Day 341

Xela, Guatemala

I’ve been here for three weeks now studying and my days are pretty much the same. I wake up at 7.30am, eat breakfast and walk the 50 meters to the school around the corner. I get a cup of coffee and sit studying Spanish until 10am when there is more coffee and usually cake. Every stands around chatting for half an hour and then there is more studying until 1pm. Sometimes myself and the other students and teachers will go for a walk around town to look at something interesting, sometimes we’ll go for coffee. The school hasn’t had many people in it so far, at most 5 students, which at least means its reasonably quiet.

After school I come back to my host family for lunch and then maybe I have the rest of the day to while away. For several afternoons in the week we take excursions out to markets or churches in the local area which fills the rest of the day. Sometimes I have a siesta in the afternoon, or just sit and play my guitar for a few hours. I found a cool little cafe with wireless Internet so like to sit there when I need to get my information fix. I pulled my bike out of my van as soon as I arrived so try to cycle everywhere. Xela is kind of hilly and the roads can be pretty bad but its small enough with a bike.

At 6pm I have a salsa lesson and there are two possibilities, Salsa Rosa, which is small and funky, or Guajira which is bigger and with a nicer room. They both cost Q30 ($4) for a group lesson but no matter which you go its always a gamble as to whether you end up dancing with someone suitable or not. There is a nice Canadian girl, Ashley, who usually goes to one of them who is pretty good to dance with, but you might end up with someone completely off your level, or worse, no one at all. It seems Salsa is pretty popular with guys in Xela.

And so it should be, last Tuesday I turned up at Guajira to find 8 new, and very attractive, girls lined up for the class. Apparently they were trying to learn some new skills as they were the contestants in the ‘Miss Xela’ competition later today. I had a fun hour dancing with some hot (and rather tall) girls but sadly they didn’t return the next night. :p On some nights there is Salsa music in a few of the clubs which I have been to a few times. I’m feel like I’m finally getting to a decent level but I am still hampered by the lack of a good regular partner…

After my class I head back home for my evening meal and maybe an attempt at my homework, depending on whether I was given any. I’ve been messing around with Cubase 3sx for a while in an attempt to record some music, but the PreSonus 1394 interface I have works but produces far too much noise to make it worthwhile. I’m still looking for a solution but its not easy without a permanent Internet connection.

Xela is nice, although a little cold and it seems to be raining a lot of the time these days. I figure I will study for another week, maybe two, while trying to find some travel companions on the road South before heading east to El Salvador and some more time on the beach.

I need to start blogging again. Or something. Why has England sucked all my energy away so quickly??? I need a beach

Day 166

San Blas, Mexico

Most of my afternoon was spent driving down the coast to a small fishing village called San Blas. I had heard that it was a good place to practice my surfing and I was looking for a place to chill and improve my Spanish. It was only 4 hours or so down the highway and I listened to my language course and Manu Chao as I rolled along. My planned place to stay was a camp ground place called ‘Stoners’, nothing to do with any illicit activities, it was built by a gringo called Bob Stoner. The present owner is the Mexican surf Champ, an imposing guy called Pompis, helped out by his German girlfriend Nicy. It sits right next to a nice break on the beach and has a few cabanas for $10 or camping for only $3. I found myself a nice little spot where the sun wouldn’t kill me in the morning and said hi to the few other guests before heading off to see if I could remember how to surf.

The afternoon break is pretty rough, I would have to try to get up in the morning and catch that one instead but the area seemed pretty good. The camp ground has boards for rent and offer lessons too as well as a kitchen and fridge, which is great. The only problem is that it pretty much closes at night, so after I had showered and watched the sunset the place was deserted apart from the night watchman who just wanted to get an early night. I was happy to join him, although it would preferably be alone in my own tent…

drive to san blas/stoners/surfing-offer rick my board/quiet night

Day 164

Mazatlan, Mexico

Today was the day of partings once more, Roland decided it would be time to head to Guadalarja to meet his father in a few days and would have to go now. We checked the bus station and the buses left every 1/2 hour 24 hours a day so he would be off whenever, but we wanted to try to see a few things first. Mazatlan boasts the second highest lighthouse in the world, but the weather was awful, with low clouds and a heavy wind, it would be pointless to climb that today. We decided to go over the bay to the local ‘island’ (its attached to the mainland) where there was a nice long beach but we didn’t last long. The wind just threw sand everywhere and after an hour of getting blasted we gave up and headed back. Today would have been the one to drive down the coast, but how were we to know!

Cloudy Lighthouse.

We went back to the main beach as the sun slowly started to appear but it was still pretty windy. For a late lunch we had the local speciality ‘Pescado zzzzzzzzzzz something’ which was pretty good and then went back to see the old town some more in the daylight.

Cheers!

We spent some time in the Catherdral before wandering back to the square where we sat and people watched for a few hours. There is a local music school nearby so we listened to the students practice their various instruments and just chilled, quite literally, it wasn’t a good place to sit still in shorts. That became too much so we went off for some internet usage and returned to the potato woman for some much needed late supper. I was going to be sorry to see Roland go, but he’s in the country for a few more months and we’re both going south, I will no doubt bump into him again. Maybe then he will have become a Couchsurfing Ambassador like me and I won’t look down on him so much

new hotel/checking bus station/over to ferry/lighthouse cloud/sitting on the beach/too windy/horses.ATVs/back to maz/claifornia grass/fishy dish/catherdral/sitting in square/fast internet/potato woman/bheer by the beach/bus for roland

Day 162

Los Mochis, Mexico

The next morning we had a serious problem (not counting 2 hangovers), we couldn’t get out of the apartment. The previous night we had set the big dead lock and now it wouldn’t open. We pulled it, tried all the keys, tried taking it apart, climbed through windows and tried to open it from the outside, pushed it, shouted at it, bashed it, removed more screws, used some pliers, gave up and went back to try it all again before Roland just pulled a knob on the end and the door opened. Beer creates these fuzzy thoughts but it seemed quite obvious once we had done it once.

The guys went off shopping and came back with a massive sushi tray from Walmart. They were very proud about bribing someone there to give them a 200 peso tray for only 100 pesos + 40 peso bribe. I was guessing I would soon be hungry after all this rice though…

We went back to the Pacific for a look at the beach and being Sunday it was pretty busy, families with kites and kids in their expensive cars and clothes, the usual nonsense.

The Batless Bat Cave

There was also a bat cave but after exploring it (which took 20 seconds) we gave up and went back to town. I wanted to stay and watch the bats come out, but I wasn’t the driver, Roberto preferred to drive us up to the top of some hill to see Los Mochis at night, it was just a load of lights….

Rolando is stunned into retardation by the view

Stuck lock/walmart/sushi/beach/bat cave/look out/potato tacos/

Day 157

San Lucas, BCS, Mexico

We returned to the supermarket on the advice of our neighbour to buy more supplies for Los Arbolitos beach which was in the middle of nowhere and on a terrible road. We didn’t want to be driving around looking for food, we would be pretty much trapped with whatever we took with us. Betsabe was at church, it seemed Sunday had rolled around again without us noticing but had invited us to lunch and we drove over to sit and chat and leech her Internet connection. Expecting to spend the night at a dodgy beach I had left my laptop at her place, uploading photos and downloading movies. She is a Lost addict and was stunned to learn that the fourth series has recently started and I spent quite a while earning a extremely positive CS feedback by copying the latest 3 episodes to her laptop and ensuring they play. She made delicious lunch and I finally got to eat cactus which was really nice, although I have no idea how she made it. Roland is the chef, I hope he took notes.

Lunch was late though and I started wondering where we were going to spend the night. When we eventually got going it was 3pm and Betsabe drove us over to La Playita beach, which we had been looking for, before putting us on the road along the coast up toward Los Arbolitos. Of course all this passed me by as everyone was chatting in Spanish, but the road was pretty appalling, sandy with regular bottom scraping rocks. Betsabe got her Toyota saloon over the obstacles with no problems and I followed, with an increasing sense of uncertainty and dread. No one was camping up here, the road was bad, the sun would be setting soon and I only had a quarter of a tank of gas. Not a good combination for a trip out into the Baja wilderness. We came to the first town after half an hour and I decided we should go back to the original beach and come back better prepared, if at all. We said goodbye to Betsabe and her friends and once again went to set up our tents by Barb, our Canadian neighbour, who once again wanted to know why we hadn’t left :p

Day 157 Los Cabos

After what can only be described as a pretty restless night I woke to a knock on the window from Roland. He had slept soundly in his tent on the roof by Eduardos room and learned he had come home really dunk at lord knows when and passed the tent without so much as a glance or recognition that we were waiting for him. We went for breakfast and then went to use Eduardos shower and have a chat. He gets by by selling crystal rocks to tourists, seems to suit him as he didn’t look the person most likely to get up at 7am without fail. The first warm shower in 5 days was rather nice, but I don’t think I was smelling too bad, my salt crystal deodorant had been working wonders now since Toronto and day 2. I felt glad to be alive when he told me this was a area with a crack problem and he always locked his door. That made me feel super about sleeping in my car! Maybe we’ll see him in his home town soon, but since his Canadian friend left him a load of food he said he may stay longer in Cabos just to eat it.

Ah, Beach Life

We had arranged to meet Betsabe at 2pm so wasted the time by going to a nearby beach, Santa Maria, which was quite nice and quite hot. We spent most of the afternoon watching 3 girls chase each other up and down the beach in an attempt to throw one of them into the sea. It was very warm though so after some reading and Spanish lessons I went to tidy my car and check why my cooler is no longer cool. I put all Roland’s stuff on one side and then had a minor crisis when I couldn’t find my replacement camera charger. Not another $40!! Time flies when you’re having fun and after sorting out my increasingly untidy food box was nearly ran over by Betsabe as she came to join us on the beach. We then froze as we watched a completely crazy whale jumping about and smashing its tail into the water over and over. Roland went for another suicide attempt on the cliffs and happy with living for another day we went over to Betsabes house after picking up some groceries and made dinner. I’m not sure I was a very good guest since I spent nearly the entire time getting my Internet fix. Still no word from Sheena, 5 days now, I wonder when the FBI will be wanting to ask me when I last saw her… :/

We spent the evening with a surfer and made dinner for her flatmate and boyfriend but when it got to 11.30pm we didn’t have a couch to sleep on and headed back to the beach we had scouted out earlier, but it was too close to the center of San Lucas and we couldn’t even say goodnight to Betsabe without being hassled for change. Not a good place to spent the night and we went back to our RV beach which we found packed with Mexicans partying on the beach in their 4×4′s. The music was pumping across the dunes at party levels and despite driving up tired as hell, by the time I got my tent up I was wide away and ready to dance, if not for the god-awful Mexican ‘music’ and their bloody trumpets! You’re on the beach for gods sake, buy some Bob Marley! They soon gave up though and we retired, happy to know the van would block the sunrise this time and the bulldozers nearby would be at morning Mass.

Day 156

Los Cabos, BCS, Mexico

The local friendly Canadian tourist information neighbour had some tips for us when we were making our coffee in the morning. She had 4 dogs and many complaints about the nearby puppy farm. I wanted to ask her why she had one of their puppies herself but didn’t dare. She was bigger than me. We went into San Lucas for a look around and come breakfast. Still loving those fish tacos. San Lucas was the picturesque tourist trap of the 2, a typical Mexican town resided behind the facade at the beach and we ate there. I bought some heavy duty hooks, now I just need a hammock. My eyes are open for a nice one from now on. We dutifully drove back into Cabo for our appointment with Mona but we got the cancellation text just after we parked up and had spent 10 minutes washing on the street and changing clothes. It was time to hit the beach then! We walked back through the harbour and headed for sandy gringo central. Across from the Arch in the bay were a long line of hotels. Maybe one of them would have a shower! It was 4 days now and I wasn’t starting to smell like a goat. We found a nice hotel and went and sat by the pool, white skin is sometimes useful, before going for a swim and a game of pool volleyball with our American cousins.o

There is swearing the the rest of this post, I was a bit drunk when I wrote it

» Continue reading “Gringos Locos”

Day 154

The beach!

Wednesday 13th February

God damn sun woke me too early, but I was on the beach and the waves were just crashing into the bay and god damn its good to be alive! The milk was still cold in the now semi working cooler, so after cereal and coffee I really didn’t have an excuse to  not walk down to the water, with my surfboard and to try not to embarrass myself again. On went the board shorts and I tip toed into the water. At least the water has the decency to wash over your fear just before you get out deciding its too cold. I always get up to my crotch in the water with no problem, but getting my chest and beck wet just never wants to happen. The brilliant surf soon took care of my ‘neshness’* and I got down to the challenge of getting my hair wet. Wait for a nice breaking wave and hurl yourself into the white froth and my hippy hair was soon bedraggled all over my sun screen plastered face.

Before getting in I had done my ‘jump up on the board’ prepatory exercises, just as my instructor in Byron Bay told me how to surf all those years ago. But its hard, so damn hard! I had a much smaller board than the one I had last been on in Cornwall so that didn’t help, although I do think I’m thinner than I was on that trip…. Its time for an embarrassing photo…..

Steady on girls, his friends reckon he’s gay… :p

And the before… I have lost weight!!

I messed around in the surf for a while longer but then I needed a drink, or a shower, or anything to get me out of the water. Life is so brutal for my readers, I’m able to go surfing but I’m just a bit too lazy :p I intended to have a productive (by my standards :p)day and got my guitar out and proved to Roland that, without doubt, I was a rubbish guitar player! :p I don’t play enough and I was starting to think I shouldn’t be distracting myself with literature when I could be singing/playing, learning Spanish, moving myself around a bit or chasing girls :p Oh and eating! Ah the 5 great truths of travel. No time to spend enjoying yourself, there is work to be done! I coaxed a couple of songs out of it eventually, which Roland reluctantly said were ‘not bad’ and then it was time to annoy everyone else on the beach properly.

My friend and I often say to each other, upon hearing the twang of nylon or steel on a fretboard “There’s always some twat with a guitar!” to which the standard reply is ‘Yeah, and usually its YOU!” and we laugh, but we retrieved the Frisbee from the car and attempted to act like Alpha Males. This was far worse than some random noise pollution which could be blocked with ear plugs or an ipod, we were throwing a deadly weapon! At least I could do my mis-throws into the car park, Roland would try his trick shots and nearly decapitate a gringo playing some dumb bag throwing game! We were joined by a third player in the form of a crazy dog who loved our toy. His owner came to tell us he wouldn’t bite, us or the Frisbee, and the dog would be safe, ba-tsssshhhhh! The owner, and the dog for that matter, was fascinated by hooplike Frisbee. He looked about 80 though and declined my offer of a game by telling me he had just broken 5 ribs. Nasty. He loved the thing though, I wonder where they’ve been hiding him…

I even got Eduardo, our camp neighbour, to give me a go on his skim board! (I was crap)

The day progressed with another surfing attempt for a while, but again my heart wasn’t in it and watching the other people have more luck was no fun, but I’ll be back at it, just wish it wasn’t quite so cold! We went over to the other side of the bay to watch the sunset and drink a beer. I asked our neighbour to watch our van and set off. Roland said something about rock scrambling and I guess I should be putting him off but he’s a big boy now. You could see the whales off the bay, loads of them and then we saw some  breaching, leaping up towards the blue and red heavens before crashing back with the pull of gravity. Why do they do that? Probably the same reason I look at gulls flying past and breathe to myself ‘I wish I could do that…’. I will have to go paragliding again soon!

* Neshness: Stokie# word meaning ‘unable to take the chill of water cos he’s a big girls blouse’.

# Stokie: Someone from Stoke on Trent, my home town.

surfing/guitar/watching tents/surfing/sunset/whales/todos/no tacos/drive back/fire/halo moon

Day 153

South of Todos Santos, BCS, Mexico

It was time to say ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ to Mike and find some surf. Sheena was gone and she had left me with a German! But Roland was turning out to be more fun than Sheena and certainly less stressful. Stress is one thing I don’t need The plan was to head down to Todo Santos on the Pacific coast and find somewhere for me to surf and Roland to recuperate from his near fatal fall the day before. We read something about a surf camp where you could camp and they also had a BYOB-swim up bar! Sounds good.

Well it would be if it wasn’t nearly impossible to find. We went through Todo Santos and the beach we wanted was only 10km to the south but the surf camp was hidden somewhere. We saw nothing that looked likely as we drove and eventually stopped by a small shop but the guy sitting in the shrine next to it was either so wasted or crazy that we couldn’t get any sense out of him. Roland speaks Spanish fluently and had no idea what the guy was going on about. Luckily we picked up nearby gringo and in exchange for a lift he showed us where the surf camp was, on the main road and a few miles from the beach. It seemed pretty good but we wanted somewhere by the water and they didn’t have any palapa’s* left so camping under the sun would be hot!

* Thatched shelters

At least we got directions to the beach and turned off at the 64km marker to follow the sandy road down to the surf. There was quite a break and plenty of people surfing, boogie boarding and chilling out at the local bar. There were plenty of tents set up too and after a few enquiries discovered we could camp there for free! We set up near where we had parked the minivan next to a bunch of hippies. They were sitting around playing their guitar and I made a friend by loaning Chile the use of my guitar tuner. Nothing worse than an out of tune guitar….

After a paddle in the water I made the decision to try out the $25 Walmart boogie board I had carried all the way from Florida and never used. The water was, um fresh, and although there were lots of people in the water with wetsuits on there were also quite a few without so it couldn’t be that bad. The surf was strong and I was soon wet enough not to care. It only took 2 goes on my boogie board to run back to get my surf board and I was soon wiping out as though my week surfing in Cornwall was just a dream. I didn’t last long. Tomorrow though…

Roland wasn’t going surfing, he was still hobbling around from his fall on Monday but not too bad. There were no facilities on the beach, although I guess you’d have to buy a beer to use the bar’s toilet, I sneaked over to use the shower on the outside, trying to avoid the staff as I washed off the salt. Its not a bad life, we cracked open a couple of beers and waited for the sunset. Roland had chatted to the nearby hippies and they were planning a fire later on, we agreed to bring wood and beer!

Another Shitty Day in Paradise

Monica isn’t really two-faced…

* Thatched shelters

drive south/surf camp/weirdo/yank lift/camping/free/hippies/tacos/fire