Freitag, 5. August 2016

The Wild West of the Pacific Coast - Mexico Part 2

M E X I C O  -  PART II


Everybody happy on the first boat ride in the morning to the beautiful surf spot “La Caleta”

P U E R T O   C H A C A L A   (July 18th – 19th, 2016)

After my very comfortable flight from Huatulco to Guadalajara, I took a expensive taxi to the new Bus Terminal of Guadalajara and had no idea where to go. Haven’t really thought about when I left, but I roughly had the idea to either go to Chacala or San Pancho. None of the buses went directly to these two destinations and it was already late, but I finally decided to take the next bus towards to coast, as the surf forecast looked very good for the next day. Arrived three hours later in the middle of nowhere, took another expensive taxi and finally arrived to my desired destination Puerto Chacala at 2am in the morning. Together with the taxi driver I found a nice place to stay, it took some time, because the whole town was sleeping, but finally had a bed and was happy. A very long long day!
The next day I woke up more or less early and met 4 really nice Mexicans and we shared a boat ride to a completely uncrowded spot called “La Caleta”. Had a really good time surfing with my new Mexican friends and in the afternoon, we wanted to go for a second session. The company offering the boat rides appeared to me from the beginning a bit unprofessional, being really expensive and the boat drivers were strange.
Unluckily, this time our boat driver wanted to make some fun during the boat ride and in a way wanted to impress us by maneuvering the boat into a wave, where appeared to be a set wave and at some stage the boat couldn’t escape the wave anymore and our boat got wiped out, everybody was flying around like in a car crash, cameras, iPhones, surfboards, humans. A couple of minutes later, everybody stranded on the rocky coast and by a wonder most of us were not injured, only Samuel and the boat driver got hit by the boat.
Well, I lost my 600€ DSLR camera, cheap smartphone, my expensive reef boots and got major damages on my surfboard, but I felt so happy and lucky at that time not to be dead or majorly injured, that these lost belongings didn’t matter anymore to me. Shit happens!

But on the other side I met really nice people from Mexico and had a good time in San Pancho living together with Andrés and Fernanda. San Pancho is nice for surfing but not the best spot. But for any person who is not looking after surfing – San Pancho is the place to be, such a good vibe, beautiful and … just check it out!

Getting into the water “indonesian style” – by boat
On that day, I got so many good waves, it was a real blessing!
But in the afternoon, nobody wanted anymore to surf at this spot – our dream got destroyed!
This was my try to get camera and smartphone back to life – but they had no chance, as salt water is immediately causing corrosion in electronic equipment.
Puerto Chacala, a beautiful, but maybe a little bit too touristy town caused to its proximity to the big city of Guadalajara

After a last morning session at “Burros” together with Fernanda! Muchas gracias por todo ;)
Fine longboard spot “Burros” and the bay of Puerto Vallarta









Playa "Arroyo Seco" - Completely untouched and nobody out surfing - only me in decent overhead sets and bigger!

P L A Y A   M A N Z N I L L A   &   A R R O Y O   S E C O   (July 22nd – 23rd, 2016)

After the last surf together with Fernanda, I took a bus going south to the small beach town of Playa Manzanilla. Was not as easy for me arriving there, as touristic infrastructure is not as far developed and I have barely met foreign visitors. But luckily I met a very friendly Mexican guy, who has lived all his life in California. Blas was so kind to show the around in the town and drive me the next morning super early to the small village Arroyo Seco, 20mins away. Playa chica is the place to surf and nobody was out, but heavy and big waves! I got maybe six waves and was happy after it, that I didn’t get too many wipeouts. Definitely a secret spot this beach and something you should save for a later surf trip, when having a car. After that I took various buses to Manzanillo and from there over Tecoman to the famous wave “La Ticla”.

Nice lookout spot to the bay of Manzanilla – Around this area there are hundreds of unknown surfspots where nobody surfs. Definitely a place to come back to when having a car in Mexico!
Blas giving me a ride to Barra de la Navidad – From there I got a bus to Manzanillo, the biggest port on the Pacific Coast of Mexico
From Manzanillo, I got another bus south to the famous surf spot “La Ticla”














La Ticla is definitely one of my favorite surf spots in Mexico. Great waves, relaxed atmosphere, so much nature around you and very friendly people.
L A    T I C L A   (July 23rd – 28th, 2016)

Having arrived in the late afternoon, the waves looked good and after a tasty dinner, which was offered me by Tom, a kind fellow from California, I surfed another two hours in the evening. Great waves, no doubt! The next days I stayed at La Ticla, I was together with some people from Argentinia, Mexico and Slowakia the only people left on the spot and we all became good surfing buddies. Check out the pics, they will tell you the rest of the story.

Can you spot the GoPro sticker I’ve added?
Great morning session at “La Ticla”
“La Ticla” offers one left-hand point break and one A-Frame beachbreak in front of the river. During raining season (right now!) the river brings out a lot of sand and perfect banks create a powerful tubing wave.
Sometimes, when the wave was quicker than me, my face did wired things…
Beautiful place!
Jeremias from Argentina bought these beautiful fish for a couple of pesos from the local fishermen – Our diner!
So much nature around us and no people in the water during the week – weekend gets a little bit crowded
Nico is waiting for his daily hugs


La Ticla is my favorite spot, because of no crowds, nature and its calmness


Especially because of the surf!
Nico is checking out our fresh fish for todays dinner – GOOD TASTE!
It was definitely a good dish! Having dinner together with Sebastian (ARG), Melanie (MEX), Jeremias (ARG) and Rebecca (SK)
Our place to sleep for five nights in La Ticla, that’s pure Hammocklife, falling asleep with the sound of the ocean and watching a sky full of stars (no lie, every evening a clear view!)
‘Two days too early’ birthday cake for Rebecca and me – the ultimative surfer cake!

The whole family on the beach of La Ticla!

Heading off to “Rio Nexpa” together with my Argentinian friends Sebastian and Jeremias

Having arrived on the crossroads, we realized that we just missed our bus and the next one would come in 2 hours. But our driver was really nice and chased the bus with more than 130 km/h – we tried not to fly away from the back of the truck!














Rio Nexpa helps during the rain season creating perfect sandbanks out in the lineup

R I O    N E X P A   (July 28rd – August 2nd, 2016)

My very last days surfing in Mexico, the last days with endless untouched palm tree beaches but also the moment to leave soon to California, as I was on the road for a long time and I’m looking forward to have a home base at Chris’ place in San Clemente.
For my birthday on the 30th of July, a very big swell had been proposed and finally all of us scored a lot of nice waves, check out the following pics!

Rio Nexpa the village is pretty small, but has a beautiful atmosphere
The spot from the terrace of our Hotel
Early in the morning! Barrels!!!
Saturday morning happiness
Sunrise Surfer
Tubooooo (almost)
Sunset on the lonesome black sand beach of Rio Nexpa
Sunday was also full of great waves!
Even if it got a bit bigger - but just perfect!
I met another German guy, Andi, who has successfully written two books about surfing and you can see that there are a lot of good german surfers out there!
Jeremias also getting some good waves backside
Riding up a very nice wave on Sunday
We got these nice shots from some Argentinien people, who also stayed at our place!

On Monday, it was already time to leave... I had to go to an doctor to get my dirty ears cleaned (in order to prevent an ear infection!!) and like this I went to Lazaro Cardenas and from there to Mexico City, Jeremias took a couple of buses up north to go back to Sayulita.










The second largest city in the world from above - Torre Latinoamericana makes it possible!
C I U D A D   D E    M E X I C O   (August 2rd – 5th, 2016)

After a long ride from Lazaro Cardenas to the Distrito Federal, to Mexico City, the second largest city in the world, I had some more time to get prepared for California, see the city and meet some of my Mexican friends in the capital.

Walking through the super crowded streets of D.F. (Distrito Federal - thats how Mexicans call their capital) can be very stressful, especially if you search for a doctor!
Streetart everywhere you look in D.F., but also in the other cities in Mexico

Having breakfast on the Rooftop terrace of Hotel Zocálo
With a brilliant view on the main square of the historic center
Strolling through the Parque Alameda


Oh thats a big tower, lets get up there!
Great view on top!
During the day ....
And some more pics from the top before and during "sunset".








Yesterday I wanted to see some other parts of the city, I took the metro and went to a current very posh part of it, La Condesa. And then out of the middle of nowhere, Andrés, who I know from San Pancho was standing behind me. He saw me longboarding out of his Uber taxi and then told the driver to immediately stop the car!!! 20.000.000 people in Mexico City and I our ways just crossed somewhere! What a coincidence! 

The rest of the day was pretty cool, I got shown around in a lot of places, which I didn't know before, we went having lunch in a very nice restaurant, had some beers on the rooftop terrace of a recording studio and were watching how a young band recorded a new song, after that we went to a inauguration of a art exposition and had great food and drinks sponsored by the Dutch Embassy and finally went to a interesting concert in a really cool location. No pics this time, you have to imagine everything of it, but imagination can do great things! 

And right now. Off to SAN DIEGO! I miss Latin America already a lot, but you always gotta look forward and then just book a flight and come back!

Lets do it California!

Bis bald,

Andreas

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My mission is to surf and travel the world, see new places, discover new surf spots and to get to know other cultures and people and share this story with you.
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