Dienstag, 2. August 2016

Tacos, Tequila and more than a thousand waves - Mexico Part 1

M E X I C O - PART I

Oaxaca, a State in Mexico, is currently struggling with a lot of problems, e.g. road blockades

As always, for a short and moving overview of my journey, check out my recent GoPro edit! Just click on the link below!

VIDEO: PANAMA TO CALIFORNIA PART6 - SOUTHERN MEXICO

P U N T A C H I P E H U A (July 1^st – 3^rd, 2016)

After a couple more of taxi-, bus and rickshaw drives I finally arrived in the state of Oaxaca. This state is well known for his incredible good food, tequilas and among surfers for some of the best waves on this planet. My first destination I arrived to was Chipehua, a small fishermens village half an hour away from the industrial city Salina Cruz. The taxi driver gave me a ride to Pablo and Polita, an old couple which unofficially host surfers on their ground. You either need to bring your tent or hammock and finally only need to pay for food and drinks! Great deal, but at night I felt sauna temperatures when there was no wind. Like it happened along the way already a couple of times, I met Tom from Australia in the water, who I knew from Las Flores, El Salvador. This time, he was traveling with his dad, Andrew and we stayed together at Polita’s place for two days. Our first day we had world class surf and just a couple of people in the lineup, unfortunately the other days wind was blowing another direction and swell shrinking, what made me decide going to Puerto Escondido, Mexico’s big wave spot and heaven for many foreign surfers.

My surfboards got transported in many different crazy ways, here is one of them – In the background you can see a road blockade

Finally making my way to Oaxaca!

Waves are breaking from the break until the town, on huge swells, this place must be incredible

Pescado a la Mexicana - only 5€ for a whole lunch with incredible taste

Pescado al horno

Pablo’s and Polita’s palapa, like a homestay with the whole family

Beautiful landscape around Punta Chipehua

Our beds for the night – well protected against mosquitos

Letting the kids have fun with the Penny-Longboard I almost lost in the taxi car

Unluckily only a little bit of concrete to drive on in the dusty streets of Chipehua

Waking up early is getting rewarded most times

With moments like this one!

Arrived to one of the best surf spots on this planet – Playa Zicatela in Puerto Escondido

P U E R T O E S C O N D I D O (July 3^rd – 8^th, 2016)

I arrived to Puerto Escondido in the evening and found a bed on the south end of Playa Zicatela, also called ‘Punta Zicatela’, which is the only surfable wave for most people, as the main beach of Zicatela soaks up a lot of swell and waves are most times super heavy. Luckily, I arrived at the end of the last swell which made me having medium sized waves at the famous beach Zicatela and a lot of fun. I met a lot of people and was fun hanging out with them, but this time I also appreciated to have more time for myself in order to do some work on my blog or on edits in between the surf sessions. The only dangerous thing in this quiet town is that you might wanna stay there for longer.

Puerto Escondido

And Punta Zicatela

La Punta Zicatela, especially is a very nice and relaxed place!

One of these morning sessions

Fighting with the waves

Even with small swell, this beach gets still massive waves

Which end of most with a tube section!

Should better let my eyes open next time!

Punta Zicatela and further behind

Live music with a sea view

And Mexico’s best fish tacos, located just next to all the other small restaurants in Punta Zicatela

Simple food, but such a great taste!

Panza llena, corazon contento!

The beautiful beach of Barra de la Cruz on a smaller day

B A R R A D E L A C R U Z & O T H E R S P O T S (July 8^th – 14^th, 2016)

From Puerto Escondido I went south again with my Australian friends Andrew and Tom, this time we had a rental car which made us discover a lot of hidden surf spots, which I don’t wanna mention, because everybody has to go on his own search… Go see yourself!

Good morning session not too far away from Barra de la Cruz

On the search together with Andrew and Tom

Untouched waves in Southern Mexico

One of the best waves we have been to … and nobody out!!!

We came for a very early morning session, but waves weren’t ready yet. Abraham invited us to have breakfast at his house and mentioned “ahorita les preparo la comida” which can mean right now but also later in the day. Finally we had no breakfast but really nice lunch after an improvised morning session on the beachbreak.

Pescado frito con tomate y cebolla, 1,80€ p.p.

Abrahams made us having enough energy for a long surf session!

Tom riding a nice wave

Andrew at the takeoff

Rides up to 30-40 seconds were possible on that magic wave

Another GoPro shot

Longboarding’ on my 6’2 Clayton Egg Surfboard

Relaxing after that good surf session

Abrahams family on a Sunday afternoon

Another potential secret spot!

These friendly Mexicans were cropping some coconuts and gave us a huge amount of them for our food stock for upcoming days.

Andrew opening up a coco with the machete

Another really good surfing day, even if the waves were a bit mellow it looked like fun. I had to rest as I had water in my ears already the second time after El Salvador.

Andrew riding a wave in the morning sun

Tom throwing a cutback

La Bamba and Punta Chipehua in the background

C O N C E P T I O N B A M B A (July 14^th – 17^th, 2016)

The last part of our roadtrip together with Tom and Andrew we had our home base in Conception Bamba, just next to Punta Chipehua. Another friend of Tom, Omri from Israel had joined the group and we had some good waves in that area, but due to a lack of swell unfortunately not the big surf we had expected before. Nevertheless it was a great time, we cooked great food, bought 1kg of shrimps for 2€ next door and fried them with garlic and olive oil. Couldn’t finish all of them, next day we bought fish from the beach in Chipehua. Mexico is such a great place to be, to surf, to spend vacation and who knows maybe to live?

Dirty feet – always barefoot, always in boardshorts

Tom’s on a nice wave

Omri throwing a small air

Fishermen catching shrimps manually in the lagoon

Our surf got even observed by a horse

Finishing up a fun wave

Beautiful mountain ranges in the backcountry of Oaxaca

Preparing the fields with ancient methods

Preparing diner in our huge accommodation, an old school building now serving surfers as refuge

Waking up early for my last day of surfing la Bamba

Nature rewarding us for being the early bird

At least one day at Conception Bamba with pretty good conditions

First wave of the day!

Some Australian guys we met got even good waves in these mediocre conditions

After two weeks of surfing the south of Mexico, I took a flight to Guadalajara – gate to many surf spots in Central Mexico!

As I have almost finished my trip trough Mexico, stay tuned for the second part of the journey. Gonna to write a bit more about Mexico City, where I currently am, and then finally send out Mexico Part II before flying to San Diego.

Hope you’re having fun back home and see you in only four more weeks!

Andreas