Around The World In 80 Waves

The Little Green Surf Machine reached its hundredth birthday today.

I expect that a telegram from Her Majesty is on the way.

There have not been many waves which I have surfed twice on this trip, but because it is such a perfect right hand point break and I hadn’t really surfed that well the day before I had to go back for a second session. I’m so glad I did!

To protect the left hand side of my face which was still a little raw from the scorching it got the previous morning I waited until the afternoon allowing the other side to get cooked instead.

The waves are really big at the moment, and again I was a litle bit slow to get started.

I took a few more beatings in the inside section and had the fright of my life when scatching towards the horizon to try and get past one set. As I was about to start paddling up the face of the wave a huge ray with a four foot wingspan lept out of the water in front of me! I was more concerned with the several tonnes of water quickly moving my way so had no choice other than to keep paddling as fast as I could towards it.

Just as I was starting to get annoyed about my lack of waves a huge one set up beautifully for me. The waves are so fat at the moment it is hard to get in front of them, but after paddling like a man possessed I popped up, skipped forward and practically stamped on the front of my board to push it over the top. The picture above was taken with my GoPro, but there was also a professional photographer on the beach who got every second of this ride, as well as the others I caught soon afterwards because my confidence was up. Massive snaking rights, two of which I surfed from the very peak until I stepped off onto the sand in the shore. Rides nearly a minute long, all of which were so fast, just about outrunning the mountain of water chasing me.

Easily the best surf session of my trip so far. The photographer caught this picture of a very contented me racing back to see what my camera had captured. Also, very unusually for any surf trip, all the friends I have made here were on the beach and had seen each of the monsters I had caught.

Stoked doesn’t quite cover how happy I was feeling as I strolled back to the Surfers Inn. Try to think of me as happy as you have seen me and then square it. I was pactically bouncing I was so excited!

To top off a perfect day I made myself my favourite meal of bangers and mash with baked beans, washed down with an unhealthy amount of the local beer. I wish everyday could be this good.

I got up at 6am and started early by cleaning my board before treating it to a fresh coat of tropical surf wax. (Even the warm water wax there already was like plasticene on the top of my board due to the heat yesterday so it needed to be done.)

I love the smell of strawberry surf wax, it is one of my most favourite things in the world and I was looking forward to paddling out with it under my nose in the waves I could hear breaking just out of sight but through the trees.

First things first, it was quite big today. The picture you see here is me about to take another hammering of which there were many. I also suspect given all the white water around me I have only just come up from the last one!

There is a huge surf scene here in the town with surfers from all over the world in the water. Some of whom must know the break well because they were absolutely shredding the waves which were easily over head high.

It is a classic right hand point break here and I was dying to do well because I haven’t really been on fire on anything that should be well set up for my forehand surfing so far on this trip.

Sadly apart from one monster ride which this picture doesnt do justice to I spent an awful lot of time not catching what I wanted. There was a professional photographer on the beach who was taking picture of everybody’s waves so I will try to find him later to see if he got a better angle of me catching a bomb.

Good stuff. I like El Salvador already!

Having crossed the border I headed for the coast, and knew I was getting close to a wave when I started seeing signs like these everywhere.

I rounded the next headland on the coast road and saw a small crew of people surfing in the sunshine at the beach located at the mouth of Rio Miztapa. 

I very nervously made my way down an extremely long and rocky path, getting overtaken by walking children, snails, etc, because I was trying to ensure no more damage to the car, but was delighted to find this punchy little wave breaking over sand at the end.

The board was off the roof in no time at all and I was into a pair of board shorts and on my way. A local guy promised to look after my car, although he had disappeared with the $3 I had given him long before I had got out. 

I paddled out and chatted with the friendly dudes in the water about my trip and where they were staying, even meeting the owner of ‘The Last Resort’ surf camp who offered me a place to stay.

I bagged a few quick waves (as well as a particularly slappy face plant), but the lengthy border crossing had meant there was not much sun left or time for surfing. I was also keen to get further down the coast so that I could get straight into the morning glass at one of the breaks there rather than have to travel the next day, find a place to stay and then arrive at the beach as it was getting windy.

I thanked the owner for his offer but declined, and then made friends with the local kids by handing out some of my bag of blackcurrant and liquorice sweets before leaving. I.e. crawling back up the hill via the extremely rocky road in the car.

Having successfully traversed the lagoon with the car in a rowing boat I head for the border.

It doesn’t take long but hot doesn’t really cover it. The thermometer in the car was registering 46C at one stage.

I also saw this car which the local birds have clearly taken a disliking to.

I haven’t done much surfing in Guatemala but have had a great deal of fun anyway.

Getting across the border into El Salvador is the usual painful experience of hawkers, paperwork and queueing.

I got ambushed by one hawker 10 miles out who was on a motorbike riding alongside me trying to get money for assisting me through the border, and then had a bit of a sense of humour failure in the customs after being blanked for an hour at the front of the queue (not even a hello!) only for a lady who looked like a dead heat in a Zeppelin race to get served upon arrival. However I was served next and it is behind me now.

PS Congratulations to Wales on a great win in Cardiff. Now bring on the Aussies in the summer!

To get from Monterrico to the main road towards El Salvador you need to take a car ferry. You can see the Little Green Surf Machine here getting ready to perfect its backstroke!

I drove down the coast checking out a couple of potential surf spots along the way because a swell has definitely arrived, but annoyingly everywhere is just dumping on the beach.

However I stopped when I reached the lovely coastal town of Monterrico, which has a laid-back atmosphere that allows me to feel safe wandering about on my own for the first time in Guatemala.

The town is known for its volcanic black sand beach and the annual influx of sea turtles, but I went for a stroll to see if there was any chance of getting my board in the water.

Again the reality was that I would have broken my board, my neck or both in the very severe shore break so I didn’t go in. However I was cheered up immensely by bumping into a lovely Finnish girl, who you can just make out in the distance in this photo. We got chatting and I discover that she was just finishing a trip from Peru, which is the opposite way to my own adventures. I could barely pronounce her name let alone spell it so can’t enlighten you further, but I handed over the first of my business cards to a stranger and was most impressed by her ability to find a home for it despite sporting nothing more than a bikini! There was real chemistry between us and I’m thinking things are looking up, but I am gutted to discover she was going to Antigua in 10 minutes time, only to then fly home in the morning. Denied!

The encounter did put a skip in my step though because there is obviously life in the old dog yet!

I get myself settled in the hotel I chose that was a street back from the sand (www.hotelateliedelmar.com) It is the best place in town and is run by a lovely couple called Stig (who is another Finn) and his wife Violeta, both of whom make me feel very welcome. I decide to stay a couple of nights here but am heartbroken every 10 seconds throughout my stay because I can hear another big wave booming down on the shore a few hundred metres away. Guatemala just isn’t going to work for my surf aspirations and I think it is quite telling that Surfline, the USA surf forecast site, doesn’t even bother offering information for here. Never mind I will be pushing on to El Salvador later today and I know there are some all time breaks there.

For the rest of my time in town I enjoyed the wonderful hotel pool drinking enough of the local Gallo beer to float a battleship and chatting with the owners. My last night was fun too because a local Guatemalan called Paulo who works in Leeds back in the UK arrived at the hotel for a few days at the beach. This meant I had a drinking buddy who introduced me to a wonderful local seafood dish, and warned me about bumping into the legendary Cadejo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadejo) on the stumble back to the hotel!

No, I haven’t bought one before you ask. Although with the gun controls, and I use that term loosely, I could have done so over the counter in a supermarket in the USA.

The Gucci surf pad in Chulamar was bereft of supplies upon my arrival in the dark, so I needed to go shopping. The security people at thee compound insisted that a guard walk with me the two hundred metres in the dark to the shop. This resulted in the unusual situation of me stood in line for the shop trying to explain that I want whole milk to the man behind the counter, all the while with a bloke, who is 4’10” at best, stood right behind me with a silver pump action shotgun, which must have been over three feet long, brandishing it with menace at everybody else in the queue. Definitely a first!

There are plenty of armed guards all over Guatemala, and I came a little bit close for comfort to getting taken out by friendly fire two days later, when I somehow managed to sneak up on another guard without him noticing despite me wearing flip flops. When I appeared out of the darkness suddenly he made a sudden lunge for his shotgun. Fortunately his quick draw is not a quick as me yelling “Amigo, amigo, AMIGO!!!!” so I lived to write this update.

I made a complete mess of following the directions I had been given to the beach house in Chulamar, which resulted in me driving for about half an hour in the wrong direction. Using my solar navigation skills I didn’t think I was going in the right direction and kept asking locals if I was going the right way towards Chulamar. However I suspect hearing my awful Spanish was enough for most to just agree with anything I said so that they could carry on about their day regardless of accuracy, until I met a group of workmen at a crossroads who found my situation and Spanish very amusing. They did however point me in the right direction, which was back from whence I had come!

Unlike Guatemala City which has an eternal spring climate (albeit a hot one) it is unbelievably hot back at the coast and it got as high as 39.5C in the centre of Puerto San Jose when I drove through at 6pm. Thankfully it didn’t take me too long to find the house in Chulamar after that. I had to call the ambassador to get the security to allow me in, which is rather an excellent ace to have in your back pocket.

The house was gorgeous and has a seaside and lighthouse theme throughout which I loved. However it was a bit strange staying there because I had such a huge and lovely place all to myself.

I had a great night’s sleep and the following morning the gardener who as already working at 7amcut me down two fresh coconuts which I had for breakfast. In exchange I made him a brew, but I told him and the cleaner/cook to have a day off because it was only me there.

I went to check out the surf potential, but the waves were about 1 foot and breaking right on the shore so I spent a day mostly swimming and sleeping in a hammock, with a liberal sprinkling of beer thrown in for good measure.

The wave crave is getting unbearable again!

A quick word to wish the Welsh boys well in the 6 Nations Championship decider in Cardiff later today.

I will be listening to the game via BBC radio online here in Monterrico in Guatemala, having test run the functionality on Friday morning.

I believe the roof is going to be closed at the Millenium Stadium so with the Welsh in full voice it should be an epic encounter. England with grand Slam ambitions, Wales needing a 7 point victory to take the title, the final audition for a place on the British Lions’ tour of Australia (for which I have already bagged a ticket to one of the test matches – thanks Chris) and that glosses over the fact that the two teams playing have the biggest rivalry in the tournament with the most championships between them.

A game I cannot miss even on the other side of the world. I will be wearing my Rugby Gogledd Cymru top with pride, and generally shouting encouragement at my computer.

Feeeeeeeeeed me now and evermore, EVVVERMOOOOOORE!!!!!!!

Cymru am byth!