Surfing Up the Coast
May 2007
With Semana Santa fast approaching and Mary Jo on her way back to Seattle, we returned to La Saladita after re-supplying in Zihuatanejo to post up and surf for a while. We camped out in the same place we had camped with Eric’s brother, James, last year, directly behind Lourdes’ Bar in the shade of the coconut grove. Our friend Lourdes, “The Queen of Saladita,” was super nice to let us plug into her electricity and camp for almost a month. Once again, our luck was on with the surf. We were able to surf several early south swells and many glassy mornings. The local photographer, Wax, took some great pictures of us from in the water. Wax put a video on YouTube which has a short clip of Eric (spelled Erick in the video).
One morning when Eric was paddling out for a surf he ran into Melanie and Chris, our fellow Panama road warriors who we met in Costa Rica months earlier. Turns out they decided to drive back from Panama rather than take a ship to Florida. We were so happy to see them and catch up. Afternoons were spent sipping home-made Ice Caps at their camp, watching the surf, and on several evening occasions, setting up an outdoor movie theatre (our computer) and watching some movies.
This wave-rich region of the Pacific coast is home to some high quality breaks; some of them are popular, some of them seem to be total secrets. All you have to do is get in your car, load up your board and drive around to find the break which suits you the best. Honestly, it is hard to beat Saladita with its long, long perfect longboarding waves. After Saladita, we headed north along the coastal highway towards La Ticla, site of Eric’s foot injury last year. We bumped into two Jays who we had met at different times on the trip: Jay from Wyoming who we met in Baja our first year and Jay from San Francisco who gave us the Becker fun board in La Ticla last year on which Eric’s brother ended up learning. We had some fun surf in La Ticla despite the cool, tea colored water caused by algae. From La Ticla, we drove north all the way to Sayulita to catch up with Chris and Melanie again and celebrate Eric’s Birthday. We also bumped into Frank from Aspen, another surfer from Colorado we met in Sayulita last year. Although the surf was flat in Sayulita, we made a couple of runs with Frank to a break on the south side of Punta De Mita where we found waves. Sayulita is so luxurious and convenient with Wi-Fi internet and loads of local restaurants and stores. For Eric’s Birthday, we lounged around and Eric used Skype to call everyone he could reach. Sarah was able to get her hair done at the same place she went last year, Jungle Hair Design. Snip, snip and eight inches on the floor!
That pretty much brings us up to date. We are sitting here in Sayulita, updating the website, calling family and friends and preparing for our ferry ride over to Baja for one last push up the Baja coast to meet up with some friends and Sarah’s brother, Noah, once again.
Until next time…. Que lo vaya bien!
Eric, Sarah and Bruce