Antigua

It's cloudy here up in the guatemalan mountains. The volcanoes rise up all around Antigua. I'm wearing a jacket for the first time since baja. I must admit its pretty incredible.

Antigua feels like the resort destination of Guatemala. However! It's not completely stacked with gringos. Most of the vacationists seem so be from Latin or central America. It's not my favorite town I've been in since we've left. You have to pay for parking, covers for bars, and just buying a beer at a local tienda is over a dollar a beer. But! It is beautiful and worth the night we spent here.

Since coop and henry arrived, the surf bug is back.... Or never left. This morning we will be hitting the surf train again and heading south to el Salvador to find some waves for a week before starting our language school in xela.

Guatemala!

Big day! Here in Guatemala in xela. No problems. Details about border and travels to come!

Barra de la Cruz aka La Jolla

It's Christmas time! We are sitting here watching a 10 piece band play in the town square on Christmas eve. They all do a simple dance that even the little ninos and ninas are doing perfectly! I could probably find my way around the dancefloor here. It's goes step step step step step step with a little handrolling and voila! Just gotta add a little personal spice and you've got yourself a Mexican fiesta.

Barra de la Cruz is a well known surf wave due to a video that Rip Curl put out in 2006. Everybody knows about it and is a little bummed about the bigger crowds. Fortunately, it's the off season now and nobody is here! The local kids and a few expats are the whole crowd. They say in the summer, camera crews line the whole shore with the pro surfers tearing it up.

The wave comes from south swell running into a big rock cape. You take off on this big, rolling left right next to the rocks. It's super dramatic and wild feeling as the water pulls you around and you watch the swells explode up onto the cape beside you.

And the wave..... Well. It was big! I swear I watched some of the locals drop waves that were double overhead! however, despite it's size, it was relatively friendly and the rides went forever!

So merry Christmas! The trip continues south and we plan to cross to Guatemala very soon.

Nexpa, the End of the world, and zipolite

Nexpa is something else. Perfect left point break. A little crowded on the wave. Had an epic while spearfishing! Got trapped in a mine field of urchins in thigh deep water and waves crashing in behind me! Freaking awful. Lots of cursing my predicament and standing in tripod position with the speargun as a third leg for five minutes with waves breaking on my back trying to figure out how to get through. Managed to only step on two and make it out alive. no more urchin epics please!

Then....

Bam! End of the world happened. We spent it in puerto Escondido, known for it's monster barrels. Unfortunately that only happens in the summer, so we played pool and crashed at a hostel with our Canadian friends, Kari and Fred, the skydivers who live in a green Mercedes box van.
Next day was a little rough, but we survived the apocalypse and headed south to Zipolite! It's got a good hippie vibe going on and all sorts of characters wandering around. I've unfortunately gotten a little of the stomach bug so I'm taking it easy and taking some time to write up about the trip. Gotten a little lazy with the camera. Sorry dudes. I'll get back on the photo train. Iof need to start taking photos other than epic sunsets and long, sandy beaches. Unfortunately, that's all there is here!

Surf spot x

I recently realized that part of the beauty of a trip like this is all the discovery along the way. We spent five nights on a beach with a small town just up the road. We shared the beach with a few other campers and durning the weekend the local crowd would show. It was a complete flip from salyulita with it's commercial atmosphere. There was a Christmas celebration going on and the locals gave us free cervesas and birria, like roast beef with tortillas.

Mainland Mexico

Tonight Skyler and I are sitting by the fire, camped on another incredibly beautiful beach here in Arroyo Seco, Mexico. We've been incredibly fortunate on this trip with the way things have progressed. We've met so many awesome people who keep pointing us to incredible places.

It's day number ten on the mainland. We've managed to surf everyday and camped for free every night but one.

After saying goodbye to our friends from the ferry, we bolted out of Mazatlan and headed southbound in search of waves. We camped on the beach in San Blas and ripped around with some local super talented kids that evening and next morning. Tiny waves, tons of no see ums, time to move on.

Next! We peaced out in search of bigger surf and headed towards the surf town of Salyulita. While in route, we ran into some locals and stumbled our way into an adobe fort/hacienda. The surf was across the river and the caretaker let us camp there for free! We stayed four awesome nights and won't be forgetting this spot! I'd tell you exactly where it is, but part of what makes it awesome is finding these places.

We stayed in salyulita for a night, which is your standard gringo party vacation town. nothing too special. Steep prices, packed beach, urchin in the foot! I will say it was nice to meet some pretty ladies rather than just remote beach with skyler. But! One night and on to the quest for waves.

Punta Mitas is another little resort town with a few different breaks around. We ended up at la launcha.
La launcha is at a beach owned by a resort. It's guarded, and he only lets in people who have surf boards! We met three australians, two Canadians, and one Brit, who were short two boards. It turned out we had to extras so the guard let everybody in. The Canadians were super nice and let us sleep on the pull out couch at their holiday inn (first bed in 20 days) resort in puerto Vallarta. Traveler spirit is awesome!

Now, we are in Arroyo Seco. The beach is empty (our nearest neighbors are at the opposite end a half mile away) and the waves are stout! Stoked to be here. Can't wait to see what the morning brings.

El conejo surf break

This was our last stop in baja before taking Craig to La Paz. It was finally warm enough to surf in a thin wetsuit. Skyler and i finally moved to short boards! Super fun. The water was clear and after one day of flat water and waiting, the surf was in! We surfed three days, met the locals, spearfished for dinner (managed to spear our first two lobsters!) and sent Craig off with a bang.
The spot is another camp full of surfer rvs,vans and toyotas. There are outhouses, shower 'frescas' and trash bins. First class camping! We paid 4 bucks a person to Nardo, who is quite the character.

Agua Verde

After "The Wall", we departed on HWY 1 across Baja California to the turnoff for a formula dirt road to Agua Verde, a small Mexican fishing community on the Sea of Cortez.
This was the first real test for us with the spearguns, and man spearfishing is fun! We managed to eat fresh fish every night in Agua Verde with our double band 44" speargun with no problem at all. What an amazing place to get in the water! Tons of pretty fish and some ugly ones I didn't mind shooting for dinner!
On the beach, we were the only gringos carcamping in a corner right next to the town. A few gringo sailboats in the bay was the only other gringo action there for four days. A fisherman or niño would wander over every now and then and say hi and talk with us a little. The pace was slow during the day as most if their fishing was done at night. Very friendly people. Free camping. Definitely a 5 star stop.

The wall surf camp

After cuatro Casas, we made our way out into the deserts of baja and camped for the night. Saguaro cactuses, Joshua trees and these really funky trees that came right from the Dr. Seuss books grow there among granite boulders. The boulders are similar to J Tree granite boulders and make awesome evening first ascents.
Early the next morning we made our way to the wall surf camp. You drive for an hour into the desert and find a gringo truck and small rv camp full of surfers who reside there for up to 6 months during the good surf season. There are two separate breaks at the wall; the bay, which is a mellow right beginner break, and the point break, which boasts a much more aggressive and larger right wave.
We camped for Four nights and met a few of the annual residents at the thanksgiving potluck (the party of the year!) and surfed every day till sunset. There are super cool rock walls, sculptures, and dutch ovens built by one of the surfers that make the desert campsites pretty awesome. Wish we had more time here but we are on a crunch to get Craig to La Paz so it's off to the Sea of Cortez!

Cuatro Casas, Baja

Packing up in LA the night before crossing the border, we hadn't decided on a place to spend the first night. Skyler hopped on the computer and we checked a surf report to find a spot to camp. We found Cuatro Casas Hostel and for no particular reason decided to end stay there with cheap camping and surf. After "battling" through Tijuana, (not nearly as epic or intense as everybody thinks) with a thousand California license plates crossing with us, we took the toll road south and realized our google maps directions to Cuatro Casas said "turn right on road". No name. Just road. So we estimated the distance, stopped at a gas station, and with the help of everybody at the gas station, we managed to make get directions in spanish to Cuatro Casas.

It turns out it's a hostel with nothing around but a few fishing shacks, a gray whale skeleton, and miles of empty coastline. Quite the spot. It's hard to find a place to camp on the ocean anywhere for five bucks a night with nobody else around.

So, it's been three days of awesome surfing and getting used to the water again. The water is cold! I was comfortable wearing a thin long sleeve with a short sleeve wet suit over it. It's hard to move but at least my teeth aren't chattering! And remember! If you plan a trip to surf in baja, bring water booties because walking on the reef in bare feet is sharp. I now understand what it's like to go through the washing machine.