Michoacan and Beyond
June 2006
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This latest update covers the time period between mid May through mid July 2006. During the last two months we have had some great coastal adventures through the states of Michoacan and Guerrero, loads of great surf and some priceless times with various family members visiting us. When we left Puerto Vallarta we headed to San Patricio De Melaque, a great little town just north of Barra de Navidad in the Costa Allegre region of Mexico. We only stayed for a short time but found the little town to be packed full of great spots to eat and interesting locals. We had the itch to surf so the next morning we headed further south, starting with a surf check in the town of Barra de Navidad. The break just near the harbor mouth was firing pretty well but not enough to make us pull the boards down and paddle out. Instead, we plodded further south through Manzanillo, following our noses and checking every possible surf spot. We soon realized that a major south swell was hitting. Every spot we checked including Pascuales, Cuyulacan and the beach breaks near Manzanillo were MASSIVE and un-surfable. We ended up driving all the way into Michoacan to La Ticla where we could see from the road that the rocky point was holding the large swell and producing surfable waves. As we pulled in at sunset, we walked down to look at the break and couldn’t believe our eyes. The surf was beautiful, although quite large -- no longboarding going on whatsoever. The next morning, Eric went out for his first surf and caught the best wave of his life. We stayed for seven days or so and had good surf the entire time. The swell did drop enough for us to take the longboards out, but only once. Eric had a ball on his shortboard every day, meeting lots of nice surfers from Guadalajara, Texas, New Jersey and even some of the local crew. Despite the great camping and good surf, we decided to go further down the coast to a place more suitable for the both of us to surf, La Saladita. It was worth the drive…. We immediately met Lourdes “the Queen of La Saladita” and the Valencia family who welcomed us with open arms. They let us camp for free right next to their restaurant on the beach. We stayed in celebration of Sarah’s birthday, even though her birthday had technically already passed. The long, perfect waves a La Saladita produced good fun for all and we probably wouldn’t have left except we were so excited to meet up with Darryl and Tina who were set to arrive back up in Manzanillo. So, we turned around and drove back north to the Barra de Navidad area and met Darryl and Tina at the house they had rented for the week.
It was so great to see family and we immediately started visiting and catching up. The next week was full of lounge time, explorations to Barra de Navidad, Melaque, Boca de Iguanas and the surrounding area. Darryl and Tina loved Boca de Iguanas so we ended up going back for at least three days to soak up the beach paradise and its solitude. We made lots of great meals, combated the mosquitoes and had lots of great talks over coffee, ice cream and around the pool. We said goodbye to Darryl and Tina and headed south again, stopping back at La Ticla to see how the surf was. The waves weren’t quite as amazing as before but they were good enough to warrant a couple days of surfing. Unfortunately, on Eric’s first morning back in the water, he caught the fins of his shortboard between his toes on the left foot. The impact resulted in a very deep cut which nearly severed his toe. Sarah played ER tech packing up the van and driving to the town of El Ranchito 30 minutes to the north so that it could be treated. The result was 6 stitches, some anti-inflammatories, strong antibiotics and a truly wonderful experience in the hospital. Total cost, $5 U.S. What a surprise; fast, quality healthcare at a fraction of the cost of a U.S. hospital. The next ten days were pretty rough since the surf was going off and strict doctor’s orders and common sense had us out of the water. After Ticla, we headed down to Rio Nexpa to see if we could find a place to stay where Eric could keep his foot out of the dirt for a few days. Upon arrival at this surf paradise, we found great accommodations for $15 per night, some very nice people and more massive surf. The surf got so big while we were there that we saw our first ever tow-in surfing in action. Tow surfing is when surfers employ a jet ski to literally tow each other into waves too big to paddle into. It made for an amazing show. We ran into our Canadian friends Oliver and Marie as well as Cara and Craig from Lake Tahoe, both of whom we had last seen while camping in La Saladita. We had originally met Cara last year in Baja on the East Cape and bumped into her again by coincidence. What a small world it truly is! Upon some vacationing doctors’ advice, Eric left his stitches in beyond the eight days recommended by the original doctor and we headed down to La Saladita once again. It was Sarah’s turn to surf while Eric had to stay out of the water and she had a blast. Eric’s cut was doing well enough to try out surfing again so he wrapped it in duct tape and finally got back in the water. The test was successful, once his surf wax made the duct tape sticky enough not to slip around on his board, and came just in time to head down to Acapulco to meet up with our next family visitor: Eric’s Brother James.
We drove the five or so hours from La Saladita to Acapulco and found a great place to camp north of Acapulco in Pie de la Cuesta for a couple nights in preparation for James’ arrival. We woke up the first morning to the distinct smell of an electrical problem in the van. It turned out to be a fan on the back of the refrigerator meant to help circulate air around the refrigerator’s compressor. The very nice people at the campground helped us by calling Alejandro, our new electrician friend who came that afternoon and helped figure out a temporary fix since the proper part needed to be ordered. The next day we picked up James at the airport. It was so fun seeing him in vacation mode as he walked through the airport. We drove back to La Saladita the next day so that he could begin his surf quest. On our way north, we stopped by a village known for its hammocks and recommended to us by another nice guy we met from Montana named Kyle. We ended up scoring two matrimonial hand made hammocks for a great price, one for James and one for us. Using a board given to us by our friend Jay that we had met our first time in La Ticla, James started learning and honing his skills as soon as we got to the waves. It was amazing to watch how each day he made significant improvements. The swell couldn’t have been better as it seemed to grow a little bit each day we were there. By the end of the couple weeks we were there, James was riding head high set waves with total composure, making turns and gliding along the face of the waves for sometimes up to 200 yards. As our friend Woody from North Carolina told him, “all you have to do is remember three things… catch… stand… turn…” James figured it out for sure. James’ energy and success was contagious. Sarah seriously raised the bar with her surfing as she paddling into waves taller than her day after day. No longer content to be the polite one waiting and waiting for everyone else to get all of the waves she started going for larger ones and more of them. her efforts really paid off as she would fly by camp time after time on the big beautiful glassy crests of the Saladita surf. She had the best session of her life which trumped her previous “best session of her life” in Baja last year. On one particular day Eric nearly lost the ability to recognize Sarah in the water due to her new approach and dedication to charging. Ultimately, Sara laid claim to the single best wave of her life while Eric and James cheered from the judges booth. One of the great things about the time in La Saladita was our neighbors in Palapa 5. They were Lauren, Leslie and a gang of their other visiting teacher friends from the Santa Barabara area. It was super fun to hang out with them and to share the surf with such kind people. Lauren and Leslie would constantly ask us if we needed things in town and even went grocery shopping for us in Zihuatanejo during one of their many airport runs. There were so many nice surfers in Saladita that it would take several pages to mention them all. Special thanks to Woody, Erin, Ryan and Lourdes who lent Eric numerous boards to try so that he finally got to surf a “fish”, a type of surfboard design that is quite versatile. We eventually had to pull out of La Saladita for good and head back to Acapulco to meet Glenn and Barbara who were planning on arriving a couple days before James was set to depart. We drove back down to Acapulco, camped for a night and then met Glenn and Barbara at the Acapulco airport. They were so excited to arrive that it was hard to tell who was more stoked, us or them. We found a great little hotel in Pie de la Cuesta, just down from the campground called Hotel Evasion. We found a room with enough beds for all and a very powerful air conditioner. What a luxury!
We are now at the tail end of Glenn and Barb’s visit, in fact will we take them to the airport tomorrow, July 22nd. We have had a great time with them in the Acapulco area including visits to the public market downtown, another trip to the hammock village near the town of Coyuca, a day trip to La Quebrada to see the divers and the Fort San Diego and its nautical museum which is a great museum for those who find themselves in the tourist/hotel matrix of Acapulco. Pie de la Cuesta has been such a great place for all of us giving relief in an area full of high priced mega hotels and the usual assortment of McDonald’s, KFC and other global chains found in the tourist meccas. Just goes to show that if you look hard enough, you can find great places and beautiful people no matter where you are in the world. We hope that all of you reading this discover or have already discovered this. Until next time….
Vaya bien – Eric, Sarah and Bruce