PUERTO ESCONDIDO!

Oh man, that was the worst fucking drive ever. Ok, maybe not that bad, but boy it was long, and wow did it ever have a lot of learning experiences on the way! First day we got somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 kilometers down the road, it was all just windy slow coastal stuff, PCH for like 150 miles basically, only slower and with more big trucks you have to pass.

The second day of driving had a LOT more straight-aways, made great time, right up until we got ticketed while looking for a hotel to stay the night in some city I don't remember. The funny part is, when they give you a ticket here, they take your fucking license plates! Ticket only cost like 50$ but still, it sucked. We feigned ignorance, fairly easy to do for me, but watching Josh try and mangle spanish and mis-pronounce stuff was a bit funny, if not for the ticket. Anyway, got our plates back the next day after paying the ticket and moved on.

The third, and final, day of the trip, also what seemed to be the longest, we got ticketed again in Acapulco, I was whizzing around people in traffic like it was going outta style and I looked back and saw a bike, wondering if they had bike cops in Mexico as the guy pulls up next to me (his partner sitting on the back of the bike, they ride tandem here, haha) and tells me to get to the curb. That ticket was supposedly for not Signalling (shocker) and not wearing a seatbelt, I gave him my license and he said we could pay by 4 that day (it was 12 and we wanted to make it to Puerto Escondido by sunset, we weren't staying in Acapulco, the town sucks anyways, massive tourist trap from the looks of it. So he proceeds to tell me he is going to take my license, and I start considering the option of letting them take it, I mean hell, my passport would get me back into the US and I could get the license replaced cheaper than paying a 100$ seatbelt ticket (which I still don't think they even have.) When Josh asks them "Is it ok if we pay the ticket here with you?", that is code for, "Fuck that, can we bribe you and be on our way?", he thought about it and agreed. 40$ later (400 pesos) we were on our way. I was still debating whether or not he was full of shit about the seatbelt law thing, but definitely he coulda nailed me for reckless and no signalling... Whatever, he gave us an escort out of town which allowed us to run a few red lights so hey, ya figure its worth it in the end.

Many hours later we get to Puerto Escondido, start looking around for a hotel when we got here but there is a ton of construction on the main road right now (it is off season) so finding a hotel was a bit confusing as the main street was a dirt road which was all over the place. Anyway, we wind up finding a place, Cabanas Edda I think its called, for 15$ a night, it is clean, the showers work, and there are mosquito nets, even though there seems to be no mosquitos here, quite the blessing after getting eaten all fucking day and night in San Blas. No Hehennes (No-See-Ems) either, double awesome!

Up to present time! We have been here now 4 days, in those 4 days I have gotten to surf 3 of them, which is a good starting out average, and it looks like I will be able to surf the rest of them without much interference. But this isn't without a certain degree of tragedy it seems. We had some shitty (apparently literally) ceviche the first day? Then, day number two rolls around and we are walking down the beach a few miles to the Escondido Point with a little lighthouse and rocks and just generally cool shit when I notice I am itching more than usual (fuck you, no it isn't an STD), well we get back to the pad after a couple hours and the itchings gotten way worse and I have like half my left side of my torso and my asscrack swelling up for no reason, and it is swelling fast! Naturally I freak the fuck out, well maybe not that much, I remember the Lonely Planet guides have a little section on local problems and stuff so I refer to it (on the way to the local doctor I might add) and come away with some illness I can't now remember and I am busy trying to google... Anyway, we get to the doctor and I am 'expecting the worst, hoping for the best' type of deal. He checks me out, says everythings cool, gives me a prescription and sends me on my way. We pick up the pills and stuff and the next day (today) everything is pretty much gone. BUT, and this is the big kicker, people are telling me I will never be able to eat seafood again, or there is a GOOD CHANCE, that I won't be able to........... W. T. F.! Are you kidding me?! This just doesn't seem fair. Anyway, life goes on, I caught 2 barrels today, so I suppose that equals out right? Right!?!

Leaving San Blas, bound for Puerto Escondido!

Leaving San Blas tomorrow morning, bound for epic waves at what is probably Mexico's most world renown break, Puerto Escondido! Neck breaking barrels type of stuff! Not that I will be taking part in the 20' barrels or anything, I will be off to the side enjoying some 6-10' mellow waves, at least, that is the idea.

I think the drive is something around 850 kilometers or so, basically about the length of the Baja Peninsula, going to be one mother of a drive, should take a couple days at least, and that is if we don't stop to surf on the way!

One thing I am definitely getting sick as hell of is Mosquitos, and then No-See-Ems (in Espanol, He Hennas?) I sit here, covered in bites, yes we have coils going all evening and I have taken to spraying the screens and doorway with 100% deet in hopes the fuckers will stop the endless advance for blood! To no avail, I remain food for the Mosquito hordes!

Josh and I keep getting hurt too, we went to a waterfall, Josh figured it would be a good idea to jump off the cliff into the pool from 60' up or so, that took at least 3 days to recover from.. My back is doing well though now, I have been holding back on everything so I am 110% for Puerto, just dying to get out in some epic swells at this point.

Anyway, off to pack for the drive!

San Blas - Playa los Cocos

So the place we are staying is just outside of San Blas, in a little town called Playa los Cocos, it costs about 100$ US a week, and we are staying one more week. I threw out my back in the surf on day #2 of being here, thank god muscle relaxers aren't prescription here... One of the guys came by the next day and gave me a little bit of Peyote Root too! Basically you chew on this little stick till it is gone and then literally, you could have a broken arm with blood gushing out, and you feel like you are brand new! Incredible! I didn't halucinate or anything it basically just completely relaxes you, you feel amazing, even the muscle relaxers couldn't touch it. Stuff like that should really be used medicinally in the US.

Anyhow, been here a week and things are pretty mellow, there isn't much in terms of surfing, I think its better in the opposite season here, otherwise I would imagine there would be waves larger than 3'... Drinking a whole lot of beer, and eating a whole lot of Mexican food though, so life isn't that bad right?

We will be here another week and then we head further south, down to Puerto Escondido, where the big waves are! Stay there another few weeks and I think from there we plan on heading back towards home, cutting the trip rather short because there are a lot of things I have had time to think about and that I would like to get started on. Anyway, life will wait for another month or so...

San Blas - Mainland ho!

So, got to Los Mochis, met Josh, we stayed in a hotel that night and took a LONG drive south the next day, stopping in Mazatlan on the way and hanging out there for 5 hours or so with "Commander Cody", basically a cranked out transplant from the good old US of A. The man was definitely very high on more than one brand of Amphetamines, for the cost of a beer he wound up jumping in the car with us, taking us for a 2 hour tour of Mazatlans less than Tourist areas of town. This guy was easily one of the craziest guys we (Josh and I agreed on this one) have ever met, by a loooong shot. One of those guys that has been just about everywhere and done everything, to be conservative on the subject, it was an entertaining time.

We decided to leave Mazatlan, little to big and bustling for what we were interested in, moving on was the order of the day. Unfortunately we left around sunset, and EVERYONE tells you not to drive at night, were you alone I would agree with this, but when you are travelling with friends driving at night isn't so bad, expect to get lost a few times and you will already be ahead of things. The tollroads, are fucking expensive, the one that finally made us decide to get off the toll road was 16$. About every 30-50 miles you hit a tollroad and they just go up in price with every one you hit.

It was a bear finding the free freeway, we managed, I was hellbent on getting to a place we had heard of, that place was San Blas. We got here about 1:30am and got to a beach, and promptly got eaten alive by Mosquitos and Sand Fleas/Ticks, by far the worst I have seen. Setting up camp and passing out we awoke this morning and went into town to see what was doing, get on the internet for Josh and then talking to the locals and seeing what beaches we need to be going to. San Blas is a really sweet little spot, basically exactly what San Clemente is, little surf town with a really relaxed vibe and happy people. Can't ask for much more than that right?

The chance we might stay here for a month or so is high, a guy we met here in the bar is renting an apt. on one of his properties (a realtor apparently down here) for 400$ a month, split between us that is going to be a pretty great deal, I definitely don't want to deal with the crazy amount of insects on the beach around here..

Anyhow, that is the latest, still haven't surfed since I hit mainland, no real swell at the moment.

Mainland Tomorrow

Got my ferry ticket for the trip yesterday, and tomorrow morning at 4am I get up, pack up, and go! Get to the ferry at 6am, the thing leaves at 8am from Pichilingue (just north of La Paz), and arrives in Topolombapo at 2pmish? From there its a 24km drive north to Los Mochis, where Josh will be getting off the Bus @ 3:30pm or so, and South we go!

Took a bit of footage this morning, mostly just filler shots and whatnot, going to try for some in-water footage tonight, test the underwater housing out a bit if I can. I will be cutting together some of the initial stuff probably during the drive tomorrow or whenever we get to a beach. Thinking about it, I will probably not be getting water footage of Cerritos, but who knows, still probably cut together a minute or so of the beach and stuff.

Last few days has been kinda crummy, no real swell, and then a couple local guys died yesterday in a car accident! One of them I had gotten somewhat chummy with, everyone on the beach did actually, he was just one of those guys that talked to everyone.

Mexican Road Signs: A short examination.

"It's the little differences. I mean, they got the same shit over there that they got here, but it's just – it's just there it's a little different."


This one is easy right? Slow Down! Speed Bump!

Ok: Caution! Cows in the road.

But this one takes it for me: Caution! Boobs?

This has been a quick lesson in Mexican road signs. They can be fairly interesting and somewhat cryptic at times, but they seem to have a good time with em'.

Pictures: Cerritos

The 5 million dollar house on a cliff with a great left handed break...

Yeah, the locals.... Pretty fucking good....

My dog, Hazel. Aka "the bitch"

Whose that dead sexy guy?

Day 11 - Pescadero (an open Wifi AP by the beach, I shit you not)

Well, except for today, the surf isn't terrible, waves are big, 4-6ish but there are still no real shoulders, definitely not a point break, or even a rock/coral break, those would at least have some consistency to them, these have size but absolutely zero consistency, you are always chasing a shoulder. Also, a lot of closeouts, I sat around yesterday just before the evening session and got few pics, nothing substantial but a few are decent.

Fucking Hazel, barks, at fucking EVERYTHING. Middle of the day, we are just lying around and she jumps up and starts growling and barking at some fucking dog a 1/4 mile away! What. The. Fuck. I get it, she wants to make friends and all, I take her out for walks twice a day and throw the ball down the beach and all that till she can barely breath, then take her in for some water training, which usually amounts to me dragging her against her will into the ocean for about 20 minutes, till she is too tired to fight back.. Needless to say, she doesn't seem to like the ocean.

There is an ENORMOUS house here by the beach, apparently some VERY rich guy is building it right out on the point, I was talking to another surfer in the water this morning about it, he does construction/development and he says stuff isn't much cheaper down here, the sea wall alone probably costs around 1.5mil.... Thats fucking crazy, I will attach pics of the house when I get around to offloading em, not sure if I have the cable to do that though, which sucks.

I am leaving here, hopefully between the 2nd or the 3rd, bound for Mazatlan by way of a ferry out of La Paz. It's about an hour drive north to La Paz, then the ferry takes about 6 hours to some town on the mainland I forget the name of, then a 3 hour drive south to Mazatlan, the ferry does indeed go straight to Mazatlan but it takes something like 16 hours... Thanks, but I will drive. So anyway, I am meeting a group of Italian dudes there and we are caravanning it south from there, apparently there are a lot of "banditos" perusing the highway so you want to do your best to caravan down the freeways. Banditos would be the bad guys that carjack you on the freeway.

Oh, btw, I am posting because there is actually an open WAP here by the beach, I can only assume it is the Bar here by the beach, how sweet is that? Pretty sweet, that's how! Anyway yeah, I usually go surf in the mornings for a couple hours then again in the evenings for a couple hours, so midday I have not a whole lot to do but avoid the sun. Reading/Sleeping/Writing/Drawing/Fucking around online are my main diversions...

It is already looking to be completely blown out today, the wind is definitely up, no big deal though, should mean it will be cooler today, usually gets to like low to mid 90's out here, with a decent amount of humidity, mostly used to it by now though.

By the way, here is the beach in google maps that I am at right now:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=23.327912,-110.175748&spn=0.009064,0.013819&t=h&z=16

Blah, lemme go see if I have the cable to get the pictures off this camera now..

Day 6 - Pescadero, Friday

Only really posting this to give notice that I will be offline for another week or so, apparently you can camp at El Cerritos so that is exactly what I plan on doing. Going to camp there for another few days to a week or so then probably hit La Paz and take the ferry to Mazatlan, where you will likely hear from me again.

Surfing is nice out here, the beach is meh, and there aren't a lot of people, met a few surfers today, some dude from Italy that is out here will be going the same route as me (with 3 of his friends) back across the Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan and then down to Puerto Vallarta and Puerto Escondido surfing and stuff. They are staying in Hotels and whatnot though, so possibly I will be tagging along with them since they already came up that way I think...

Anyway, this is now current to today, July 25th and I am tired of typing. I am going to try and get out the camera tomorrow morning and get in the water and get some surf shots in, the swell is coming up here from what I can tell, so goodtimes.

Day 5 - Pescadero, Thursday

Made a few friends today, locals that own the restaurants closest to this place, a kid out in the water at a local surf spot (Las Palmas), Scott and Mary two folks staying at this place in a tent as well, and another one of the kids of the people that own the place, he is apparently shipping off to Oregon for school soon. The kid at the surf spot (Las Palmas), his parents (his mom anyway) left for LA a couple days ago, got his email, may see him again soon!

Sweating like a pig here, its 8pm and very hot atm, no breeze to speak of, this evening, sure would be nice.

Las Palmas, probably one of the more beautiful beaches I have seen. 5min down an easy dirt road, surrounded by palm trees and rocks, little inlet from the ocean that creates a small river a foot deep or so that runs partway around the beach that a few people were playing in. Horses also, just free roaming around the place. The waves were fairly decent, nothing special other than the fact that the water is definitely, FINALLY, tropical here. It was actually brisk and quite nice. Low 70's maybe.

The Sun is HOT! This is a problem. The desert here essentially is all that Southern Baja is! So any Palm trees are usually planted, so there is very little area to naturally camp in that provides shelter. Even an umbrella would be welcome. Once I get to mainland I expect that to change, more hope than expect though. No idea really.

Starting out at a surf spot named El Cerritos tomorrow, expecting some barrels, also I find myself to be a much better surfer without the wetsuit!

Day 4 - Todos Santos (actually a small town below it) - Pescadero

Another letdown, from what I have seen so far all the beach property is bought up! Todos Santos, the town itself is a quintissential beach town, great vibe and all that, problem I guess is that I couldn't find the beach! It was late, I was tired and wanted to crash for the evening, tomorrow, we shall see. The place I am staying at for the moment is called Pescadero Surf Camp. Nice place, 10$ gets you a place for your tent, spot for the car, showers and a pool, yeah dunno why they needed a pool either. Also electricity and I actually got internet access from some open WAP around here somehow. Will find it again tomorrow to post.

Todays drive was the Beast. Negro Guerrero all the way through a bunch of cities and down to here, 70k or so from Cabo itself!

Frankly I took my time getting down here, but the shitty part is that just about every town/beach on the way has been a major letdown in terms of surfing!!! A few spots up north that are cold as hell, then it seems once you leave Ensenada you don't see waves again until here, pretty much all the way to the Southern Tip.

Hazel didn't puke at all today except for when I finally got here and drove around on a dirt road in the dark, she couldn't handle that. Now if only she would stop drooling all over the back seat!

I haven't gotten pulled over the entire time that I have been down here btw. Been through what seems to be thousands of Military checkpoints though, literally at least 20 for the whole ride, tossed in with a few Federales checkpoints for fun. It is finally hot though, for that I am at least glad! Haven't checking the water but I expect the same.

Loving the food down here!

Day 3 - Negro Guerrero

Day 3 - Negro Guerrero

Its the end of Day 3. In a camping spot in Negro Guerrero, spent last night in Punta San Jose, surf spot with a Lighthouse near it and a small fishing village. Not exactly quaint, rundown shantys pretty much, with what seemed to be Single, Hermit, Fishermen, I only saw a couple for the time I was there. The water was cold (low 60's) and it was a 30 mile drive to the spot via a dirt road, not especially bad, just VERY long... Though I never saw any live ones, apparently there were Urchins in the water, I saw a couple dead ones on land that were immense. Fishing there was made more difficult because of the incredibly cold water... The whole idea (in my mind) for leaving Cali for a surf trip, is that the surfing be enjoyable! In water that matched Cali for temperature, I definitely wasn't happy, also, after the surf was over the place was somewhat desolate. The 1 session I had there was decent except for the wind that was blowing really hard. Met a few guys from San Diego though, they lived in PB and apparently made the trip twice yearly or so, to just that spot. While I was there the waves were maybe 5-7', nothing to write home about but somewhat fast (almost barreling) and very consistent, if not for the wind it would have been pristine!

The next day (day 4) we picked up and left @ 9am or so, took and hour and a half to get to the main road, averaging 20mph on the dirt road, and then the long march began! We drove until 6:30pm PST, one hell of a drive that was. Three hours or so of it was through the FIRST desert in Baja, thankfully that was 70mph+, the real speed limit is 80kmph (about 50 MPH) but since nobody seems to care... I was getting passed doing 80mph! On a 2 lane Highway I might add! It was a hell of a drive today, but it was good. Hazel only puked 4 times or so.

Also looking at the surf spots on Magic Seaweed.com shows a spot that looks like it is just north of where I wound up today looking for surf - Santa Rosalita, don't go there looking for surf, it is a bay, if you want to find the one on MSW I recommend patience and a 4x4... Decided I had enough sunlight left to shoot for this place, Negro Guerrero, only another hour or so south, the campsite has showers and a restaurant, bonus! 12$ seems steep but whatever... By the way, all the stuff I have read says you can use USD. I highly recommend fucking that whole enchilada and stopping by a bank and getting pesos. You will get fucking in random places on the conversion rate. Just say no. One other thing I have found is that unless you can do the math quickly and know the days conversion rate, using USD will REALLY fuck you over! Watch the gasoline attendant, sometimes they don't reset the pump before they pump your gas..... Anyway, quick reference for where I am at is to look at Google Maps, look at Baja, there is a large bay in the middle of Baja on the Pacific side, I am at the southernmost part of the crescent, it's out of season, but this is where Grey Whales come to birth their young! All the way from like Alaska and the Bering Straights, like 1500 mammoth whales!

It will be another 2-3 days of long driving before I see the Pacific Coast again, I-1 goes over to La Paz from here and then loops around back down south, where I will likely spend a week or so there.. Hopefully...

Oh, I forgot, I did the math for how much driving the first leg of this trip is: 4,000 miles, at ~50 mph (average possibly lower) and doing 10 hours of driving per day, is 8 days... Wait, that's not right, I will try and remember the math I did, I was driving through the desert, so yeah.

Last but not least, I am now in Mountain Time!

Miles driven ~800, Times surfed 1.

Day 1 - La Fonda

I think Hazel wants to eat me! Acutally I think she is just very upset with me... She puked in the car three tims from moms place to Josh's (30 miles), it was pretty terrible. Then, on the way to San Diego she was fine, (probably the drone of the freeway) and then we get to Mexico and she promptly pukes. I didn't think there was anything left in her!

After that she was pretty out of it until we got to La Fonda, or what I think is Ensenada, it may be a little north of there.

It didn't take long to get the Temporary Importation Permit for the car, you need it if you are going > 20 miles from the border or outside of Baja. Apparently they tow your car or something drastic. I had help getting it through, there were a few people that helped translate as the girl at the desk didn't speak any English.

After driving an hour or so south I got to La Fonda and there was a campsite thing for people in cars with Tents. Cost about 16.50$ US for 24 hours though I really just need it for the evening, there doesn't seem to be anywhere to camp along the beaches here. Not yet anyway.

The tent is very comfortable for just me. Granted I am only in Baja but so far everything is pretty easy going, last I checked I still had cellphone service.

Once I get to the spot I am planning on getting to tomorrow I will start fishing. Probably stay at that spot for a week or so, then cross a small desert and hit the next spot.

Going to sleep with the sunset and waking up when I wake up!

Posts 1-3 are already on paper, so I am transcribing...

I will be trying my best to write them down accurately, bear in mind the thought processes at the time, and the motives on that given day. Hindsight is 20/20 and while a few of the decisions were dumb, I am putting them down honestly so that we can all look back and laugh.

Really I am making a bigger deal out of this than it is, nothing really that big of a deal in the next few posts, just wanted to make you all aware prior to reading this...

Anyway, on with the show!

Testing 1.. 2.. 3...

Just want to see what we are doing here.