Around The World In 80 Waves

Note To Self

If you are going to carry a hundred weight of guide books across the world it is probably a good idea to at least flick through them before you enter the relevant country.

To drive a US car through Mexico you need 3 things:

• A Tourist card, which is your ID whilst here
• A Temporary Importation Permit.
• A Bond to stop you selling the car

Driving south today I get to a major checkpoint and am asked for papers. I dont have them so am sent all the way back to the border to sort these. That was a full tank of fuel wasted, three hours queueing to get back into the US doing a u-turn at the first junction in California then joining the back of a two hour queue to get back in. At customs I am told I didn’t have to come over the border at all, but have to go to a small office in the back of beyond in Tijuana. (There would have no way of knowing this without having crossed the border though.)

It takes me an hour to find it and then another one to sort the paperwork out. Huge dose of Deja Vu driving all the way back to Ensenada. To rub the salt in it is a gloriously sunny day and the surf looks fantastic both times I drive past before  arriving again just as it is getting dark. However I make a better job of finding a place to stay as you can see, even if it was a bit more expensive.

Wifi allows the blog updates and for me to catch up on the BBC website.

Seeing that the Welsh rugby team has finally won a match, and away in Paris to boot is the silver lining I am clinging to on this very cloudy day!

I might actually get to go surfing tomorrow.

There is a hotel bar here which takes the edge of the day, and allows me to mingle with other people and have a few chats at the bar.

On the way back to my room after a few beers I enjoy a little chuckle that somebody has rock and roll’d the pool, which is right outside my bedroom.

I need some forms which wasn’t given on way south so have had to drive 50 miles back to cross over and get them 2nd time around. More to follow.

I’m hoping to get my first Mexican surf in tomorrow so a bit of planning is in order. I also try to update the blog too, but no real surprises when my best laid plans are hampered because the mobile phone’s internet doesn’t work as promised now that I have gone south of the border! I waste half an hour trying to sort it phoning the USA helpdesk, being far too politely told by everybody that they are going to sort it, even though nobody does and I am cut off once and put through to the wrong department twice. They can’t even hear me telling me them my phone number and I find I am practically shouting down the phone in my hotel room. My sister describes this as ‘doing a Robert’ and I don’t want to be that me on this trip, so eventually I just hang up and give it up as a bad loss. I can look forward to being metaphorically shafted by a Mexican telephone company next.

Mobile phone companies worldwide please take note. You are a service industry, and should try providing one that people actually want. Stop being such money grabbing b@stards, spend some money training your staff so that everybody you actually allow to answer your incoming calls can really help anybody with everything relating to their account, be it a technical or customer service issue. Go on treat yourself and your customers to some spare capacity in your call centres too.

If my tailor provided me with an equivalent level of service that was just good enough, I would be walking around in an overpriced thong that fell apart as soon as I went abroad and nobody wants that!

Rant over.

Ensenada is where you can get a boat ride out to surf the monster waves which break off these islands a short distance from the shore. The most famous break is called Killers and regularly features in the annual biggest wave ridden contests. This shot I found online was taken there, and I think it is so named either just because it is so dangerous or because killer whales pass regularly through the break. Perhaps somebody can enlighten me?

However because of the distances I need to travel in a short time period whilst in Mexico I pass on this option and push on southwards where I will go for my first Mexican surf session in some of the lovely waves I have already seen breaking alongside the highway. It was a grim day yesterday with strong onshore winds coming from the West and rain falling all day and night, so I’m hopeful for a bit of sunshine later to tempt me in.

Highway 1 is the toll road south towards the tip of the Baja pensular and I am keen to put a few miles between me and the border.

The coastal scenery is epic and I drive all the way to Ensenada stopping only at a cash point on Rosarito, where each ATM was furnished with rear view mirrors like the ones on your car so that you can see who might be creeping up on you.

Not very reassuring, but I take out a few thousand pesos and immediately stash as much of it as I can well away from my wallet.

There is a festival going on in Ensenada when I arrive, which makes navigating tad tricky because they have blocked off all the roads, but I’m not quite ready to mingle with the locals yet, particularly because the first two hotels I stop at that had secure parking, blatantly try to rip me off. It is quite funny really but the 220 pesos price for a room advertised in huge neon signs outside (Approximately £11) magically increases to 800 as soon as I open my mouth. When I question the difference between the sign and the price quoted I get some bull about the sign being the rate for only 4 hours or it is because of the festival. Done with a smile to boot! I thank both politely, but say no thanks too!

I had better get used to life perceived as a rich gringo I suppose, because I will be in Mexico for most of February. Either that or cultivate my Spanish skills and/or my moustache further!

I drive on and it is getting dark so I don’t want to push my luck and am glad when I find Motel ‘El Camino’ on the edge of town run by a charming old lady. She doesn’t speak English and it is immediately clear my Spanish is non-existent, but we get by with mime and writing. She offers me a rate of 350 which is probably still a bit cheeky, but I can live with it for one night and at least there is no sign here to let me know how much less others may be charged. The room is clean and after unloading the car I settle in by watching Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade dubbed in Spanish on the telly in my room, and scoff a mountain of ham and brie sandwiches that are washed down with a couple of bottles of beer.

I drive to the border and join the huge queue to go to Mexico. Border was closed yesterday due another USA nut job going mental with a gun, and the fear that he might try to flee to Mexico, so the queue is even bigger than normal. There is massive security everywhere on both sides of the border and I don’t think I have ever seen so many machine guns being brandished. However I am just waived through when I eventually drive up to the checkpoint. My research told me I would need the Mexican Insurance that I sorted whilst in the USA, but also to arrange a cash bond for the car as well as a temporary importation permit at the border, but I didn’t see anywhere to do that. I am hoping this will not be an issue. Time will tell…

Straight away I turn right alongside the border fence and head back towards the sea passing through Tijuana, which featured in my favourite film Big Wednesday. However despite the surfers running into big trouble in the film whilst here, it still made it look much more glamorous than the reality where huge numbers of desperate people line the border looking longingly north and trying to figure out how to get across. I don’t fancy their chances much at Tijuana. I think the guys from the Great Escape would have problems here!

I will use this outline of the country filled in with the flag to explain my route south. I am crossing the border on the western edge and will be going immediately through Tijuana. I am then going to work my way down the peninsular which is called Baja California, before catching a ferry to the mainland from La Paz at the bottom of the peninsular. At the mainland I will be travelling south towards Guatemala staying as close to the Pacific coast as I can, and hopefully bagging a few waves along the way.

I am told that at times I will be lucky to find a road let alone a telephone signal or a wi-fi link from here on.  As a consequence I can’t guarantee being able to update the blog as often as I have tried to through the USA. I will still be making notes and updating you all when I get the chance but the batches of updates you have seen thus far may get less frequent but bigger in size. I am hoping my US phone will work for part of the journey and that should allow me to update some things, but I can’t be sure.

I am somewhat behind my orginal schedule already and have been invited to a big party in Guatemala at the start of March so will have to put my foot down through Mexico if I am to make up some time and get there.

I have only just realised how big Mexico is. I have about 2000 miles to travel through so travelling Speedy Gonzales style will be necessary!

My own Mexican moustache is well underway (would you trust this man with your gardening?) and when coupled with my tan should help me look a little less Gringo.

I have been given some advice for travelling through:

• Dont drink the water
• Dont drive at night
• Dont argue with anybody, especially the police
• Dont play my uke at any parties for members of drug cartels

The little green surf machine is as prepped as it will ever be for the trip so today I’m heading for the border.

Hasta Luego!

I have booked into a motel for a few nights because I want to be able to get the little green surf machine prepped for the journey south. I need to completely empty it and then start again from scratch so finding a place that I can park this near my room is awesome.

Motel 6 is a very reasonably priced chain and I may use them again because I need to get into a security focused regime to minimise issues as I cross the border. If I am not sleeping in the car I must bring the board inside every night as well as everything that is not in the boot.

I am staggered at how much stuff I have collected already and somewhow I need to squeeze all this into the bug without anything of value being on display for the next few months. It will be like a giant version of tetris, but I like a challenge.