Around The World In 80 Waves

I have been without internet for a few days so have some catching up to do.

I had a quick surf session at Las Flores before leaving, including a scary wipeout near the rocks, but was still on the road early. The road from El Salvador to Honduras was quick but unbelievably hot. It is ok when the car is moving but as soon as I stop I feel like I am melting. At one stage the thermometer in the car read 49C ! It didn’t drop below 40C all day and even then only once it had got dark. It was still over 30C at 10pm.

Both the borders I crosses were at bridges over rivers and there seems to be a substantial space of no man’s land at each one. This doesn’t help me much because at every border I am driving around looking like a lost soul trying to figure out which one of the shacks, if any, at a given place is an official building such as migration, aduona, the place where you get the car sprayed for some pesticide or other or just a checkpoint where they inspect paperwork before you are allowed to move on to the next bit of guesswork.

Apart from the usual hawkers, searching for a photocopier, etc it is relatively painless at both borders apart from the heat. However I did fall foul of the law upon arrival in Nicaragua, but before going further on this I have a confession to make. I have been having a few cigarettes ever since I was able to drink smoke and gamble in Las Vegas. I know it is bad for me but it has been alleviating some of the boredom on the road, and I was enjoying a smoke upon successfully navigating the the El Salvador-Honduran border. At the final checkpoint a traffic policeman waved me in to the side of the road which I did without question. At this point he tells me that smoking is illegal in a car, which is clearly bullshit, and he is just trying to exact a bribe. I am quite hot and bothered already and not in the mood so play him at his own game feigning terror and asking if it is a serious offence and then if we must go to the police station all the while blowing smoke in his face whilst still behind the wheel. He laps this up thinking he has me on the hook, that is until in perfect Spanish I say ok if you drive there I will follow. Mild panic spreads across his face and he pauses afor a moment before deciding that it is not in fact an offence and tells me I can go. I do so grinning from ear to ear and chuffing away as I pull off.

Not much else to report apart from telling you that the road I travelled in Honduras resembled Swiss cheese because there were so many holes in it.

Nicaragua has a similar history to most of the countries in Central America. Dictatorships, natural disasters, American military involvement, etc.

As usual I will hugging the Pacific coast on my way through to Panama driving along the thin strip of land which separates the huge Lake Nicaragua from the ocean. 

As with Honduras I am sure there is much to see away from the west coast, but the clock is always ticking for me, so it will just have to wait for another time.

According to my Stormrider Surf Guide of the area, there should be plenty of waves to keeep me amused, and I’m looking forward to adding another country to the list which I will be surfing on this world tour.

Watch this space for details.

The next country on the map is Honduras.

However the Pacific coast of this country is so small, with most of it being sheltered, so I am just going to drive in, across the country and then out again in a day and get on to the better wave prospects of Nicaragua. 

I am sure there is much to offer in Honduras north of my route but that will have to wait for another trip.

I am conscious of the time it may take me to sell my car in Panama and need to get there as soon as possible to ensure that it does not impact on later flights, travel opportunities, etc.

That the sun does indeed shine…

Las Flores is another fantastic right hand point break. However for me at least there is definitely a but to this particular break.

That but is the rocks which are just a handful of metres from the peak and then stay that way for the whole of the ride to the shore, which can be as long as 300m. One fall and you could be in a very bad place very quickly.

The international crew in the water here are certainly friendly enough though, and amongst others I spend a great deal of time chatting with the lovely Whitney who you can see behind me.

However if I am honest for the whole of the time I am in the water here I am not feeling that comfortable.

A good wave would usually sort out any nerves I have. However the set up of this break is such that in order to be sure of being the person that catches a wave you need to be paddling for it directly adjacent to the rocks sticking up out of the water at the very tip of the headland which you can see over my shoulder. Everybody knows this and the result of that is everybody pushing one another closer and closer to the rocks until people take off directly in front of them assuming they will make the turn. The natural breaking of the wave does indeed keep you far enough away from the rocks once you are riding, but such critical take offs are not really my cup of tea anymore. I have been to A&E too many times, and it is never fun!

Despite my better judgement I tried this once only to have picked one of the bigger waves of the day which then broke well before it got to me leaving me very much between a rock and a hard place, and was then lucky not to damage myself let alone my board. (One of the Brazilians here did something similar and landed on the rocks and put a two foot long gash in the base of his board ‘game over’-ing it earlier in the day!)

Regardless of all the above I have caught loads of long rides here though and this one shows the trees on the point a little too close for comfort behind me. This particular ride was about head high, but during it I also had to charge through a gap between two rocks which appeared sticking out of the water that was little wider than my board and just hope it was deep enough in the gap for my fins to get through. It was but more by luck than judgement and I dont think I will be doing that again.

So far I have managed to avoid an Isaac Newton moment with a fruit landing on my head.

However there are so many mango trees around which seem to shed their fruit at the slightest breeze, I fear it is only a question of time before I am wearing one.

The Litle Green Surf Machine has already been involved in a drive-by fruiting or two and has been left showing the fruit splats from its time in combat!

This no normal fruit, it is an aggressive predator.

You have been warned!

After leaving El Sunzal I had a very hot but scenically stunning drive eastwards towards the town of El Cuco where I am basing myself for a few days.

I arrived in the afternoon and got myself a great room at the Atlakamani Resort  (www.Atlakamani.com) run by a local guy who unusually for this neck of the woods is called Vladimir.

It is perfectly set up for surfers and is 60 seconds from a world class point break.

The rooms have air conditioning which is a welcome relief. The wifi is quick and the restaurant is brilliant. There is even an in house masseur called Anna whose services I treated myself to upon arrival.

At the moment it is just me and a cool group of surfers from Brazil who I have been having a laugh with.

Most important of all, they have toasters here! Me turning my nose up at the lovely free breakfast which is available, instead gorging myself on toast and the marmite that I have been carrying since Los Angeles raises a few eyebrows but I don’t care

Punta Roca is where the point break sequences for Big Wednesday were filmed and I simply had to surf the break where such great lines as ‘I said he aint a hodad squidlips, this is Matt Johnson and he needs to borrow your board’ and ‘That is Matt Johnson, THAT IS Matt Johnson!’ were coined. If you are not familiar with the film, it will make more sense if you watch this clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xgBnGQhAUI

It is a perfect right hand point break and the scenes from the  movie have had me salivating for years, dreaming about such a perfect setup to enjoy. Without doubt a major contributory factor in me taking this trip. The area is somewhat more developed than when the scenes were filmed in 1976, and I was able to stike a deal with a restaurant overlooking the break that they would look after my car and I would enjoy a big feast after my session. 

I have been wanting to try to get some forward facing shots on the camera for a while, and because this wave is so predictable I thought it would be the ideal opportunity to try it out.

I attached it to the board the other way around which is just as easy using the mounts I have attached to my stick and paddled out into the glorious conditions you see here.

I was able to get some fantastic pictures of other people, but not the shot I wanted of the wave walling up in front of me as I charged down the line, which all surfers would recognise instantly. I think this is because the mount on my board is pointing directly forward and the board usually travels in the direction which is 45 degrees from the wave face, which results in a lot of shots of air pointing vaguely in the direction of the shore.

This meant that each of the peachy waves I had here, and it was a lot, will just be memories for me I’m afraid. The waves is so mellow and just goes on and on and on and on and on. Really chuffed to have bagged this break on my travels and even if I cant prove it I know I was grinning from ear to ear!

El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, and unlike Mexico it wont take me long to drive across it.

Rather than bother with their own currency, everything and everybody has used dollars since 2001, which helps me because I like to have an emergency stash of them so I can replenish my diminished stocks while here.

There was a brutal civil war here in the 80s, and the country gets hit pretty frequently by natural disasters i.e earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, etc which devastate the infrastructure here.

 More and more tourists are willing to come here for the excellant weather and surf though, and I have found it quite cosmopolitan. I only hope the waves later on this trip will be as good as they are here.

Since arriving in El Salvador I have based myself at the Surfers Inn in El Sunzal for a few days, coming here on the recommendation of the Dutch surfers, Tommi and Martine, who I met in Mexico.

It is a basic but lovely place run by Antonio and Sassie who you can see in the picture here. They do everything they can to make their guests welcome.

It is so hot and humid here that you are inclined to hide in the shade for much of the day. Something I had to do a lot of after getting really scorched during my first surf session here.

However I have been hanging out and having a lot of laughs with a German couple called Reiner & Uta, who are also staying here.

Reiner has been teaching me how to get a better sound out of my ukulele and we have been singing Creedance Clearwater Revival songs into the night, whilst enjoying the local beer which is really cheap and served in huge bottles. It also seemd like the appropriate time to crack open the two bottles of Longboard Merlot, which I have been carrying with me since San Francisco. Wine is in short supply in this neck of the woods so we all savoured it and because of the quality were all blessed with clear heads in the morning.

I have a little room to myself which feels like a furnace during the day, and even with my fan on it is still roasting hot at night under my mosquito net.

I have been eating the El Salvado speciality of popuzas which are small parcels of dough filled with chicken, cheese, etc that are cooked on a griddle.

Everybody is really welcoming and the locals are really friendly, however Fallon the chief of sceurity you see here has everything under control in case anybody gets out of hand!

As an aside here I have to say that watching a lady in a bikini hacking away at a coconut with a machete is a joyful sight to behold.

In fairness to her however, I should say that Fallon, who is visiting here from Canada, is lovely and not at all like a nightclub doorman.

I have felt really welcome here and in contrast to the guns which were on display everywhere in Guatemala it is good to feel that you can walk around freely, leave my car unlocked in the car park, etc.

However it was also reasuring to note that Teri, the dog who lives here, was keeping a close eye on my board for me whenever my back was turned.