Dec 12

Ok, I’m know its been awhile but hey what can I say, not alot of biking but surf, cervesas and sunsets.

My current place...

Mi Amiga Karen

I have tried to include more pics of people in here. When travelling on the bike its abit hard to get people pics, mostly because there are few people (gas station attendants or hotel recptionists) or they are passing by as you are driving.

So yes its true I have been stopped this whole time in the surfing town, well mostly stopped. I have been spending my time exploring the town, surrounding areas, hanging out with some new friends and surfing.

After spending so much time on the bike it has a hold on me, it calls. Even though almost everything I need is a short walk away I still find myself getting on the bike every couple of days to go for a ride. Getting the wind in the hair and the leans of the corners gives me some weird form of being at ‘home’.

A bike this big and old is such an anomaly in this environment that the looks I get vary from utter confusion to envy to simple curiosity and occasionally a guy who knows his bikes will just smirk and blurt out “what the hell year is that?” to which I yell back “’822222….” As I roll it on abit heavy launching the big beast away.

The surrounding towns are typical little Mexican dirt road villas with the notable exception of Puerto Vallarta (PV) which is about a 30 min ride south of here. PV is almost exactly what I expected it to be, big, condo’d, busy and just generally not my cup of tea. Maybe its nicer if you are staying one of the ‘all-ins’…

A nice view of PV

My friend Karen and did a bit of a bigger excursion a few days ago. We drove inland (in a car – some weird form of four-wheeled vehicle) to a mountain based town named San Sebastian, a very old and historic town made famous via high grade silver.

We did a museum tour and this lovely old lady was there. It was her family that settled the town and she had a story for every object in a very cluttered room. Incredible history. Oh and she had a laser pointer to point at things, candy in a pocket for visiting great grandkids, and a cane to whack the tour guides when they didn´t move her in her wheelchair when told to.

My experience of Mexico has been limited to Cancun, Cozumel and this trip…mostly beaches or full on desert. A mountain town was something new. Uniform architecture, well cobbled streets, old old hotels, very little litter and a prominent civil organizational structure. Oh yeah, and it was cold. I even had to dig out the sweater and socks!!!

On the way back I got a tour of a small Tequila Factory and finally found out how they make it. Karen wasn´t suprised to find me standing very close to the final product spigot, sample cup in hand, funny smile.

This guys pounds the heavy thick leaves and chunks until they are pulp ready to be condensed.

There are just horses running around everywhere.

Unfortunately most of our experince with teequila is as a dare drink in the bars or thinkly sliced in margueritas. Good tequila is actually a very nice sipping and cooking drink.

I’ve been working abit, albeit slowly given internet speeds and the computers for hire here. As much as we complain about the average desktop, they are still miles above what most of the world works on. I’m not complaining, very happy to have the service available as internet cafes are very common here.

The surfing, ahhh the surfing. I missed the first few days I was in town as I was just generally getting settled, fixing the bike and dealing with abit of stuff back home. Then for a few days the waves were not good, for me. The waves were huge and powerful and it was really rough, paradise for the really good guys. I met 2 other guys in the bar who were just looking on in envy, wishing we were better.

Since then I have had my lesson, then missed a couple of really nice beginner type days while in San Sebastian. Now that I am back I have rented a board and been out as much as possible, which is not a lot.

The waves are still really rough but me, being determined to take advantage of my time here and rentals, have been going out. The hardest part is paddling out past the breaking waves to the good ones. I feel like some sort of primordial guppy, huge body and teeny tiny flippers that really are not effective.

No the worst part is the huge waves crashing on you and pushing you backward as you try to get out to where the waves are….no the worst part is the water forcing its way into your mouth, your ears and your eyes. No the worst part is needing to rest once you get out into the waves and slowly drifting back in towards shore while you rest. No the worst part is finally getting lined up for a wave only to miss the timing and floating over it or have it crush you under its power. No the worse part is getting through all that only to get up on your board and wipe it about 1 second into the ride.

So why bother? Cause once in a blue moon, all the stars, waves, paddling, water and spirits align to allow you to get on a wave, feel the huge acceleration as it shoots you forward in space, you get your feet up, you stand up, you get control and actually make the board go where you want…You are a surfing GOD! As time is progressing I seem to be catching more and more of those, partly because I don’t throw my arms in the air and yell in victory when actually do catch one anymore, LOL.

Today at one point I was out there, getting into some nice big waves, looking for my chance to turn around, primordial flippers working furiously, when, as one big passes another huuuuuge waves looms in front of me. Gulp. That’s a lot of water bearing down on one little guppy. Then, like an angel or some sort of soaring bird, a really good guy one of those tiny boards rips across the wave right above me. It felt like he was 15 feet above me (probably only 6 or 7) and I watched in admiration as he glided effortlessly past at mach speed. Beautiful.

Something valuable I learned today about watching surfing dudes close up on ginormous tsunami type waves… once they pass the wave they are on hits you full on. Close your ‘gaping in admiration’ mouth dudes and dudettes or you’ll get a mouth full!

The past couple of days I have been surfing for about an hour in the morning, break for an hour (clear the water out of lungs and ears),,, another 45 or an hour then two more sessions like that in the afternoon. There are more waves than that but its all my body can take. Between paddling, wave bashing and actually jumping up on the board that’s a full exhausting day for me.

Viktor arrives tomorrow for 10 days. I guess between the cold Vancouver weather and him not being on the full Baja trip he needed some hot weather before xmas. He’ll love the place I’ve rented for us…2 bedrooms right on the beach, and I mean right on it. I’m a bit worried the crashing surf will be too loud ;-)

A pic of the new place.

I’ll pick him up at the airport and I imagine he’ll want to do some motorcycle exploring around here too, so maybe he’ll write some adventures in here. I’ll warn him about Topas (speedbumps) ahead of time.

I found a place to store the bike until spring at which time I’ll fly back, probably get a few days of surfing then rip over to Cabo to meet Vik. Remember he left his bike in LA. He’ll ride to Cabo, we’ll meet there then ride both bikes back to Vancouver.

I’d love to get another more appropriate bike down here to continue the journey…time will tell.

More pics