trip, but what i can count on is that i will be in guatemala by the time my flight leaves.
so that is all my friends. take it easy, i am.
cheers-

We have definitely settled into the mainland, and have started to sort things out pretty well. The adjustment in culture and customs from the Baja took a bit of time, but in time, we have become essentially locals . After a few days in Mazatlan with Boogs and Hussion and their chicks, we were off again down the coast. We were hoping for bigger surf the further south we went, and definitely got out with after a bit of time.
Surf in Mazatlan was hovering somewhere around a foot, with giant sets rolling in up to two feet. We knew of a bigger swell coming in toward the end of the week, so we were pretty excited for coming days. We arrived at San Blas with high hopes of getting out first surf in since the Baja, but our hopes were dashed by the wayside when we found that the surf had actually dropped below its former incredible heights. We blew out of San Blas heading for Santa Cruz, hoping that the big wave legend of the north would carry over to its southern sister. Unfortunately, we were far from correct in this case.
On a positive note, I had a blast fishing in Santa Cruz. Apparently when the surf is small, the fish get pretty excited about it. I spent a couple of hours on the point that would have produced surf, catching a pretty good assortment of fish: 5 or 6 barracuda, 2 grouper and a snapper. I ended up keeping and cleaning a barracuda and the snapper, which we enjoyed a few days down the road.
I had received word from Brooke that she and her friend Jessi were to be in Yelapa, a small village only accessible by boat, outside of Puerto Vallarta. With surf in the coming forecast, and a couple of days to burn until its arrival, we decided to spend the time in peaceful tranquility with good friends. For years, Brooke has been telling me about her favorite place in Mexico, and it just so happened that she was finishing up a couple weeks there when we were passing by, so we decided to make the stop.
We found a stellar place to leave the truck, where I was confident it would be safe, and headed off on a ponga for the half hour ride to Yelapa. Luckily enough, we caught the last boat out of Boca bound for Yelapa, and arrived just before dark to smiling faces waiting on the beach. Brooke and Jessi put us up for our time there in a pimpin’ house that they had rented for the remainder of their stay there. Apparently they had grown tired of their former location, which worked out well for us. The house they rented had an incredible view of the bay at Yelapa, was open air, and had all the amenities that we have been lacking along our journey!
Our time in Yelapa was SUPER mellow, and an excellent break from the road. We departed on Saturday, as the swell had picked up significantly over the former couple of days, and we were anxious to get back in the water. To our disappointment, we arrived in the afternoon at what we hoped would be a good surf spot in Tecuan, only to find that the swell had grown HUGE, and was pretty well unsufable. Double overhead barrels breaking right on the beach turned us further south, still yet to have our first session on the mainland.
But alas…we finally found manageable surf in a little village just north of Manzanilla called Barra Navidad. Because it is in a bit of a bay, the swell was perfect in Barra for a sessions, but we had run out of time with during out antics in the north. After a night out on the town, we stayed in an abandoned parking lot outside of town, with beautiful views of trash and highways. It really increased our motivation to get the rock out of there in the morning and get out to the surf spot. And finally, we had our session! The surf was way mushy, but perfect for us to get our feet under us, and practice popping up and making a few turns. Justin was the star of the affair, staying inside for the second break of the way, and actually made some pretty impressive bottom turns for the first time! Yeah, Bra!
After good sessions a Barra, we headed sound again hoping to continue our good surfing luck. The swell that was rumored had definitely arrived, so we were motivated to find a protected spot that would knock the waves down a bit and make them a bit more manageable for us. We DID NOT find that at La Ticla. This point break was incredibly beautiful, but had some HUGE waves that we really had no business attempting to surf, but I didn’t let that stop me from paddling out and taking a beating. After about and hour of having my ass completely kicked by the ocean, we retired with our tails between our legs, headed for Rio Neixpa, where we heard that the point was a bit more manageable. We heard WRONG!
Although Neixpa was WAY too big for us, we stumbled upon a bit of luck when we met a couple that was basically on the same mission as us. Shawn and Erin left Colorado over 10 months ago, and had only made it as far as we have in a month; so needless to say, they had some pretty solid knowledge about the area and surf spots. We hung with them and gleaned knowledge overnight, and then headed off for their HIGHLY recommended surf spot called Saladita. Although this spot was not on our surf map (which it turns out SUCKS BAD) we decided to give it a shot. Shawn and Erin said that we would love it, and how right they were!
We arrived here in Saladita last night, had a session, made some killer hamburgers and called it a night, in anticipation of Dawn Patrol this morning. Unfortunately, Justin took a pounding in Cuyutlan a couple days back, injuring his ribs, so he didn’t have quite the EPIC session that I had here last night. The paddle to where the waves are breaking is grueling here at Saladita, but well worth the effort. I caught three solid waves last night, made a bottom turn, took a pounding, and rode another into the beach. My best session BY FAR! I actually turned down the wave to gain MORE speed, and then back up to the stop after a big looping bottom turn! What a feeling…I actually think that I can call myself a surfer now…not good…but a surfer, nonetheless! I am stoked.
We are going to kick it here for a couple of days and work on our skills, as the wave is pretty forgiving, and a perfect place to develop some skills. We found a sweet spot to camp in the middle of a mango orchard, just back from the beach, so we rolling in style!

Peace! Nick