Mexico is awesome. Somewhere I've always wanted to go and it sounds so good rolling off the tongue - I'm going to Mexico, I'm just chilling in Mexico, I got drunk/barrelled/etc in Mexcio, I broke my surfboard in Mexico... damn, I really did!
We found a decent hotel right on Playa Zicatela which is the actual surf beach. Not the cheapest at about $60 a night or so (from memory) but it was towards the end of the trip and we were happy to be somewhere relatively nice. The surf looked bigish and messy out the front although a few guys were taking it on. We rested a bit after our mega bus trip then went for a walk to check the place out.
Up the north end near the main part of the town was were all the Mexican tourists went and it was comedy checking out their antics in the surf/sand. Not sure if they were posh tourist, bogans or a mix of both. Further down the beach (towards our hotel) was where you saw the surfers and foreign tourists. Unfortunately the banks weren't really very good for this time of year and the whole beach was pretty much a closeout. A fairly solid 6 foot closeout for that matter so I/we felt no compulsion to get out there (and nor did many others apart from some bodyboarders and a couple of hellmen surfers).
We got up before dawn the next day to check the surf and it seemed much the same but we ran into the owner of the hotel, also checking the surf. This guy was Italian but had been here 18 years, knew all the spots AND was keen to have someone to go surfing with! He offered (for the cost of splitting the petrol money) to take us with him about 30km down the coast to a semi-secret point that should be working. We jumped into his Jeep for one of the scariest car journeys I've ever experienced! In addition to surviving we also scored some waves, not the best surf ever but surfable 4 foot waves with power you could really feel, much more than anywhere else we'd surfed (except for probably Jakes in WA).
So after another ring-clenching car ride back we kicked back with a couple of Coronas and fell into a routine for the next few days - early surf check, scissors/paper/rock for who has to sit in the front of the Jeep, sweat out the car ride down the coast, surf all morning then chill all afternoon around the hotel/pool. We surfed a few secret spots down the coast although never perfect. Still, it sure beat surfing with the crowds at the point (southern end of Zicatela) and it just got bigger and bigger on the main beach with 8-10 foot heaving closeouts by the last day. Was awesome watching one guy towing in but even he only got a couple.
Ah yes the last day. We went back to the point down the coast and paddled out into 4-5 foot surf which turned into 5-6 foot (maybe more) after a while. Jack wasn't feeling all that great about it, especially on his backhand, and basically spent the session hanging out the back and sussing it but never liked the look of anything that came through and got one wave in. I should also mention it wasn't anywhere near perfect and there was a horrifying shorebreak on the inside section! Anyway, Jack certainly charged in Indo so I wouldn't hold anything against him, especially after surfing less than 5 years!
I was loving it though. Not charging but certainly keen to get stuck in and I hung out a bit further inside, feeling fit and happy to take big ones on the head if it meant getting the nicer ones that came though. After I'd had a few waves a big set came though which broke right in front of me. I duckdived it but it blasted me away from my board and ragdolled me around, coming up to find my board in two pieces! I still don't understand how it happened but I grabbed the loose bit and paddled my kickboard back in :(
Luckily I'd brought my 6'6 with me so grabbed that out of the car and got straight back out there! Got a few more bigish ones and felt much more confident with bigger board, should have taken that one out the first time. Anyway, I wouldn't say I charged but definitely went up a bit of a level in feeling confident in bigger surf. My best memory is the last wave, carving up and down the line then straightening out and looking straight back to watch the shorey closeout explode behind me!
To be honest we didn't do much more in Puerto but then, we never meant to. We had 4-5 days there, packed up our boards (for the last time?) and jumped on the bus for Mexico City! Loved Puerto though, will go back for sure and as surf trips go you could spend your whole time exploring Mexico. Will have to do that one day!
The only bad part of our stint in Puerto was an email from one of Kyla's colleagues in Nicaragua to tell me that she'd badly burnt her foot in a bonfire on the beach and was now in hospital in Managua! It turned out she'd been to a party near San Juan del Sur and was pushed into the fire by some drunk guy. She suffered horrific burns on one of her feet and ended up (after a nightmare experience in the little clinic in San Juan getting the sand and skin scrubbed out without anaesthetic) in the burns unit in the public hospital in Managua.
It's not where you want to be, especially without friends or family around. Nobody could get there to see her from either Canada or from Jinotepe so she was left alone in great pain (despite all the morphine) not getting much to eat and generally in hell. Not much we could do for her from Mexico apart from try to offer moral support via Skype which I did daily until the travel insurance came through and she was medivacced straight back to Canada! She's pretty much ok now (although not without scars) but what an awful way to end your overseas experience! I'm really careful around fires now at parties...
