Last Day With Shaun, Good Riddance - Mar 01
Shaun, Sascha, and I went to Esperanza, the restaurant where Cabiri works, for some breakfast even though I had eaten my daily oatmeal breakfast. We had some tasty treats along side Cabiri including this amazing cucumber, lime, and magic mix that apparently included three ounces of booze. You couldn’t tell it was in there, be careful if you order one of those things. We then went to the beach for a little relaxing. When we arrived we spent some time chatting with this guy that Shaun knows named Manny, pretty cool dude. Spiritual as well. We sat around talking about the less usual stuff because we had been through the regular topics beginning with the questions “Where are you from?” “What do you do?” “Can I bum a few pesos off you?” We talked future plans, where we were going to get our next paycheck from, how we feel about the trip, languages (of course, I’ve been pressing this topic a lot), and just general inquiries into our lives. It was rather cool to hear about these two fine gentlemen. Even though I’ve only known them for a few days, it seems that you’re able to get a lot more out of a person while traveling.
After the beach we spent the next few hours walking around town, picking up a few things that Shaun needed for his return home, bumping into people we know, and eating. All of a sudden, the dreaded hour arrived and we, being Mel, Jake, and I, walked Shaun to his bus. Then he left us. Just like that. Almost as though he didn’t want to stay. Almost like he had somewhere to be. Bastard. At any rate, I know I’ll be seeing him again because he’s a Vancouverite but I was a bit sad to see him go. He’s been a good friend and I pulled a few personality quirks from him. He’s outgoing, adventurous, not easily embarrassed, and not afraid to ask for what he wants. Granted, the last one is more in regards to ordering food and bartering with the locals but I think it applies. Those are all things that I may possess in some quantity but still would like to spend time developing. Thanks for the great week and a bit, Shaun, I look forward to seeing you this summer!
After Shaun left most of the hostel was in recovery mode still so I spent some time relaxing. Rumor, Mel, Jake, and I went for a swim at the beach and it was here, for the first time, that I realized that I should probably try surfing for real. I caught a few decent waves body surfing over in the beginner surf side of the bay and thought, yeah, it’s time. I then decided to try it out after our trip to San Pancho the next day. Should be fun.
The night was spent trying to get cheaper and cheaper beer because my daily budget of 200 pesos was draining quickly. Then after chatting with some of the people in the staff dorm room we decided a movie was in order. I suggested Disney, because I’m not afraid to ask for what I want (see above). We landed on Aladdin obviously because alphabetical order is important. That’s about it, Carla, Maria, Jake, Brian, and I spent Tequila Tuesday watching Aladdin. It was good.
San Pancho and Wedding Crashing - Mar 2
A little bit of a late start for most today. I felt completely stellar because all I did was watch Aladdin the night before so I woke up just after 7am and hoped on my computer to get a head start on some blogging. Which is a marvel of an idea by the way. There is definitely a correlation between quality of post and the time between doing something and writing about it. Strange. Once Jake and I wrangled a team (Jake, Elliot, Brian, Rumor, Anna from Brazil) together for the San Pancho trip we headed out a bit after 11am. It was surprising that the bus was 15 pesos considering that the distance is so damn short. Granted that is a little bit over a dollar, but still. One becomes a bit cheap when you live in Mexico I think.
From what I saw, San Pancho isn’t all that much the see. The beach is pretty nice but there isn’t much shade that you don’t have to pay for. The waves were also a bit choppy and the rip current was strong. At one point we decided to play a little bit of soccer. Mistake. I’m so out of shape, it’s hilarious. Of course, playing anything that isn’t normally played in sand makes it that much harder but still there is not a lot of athleticism left in me. We played a bit of “I’m going to a picnic and I’m bringing _____.” which is a fun little game where you pick a rule or two for items that people can bring to a picnic. You then get your friends to guess what they can bring and tell them if they were correct or not by telling them if they can come to the picnic or not. For example you could say that only items that start with the letter “K” can be brought to the picnic, or things with a certain colour. It was actually quite fun. Thanks for that one, Jake. We then headed back to Sayulita and began puttering around, having the occasional drink until we got some delicious tacos al pastor. Love those things.
We surfed at this point. It was pretty fun. I managed to catch and stand up on three separate occasions. Whether or not they were waves or just white wash is up for debate but it was tonnes of fun. I might start to enjoy this.
When we came back to the hostel a few people were a little more dressed up than normal. Of course, they had heard about a wedding going on and were planning on crashing it. Since I had just got myself a haircut I figured I’d throw on my collared shirt and go along. What a great night. We started by walking past the wedding on the beach, sitting down and then sending in Maria to introduce herself to the wedding party. After a quick dance she came back with Scott, a guy I met at the hostel, and we convince his friend Matt to let us go party. We spent the rest of the night dancing our hearts out with complete strangers for what seemed like four hours. Then we died. It was good.
I Mean, Really, How Relaxed Can One Person Be?- Mar 3
The lazy days continue as I woke up before most people, made some breakfast, wrote a blog post, and waited for everyone else to wake up. We got our surf crew together again, which included Brian, Nick, Jake, and Elliot, slathered on some sunscreen, the first I had put on in a while, and headed for the beach. Luckily we were able to rent boards and rash guards for the same price as the last time so that meant that I didn’t have to ruin a perfectly good long sleeve shirt I was planning on wearing.
After a few quick tips from some friends I see occasionally, Sam from Vancouver and Mathilde from Sweden, we paddled out to what looked to be a nice spot. We were slightly left of completely wrong on our surf spot choice. The waves were, how should I say it, fucking big. I would give them a conservative estimate of almost two meters. Not quite the type of stuff you want to learn on I think. We got our asses handed to us several times. The best part is if you try to grab the first wave you find, it’ll toss you. OK. No problem. However, as soon as you pop your head up from getting thrown around like a rag doll, another wave in the set is on it’s way to do the same. This is exhausting. Once we realized that the waves were too big for us, we paddled further left to the learner’s section of the surf. Here we mostly sat on our boards bereft of spirit and precious energy. Only later did we notice that Jake had been on this side for most of the hour, riding white wash and catching small, manageable waves. Suffice it to say that I need some practice.
Nick and I went back to the hostel with avocado in hand and different guacamole recipes in mind. We each used three avocados to make our respective batch. When I opted for a simplistic avocado, tomato, onion, salt, and lime approach Nick went for avocado, onion, cilantro, garlic, jalapeno, salt, and lime design. Both options were eaten and no one wanted to give their opinion on which was better and we were fine with that because Nick and I are friends.
I proceeded to take a nap.
I woke up feeling unbelievably groggy which was unexpected. I guess the surf took more from me than I expected. We lollygaged for a bit and decided to go to the craft beer bar for a drink. I guessed 90 pesos for an IPA and I was right so instead, having only 120 pesos left in my budget for the day, I decided that I would simply have pale ale. It was surprisingly good, though I don’t think it would hit my standards in Canada. I just haven’t had a decent beer in a while. We then acquired some meat and veggies for our stir fry dinner. Cooking is a lot of fun in hostels and you save so much money. I spent 30 pesos on dinner which was a huge plate of vegetables, meat, rice, and soy sauce. Perfect.
The rest of the night was spent finding a few extra pesos hidden in my clothes and spending them on a couple relaxing beers with friends. Once the party up on the hostel bar got a bit more rowdy I decided that I may as well get some rest and be a bit more chipper the next day. I’m proud of myself for this because a lot of the time I will stay awake or go out just to make sure I don’t miss anything from the night. But what the hell, I was tired, I went to sleep. Makes sense to me. I got that lesson from Ida. Cheers ;)
The Most Worried I’ve Been for a Birthday Party - Mar 4
The day arrived. Mel turned 23. An Australian’s birthday. Brace for impact.
For the most part, during the morning, I hung around after doing my morning blog post ritual, which I’m starting to enjoy more and more these days. It’s nice and quite in the hostel in the morning because most people either sleep late in general or are sleeping in late due to hangovers. Score for me and whoever is working the hostel desk in the morning because they get to enjoy my company. So, I did some more hanging around, Nick left for Guadalajara, I expect I will be seeing him there if we can arrange it, and people got the bright idea to go for one of those huge margaritas on the beach. Alright, I didn’t spend much money on breakfast because I’m budgeting well lately. Let’s do it.
Flash forward to about 2:30pm and a about six people are starting on their second margarita. I wouldn’t say it was a stupid idea but it was definitely the start to their slippery slope of a night. I restrained myself with just one so I could go surfing with Sascha. So, only the tiniest bit tipsy, we headed back to the hostel.
Interruption: I forgot to mention meeting Geoff, the Austrailian Canadian, the other day. Cool dude. Geoffs/Jeffs have to stick together despite the spelling. Unless they spell it Geff, then they’re on their own. Anyway, we’ve hung out a bit and while I was chilling in the hostel as he came back from surfing he told me I could use his 8ft foam surf board for free! Righteous!
Back to the story. Sascha and I ran into Cabiri who was with her friend Sam at the hostel. Sam wanted in on the surfing so we waited and left together. At the beach I saw Mathilde and Sam (a different one), the Swedish-Canadian couple. Sam is from Vancouver but he has lived in Sweden for five years. The result of this is that his accent is a little bit off. I would not have guessed he was Vancouver at all. I think it’s super cool. I want a messed up accent too. To me it’s a mark of adventure and culture transfer.
The surfing was alright. Hopefully everyone that was watching me saw my first wave and not much else. I feel close to getting it down. I need to be mindful and not try to push up when my hands are holding the sides of the board and I need to commit a bit more to the jump up. So close. After surfing we began the party. I was chatting with a Mexican dude staying in the hostel named Oasvaldo and he told me that he and the girl he is traveling with will be leaving for Guadalajara on the same day as me. Free ride, cha-ching! After cake and birthday singing, Sascha and I headed to Cabiri’s for a little party. We shared some mezcal and laughs before the rest of the crew showed up from Lush. It was fun night that ended up at Camaron, of course, the beach club that is famous for its Friday nights.
I understand that there is a surprising lack of photos in this post but I haven’t been mindful of my documentation. This blog has almost turned into a journal so you’ll just have to deal. I plan on taking a day to get some photos of the town so you can look forward to that.
Here’s a photo of my engineering tan.
