BodesWell

Looking for the Perfect Beach

Posted on May 13, 2010 by jason1 Comment

The morning break at Nexpa was a little more reasonable, but still way too big and powerful for our liking. Besides, we still didn’t have a board. Time to keep moving. First, Bode had to read a book to Luca. Very proud!

We lingered, then drove aimlessly until we saw a pretty good looking arroyo after crossing a bridge.  We turned the bus around and followed the dirt path to the beach and a single palapa. Once again, I went inside and asked to camp in my best broken Spanish. “No problema,” with a smile was again the response.

This weird little place was Puente Mexcalhuacan and it is definitely not in any guidebooks.

“?Es suguro?”

“Si. no problema.”

We rearranged the buses and went back to patronize the palapa. “?Tienne cerveza?”

“No… mas tarde…”

There was no one around, but then suddenly kids arrived on the beach and Bode had more instant playmates. Teenagers or whoever, it just doesn’t matter. The kid will walk right up and ask anyone to play or join in the game.

We whipped up some dinner – more sea bass – and the lady at the palapa announced that beer had arrived. We bought a few to seal our camping arrangement and watched the kids chase each other all over the beach for the rest of the evening.

After another quiet night, we kept pushing south. We’re still traveling without a jack and it continues to be a bad idea. I keep thinking I’ll pull over to a yonke and just pick one up, but so far I’ve had no luck. I also continue to ask for “un gato” which I think is correct, but I can’t help thinking that I’m asking for an actual cat.

After a very brief stop in Lázaro Cárdenas for supplies and another brief stop in the sadly dilapidated Playa Azul for sandwiches (our own,) we made our way to La Saladita.

We pulled up and immediately spotted a ’70 Westy. A very good sign that we found the right place and yet another validation of our theory that 2 buses always attracts a third. Not long after, we met Aster and her boyfriend who walked up from their afternoon session carrying their boards. She’s from SoCal via Hong Kong and he’s from Montreal. He likes the big waves and she likes the smaller ones. They’re an interesting match. They’re wrapping up a three-month surfing trip and are slowly heading north again.

We wandered the beach looking for a good place to camp and found one close by. Right off the beach in a shady spot between a coconut grove and a mango grove. This is tough living.

Michoacán Rocks

Posted on May 12, 2010 by jason3 Comments

In the morning I had plans to cook up a huge breakfast (really, I promise) but discovered that I had left my pots and pans on some rocks at the previous camp site. I piled them up planning on washing them after cooking dinner the night before (beach sand and salt water is a great way to scrub camp cookware) but simply forgot and later drove away. Oops.

Since I haven’t seen any cast iron camping cookware in Mexico (haven’t looked either), I decided to back-track up the road and see if I could find them. I left Angela and Bode at the beach. For possibly the first time this trip, I went for a long drive in Red Beard by myself.

And, I found all my stuff right where I left it. Nobody washed it either.

After getting back to Maruata, we decided to keep moving south with Ane, Andres and Luca and go look for another good spot. We took turns leading, but ultimately ended up at Barra de Nexpa – another notorious surf break. It was huge. Over 12 footers. Once again, we weren’t even getting in the water. We parked under the palm trees and watched the surfers for the rest of the evening.

There was quite a crowd here and the whole place is built around surfing. There are multiple places to camp, some cabanas and several restaurants. There’s exactly one surf shop, but they don’t do rentals. Andres has started shopping for a board and we’re starting to wonder if we should do the same. When else will we have the daily opportunity to just paddle out from our front door?

The kids played and played. Angela walked up and discovered Bode was teaching Luca how a dog plays fetch. After a moment of thinking about it, she just started tossing sticks at them to retrieve with their mouths. Pretty sure that wouldn’t have happened 9 months ago. We all went to bed early after an excellent sunset.

Over the past few days Bode has asked if we can go to Madagascar (and pointed to it on a map), Istanbul and now Tibet. I don’t know where this kid is getting his information, but none of those places are on our route.  He’s pretty persistent, so we’ll just have to wait and see.