After getting a quick soaking from the approaching storm
front, the wind went back offshore at Nexpa and I paddled out to get some big
lefts. Great waves but because the wave is so long and with a lot of wide waves
coming in it was difficult to be in the right position. This led to me getting
the biggest set of the morning on the head, washing me back to the beach. I was
basically underwater the whole way back to shore. We said our goodbyes and
started heading for Acapulco. It was a long drive full of the usual topes(speed
bumps), military checkpoints, titty dogs and donkeys. We got a nice hotel at a
place called Pie de la Cuesta which is just outside of Acapulco. It was right
on the beach with massive closeout waves slamming onto the beach and washing up
to the hotel. The waves were so powerful that they were shaking the
foundations, making it hard to sleep.
One afternoon we travelled into Acapulco with some French girls that we
met and went to see the Quebrada, which are the cliff divers made famous in the
old Elvis movie. These guys jump from varying heights between 10 and 30 meters
into the swirling Pacific Ocean, but not before praying at a shrine at the top.
Crazy. I managed to negotiate my way back through the city traffic back to the
hotel just before dark where we dined on the usual feast of tacos and
quesadillas.
The next day we started for Puerto Escondido but as soon as
we were on the road, we waited an hour in a traffic jam, Acapulco style. This
put us under pressure to make it to Puerto before dark. The roads around Puerto
are notoriously sketchy, known for bandidoes and cartel road blocks. It was a
stressful drive that was slower than we wanted it to be. Topes everywhere, usual
Mexican road stuff. Because of our haste we had no time to go Chacahua, which I
was keen to go to because of its epic right hand point break. We got to Puerto
on dark, with no dramas. Stoked. We found a nice, cheap hotel run by a Swiss
couple who in many ways reminded us of ourselves. It’s a nice town that is the
epicentre of surfing in Mexico. Nice restaurants and a few gringos to share
surf stories with.
We woke that morning and the surf was huge. 10 ft Australian
size. There was a surf comp on and the guys were charging, pulling into huge
closeouts for the crowd. To be honest, there were a lot of closeouts but I
wasn’t going out anyway, too big for me. We watched the final then went up to
La Punta which is a point break nearby. The surf was absolutely pumping, 4-6 ft
clean lefts. I went out and managed to grab a few before the crowd was too
intense. Danielle managed to get a few photos of me, but missed my best one
when she went to get a drink from the restaurant. (Always the way). Danielle’s defence is that I should have
gotten better waves earlier while she was standing on the beach waiting and
watching with the camera getting sunburned.
I surfed it the next day just a little smaller but still pumping. I
surfed Zicatela (The Mexican Pipeline) the next day and managed to get 1 good one
from the intense crowd before packing up and heading off to our next
destination, Barra de la Cruz.
