From escondido once the car was goo a group of us headed north in an attemt to find a surf break only reachable by boat.
The players were-Brocka-Victoria, Australia
Miguel-oaxaca, Mexico
Louie-San Diego county, California
Cody-San Francisco, California
And yours truley,Mr Noel Esquire
After stocking up at the local market on cheap mangoes,bannana's and other assorted fruits we hit the road north.After turning of the highway it was caguama time(pronounced,kawama) and they are the local one litre beers that rock your world.After that it was a thirty minute dirt road drive that came with the odd car surfing moment and all other road trip antics.We arrived at the port and hooked up a boat ride to the break,the river was beautiful,.Mangrove lined,tidal,wide and full of fish.
Once accross to the break we walked about a kilometer,which seemed like ten due to the water and weight of our packs,and found our accomodation with carlos,a lovely mexican man who gave us free camping under his hut providing we all ate his meals daily.Now this allready seemed like a good deal until we ate that night,then we realised we had hit the jackpot and this place could'nt be beaten.We all got a huge fish each,big enough to feed two,along with beans,rice,and other salads and so on.Oh and dont forget the tortilla's to wrap it in,optional of course.These feeds were truely amazing and the beer and hospitality was of the same magnitude.
Awaking the next mornig the surf was four to five foot,long rights similar to bells and absoloutely no-one out.Without too much consideratin we were out there in the ocean like children enjoying recess in the playground.These waves would last four days with swell everyday,no crowds,heaps of waves and a general great surfing experience.See photo's.
But as usual it was the off field,or rather,on land antics that were to be remembered with once again the ozzie's been the main offenders.
On a windy,onshore afternoon when the surf was shitty,the beers made an early appearance due to the lack of entertainement.After what could have been anywhere between 5 beers and 10, louie,brock and joel decided a croc dundee styled exploratin of the mangroves,riverside,could be fun.Now these waters are apparently home to alligator's,boa constrcitor's and trillions of mosquito's.Upon closer inspectin we realised that these mangroves were allmost impassible we had a brainwave to hire a canoe from any local game enough and paddle downstream with the strong incoming tide,wait for it to turn then come back upstream with the water,sounds good theoretically as most things do when your pissed.We conned a local into lending his craft and hit the water,again like children in the playground.
Things were good until downsteam i decided to jump out of the canoe and have a swim,the boys thought it would be funny to turn around and leave me adrift,and it was funny.Untill then i remebered the alligator thing and shit myself,i tried to catch them but had no luck so headed for the safety of shore in the mangrove's.They came back but could'nt see me and thought i may try to walk back along the mangrove infested shore(steve irwin style) and paddled back with great resistance from the tide.And trie i did but could not penetrate the thick shrubbery,it took me about half an hour to get five meters,climbing,falling and obtaining many scratches along the way.So it was then i realised i was suck in a tree,getting bitten like buggery and and not keen to penetrate three kilometer's of mangrove.All i could do was sit in the tree and wait for the boys in hope they would come back for me.Wait i did,at leasst an hour passed when the light was getting bad and i realised my only way out was to swim against the current,upstream of a dodgy, tropical,who knows what,infested river.And i still was'nt sober.It was either that or sit and wait for the tide to cahnge and be bitten by those trillions of mosquito's and risk malaria and denghi fever.
So i hit it,at least it was warm.The current was sooo strong that after ten meters i was buggered and still had 1km to go,i had to pass two other rivers that were gushing into this one,which in turn pushed me into the middle of a three hundred meter wide river.I was shitting myself that i would surely be eaten,but after an hour of determinatin i made it to safe land.I walked through the vaillage,or rather stumbled like a dorwned rat with absoloutley no strength.Straight to bed to awkae the next day and think to myself,"what the fark" and be laughed at by the boys.All good though,it's not really a trip without a little adventure.
So the next night (cody's 25th B'day) after yet another good day of surfing,carlos cooked us another amazing dish but this time squid straight from the local beach.There was a local guy,george (a solid mexican)and his glamour girlfriend (norah) sittng nearby.He cracked a bottl of tequila and asked us to join for a shot.Cant refuse that anywhere,especially in mexico.Shortly after it was gone and in celebration we decide to get some mescal for cody's birthday.Now this was to turn out an even worse decisin than jumping out of the canoe.
The boys returned with not one but but two bottles of mescal.When i say bottles i mean old 1.5 litre water bottles with homebrewed mescal that can only be likened to drinking petrol.I mean what do you expect from an alcohol derived from the cactus plant.On e was dark(stronger) and one was lighter(still strong as).I remember up to half way of the first one been drunk and from there is erased,apart from a small clipet of me vomoting.The next morning was to tell the whole story of the night.
With horrible hangovers we all woke,i asked what happened,but no one else knew either,even george the big mex fella.Six grown men,all vomited and with absolutely no recolection of the night at all,now thats some serious drink.
Brock awoke absoloutely saturated and was wondering how he got so wet.I mean he was wet,his bed,his sleeping bag,sheet,pillow,mozzy net,and i mean really wet.
It was then we sat down for brekky and norah approached,she did'nt drink and telss us all about what happened. Well it was translated through george as she only spoke spanish.
Louie,you fell off your chair and passed out for two hours until i put you to bed.The rest of you all were totally smashed.We also worked out that we all spewed.
But look out brock,this one is good.(bev and gleeny,you'll love this one)
You, the boy with the blonde hair,norah had to help you out of you bed as you were throwing up all over yourself.She walked you to the toilets nearby and said you kept on saying "sorry,im sorry,oh sorry".Once there she had to hold your hair back and even stick her own fingers down your throat as you were so sick.Then she left you there and got a bucket,filled it with water and proceeded to throw buckets of water over all your gear to get the spew off,"oh,so thats how all my gear got wet" says brock with a totally embaraced face and ashamed tone.He then once again apologises to norah.Spew boy as we now know him had to hang all of his gear in the sun,reeking of you know what,but as we are in the humid tropical wet season not much dried.
So a damn crazy night and i recomend all of you to be carefull when drinking the potent mescal.
We left that day after getting decent surf and having great food and great fun.Back through escondido to stay the night then south for more surfing
