October 30th, 2008 Puerto Escondido

(Revelations:

 In general, most mexicans don't drive all that bad.

 There is minimal road rage in the States for the most part too.

 I think the baja is overrated. South of Mazatlan is where it's at.

 The human race should join the mosquitoes because let's face it - we can't beat em.

 Having children is an important thing.

 When you have a lot to lose, you lose a lot of opportunities.

 Adaptability is a great travel trait.)

These words given to you by the zen master himself - Ricardo

So let's talk about the good stuff - Acapulco is the land of bad, bad, very bad cops who like to pull you over and demand money.....one thing to note if this happens to you send you wife/girlfriend/female companion in loaded with rage and tears would probably have helped spare no expense ladies let the mouth rip - these cops had no idea what to do with me and basically let us go the second time just to get rid of me - really!

After that we drove to Puerto Escondido and have had a great couple of days here with some small waves yesterday hit up with the long board and spent the day relaxing at the beach. Today we got up early got some offshore winds and moderate height waves, intermixed with a few bigger badder boys. Ricardo rode his boadyboard with class and pulled out the drop knee to impress me whenever I was looking. I on the other hand just got pumelled and tossed about like green salad. I managed to pull off ONE wave near the end and then got struck in the face and called it quits.

Today we are heading for Huatulco and hopefully some sailing time.

October 25, 2008 La Ticla

La Ticla is a tiny town with lots of gringos due to the decent breaks at the playa. Ricardo went out when we got here this morning after spending the night free camping on the beach at Ojo de Agua. Today at La Ticla we are paying $5/person7night - not bad. I´m sidelined beachside with the cold Ricardo had a few days ago and a pinched nerve in my right shoulder from paddling Betty (aka long board) at Sayulita a few days ago. We´ve definately sweated our body weight and more in the past few days the mainland is a lot hotter than the Baja. Driving down Mex 200 is nice the hwy is narrow but lined with lots of green shrubs and beautiful flowers. The plan is that we keep heading south looking towards Puerto Escondito and Huatulco area before leaving Mexico for Guatemala.

Cilantro

Just a quick blurb....love cilantro everyone must love it put it in your soup, in you sandwiches, salsa, buy it in large quantities, whatever it is in it makes everything taste so fresh and good.....truly:) Go people buy, buy!

October 20th, 2008 Mazatlan

We felt like this was a bit of a turning point for our trip as we said goodbye to the Baja and drove onto the ferry for Mazatlan. (Actually, just like the first time we were in Baja five years ago, we had a heck of a time getting out of the baja. The first time we missed our flight. Damn those taxi drivers that charged $50 to the airport. This time our dear vessel, Paris, had some major over heating problems. It got resolved in the end for just under $200 but it took three days of some serious Ricardo walking phoning dealing guarding and some serious Kim waiting waiting packing and more waiting at a posada. We missed a few destinations but alas (hey that's first time i use that word!) paris now flows fine and dandy).

Anywho, the ferry - our first Mexican "cruise" was uneventful however I would describe it more like a freighter ferry than a passenger ferry - there were plenty of trucks and truck drivers around. Nothing like being one of a very few women on board and white skinned to boot but we did make friends with a guy named Checko (the first official, he's called. Actually he invited us to the bridge later on that night and it was so cool learning about navigation and vessel educational programs. We shared and compared GPS knowledge. i also learned about why a vessel is loaded and unloaded in a certain way) who loads and unloads all vehicles. he put our van right next to the railing on the top level so we had ocean front property and an amazing few from our kitchen/bedroom for the 18hr journey. Of course we slept most of the way since it was overnight but did manage to fully get to appreciate the beautiful sunset/rise. 

In Mazatlan so far we done a lot of sweating - it's hot - we've hit the pool three time today and been in the ocean a couple of more on top of that. I caught a few great but quick rides on the beach about 2 blocks from our campground the break is fast and powerful but my boadyboarding skills continue to rise to the challenge:)  (I thought  Mazatlan was flat and no waves! So not the case i got absolutely pummelled today kinda in a bad way)

Now for something new - Ricardo is going to add his own flava' to the blog tonight......(actually i put it in brackets here and there)

October 17th, 2008 San Jose Del Cabo

Well we made it from La Paz and hit a good day of swell on the beach at Costa Azul near San Jose Del Cabo before the surf got flat.....actually the ocean is doing a great impersination of a lake right now! Yesterday we spent the day having the van looked at due to coolant system malfunction and today we are receving the parts and doing repairs. Ahhh life on the road:)

We have been able to eat some wonderful meals in San Jose and retuned to a few of our favorite spots from our last trip here 5 years ago. Last night we treated ourselves to some great tamales and hot dogs off the street - I think we paid $5 for our meals and had some cervezas to boot.

If anyone decides to come down here anytime soon we highly reccomend the french bakery (I know we are in Mexcio) but this place has the best crepes and coconut ice cream around. Also we highly reccomend La Dolce Italiano restaurant which has the best calamari made with white wine sauce and they will let you bring your own bottle of wine in for a small fee (of course). So if you are following along at all we drank our Sonoma Valley wine with the unbelievably good calamari - it was great!

October 14, 2008 La Paz Mexico

So we made it through the hurricane and headed south again - seems like we are always heading south - go figure. We have made it to La Paz and managed to book a reservation for the ferry to the mainland - Mazatland - for Sunday which means we have a couple of days to bum around the south tip of the Baja. Our Mexican Cruise to the mainland is 16hrs long and cost - a lot

Probably will be our first and only cruise....Yesterday we spent the afternoon at a beach outside of town relaxing a little after a long drive we played frisbee with the local kids in the nice warm shallow water - more just kept showing up and some of them could really wing it at you. Then relaxed on the beach to soak up some sun - for the first time really- and read a bit. Looking forward to catching some waves albeit fairly small if the swell report is right and doing more realxing on the beach.

PS if you are reading these post please comment so we know someone is out there

Hurricanes aren't so bad!

Yup, we drove straight into Hurricane Norbert that hit the Baja today. We toughed it out in a nice hotel in Loreto with hot showers running water electricity and internet - not soo bad. Actually we were pretty lucky because we wokeup this morning on a secluded beach at 6am and got on the rode early because we had no idea there was a hurricane coming but we made it into Loreto about 10 minutes after the heavy rain started and the roads were just begining to flood. So far we have no plans or any idea of what to do next - stay tuned! 

October 10, 2008 Mulege Mexico

OK so how do I sum up the last few days. Well for starters we left the USA driving across the border into Mexico was so so easy we didn´t even have to stop! Actually we almost turned around and went back because it felt to simple. We have a temporary (10 year) permit for Paris she can stay in the country longer than us - hmmmm maybe she´ll think about retiring herself here one day. We´ve been steadily heading south staying here and there along the way headed out for some surf at El Rosario to find a great spot with decent waves for both Ricardo and I to hit on our bodyboards....actually I had the best wave of my life there and then promptly followed it up with the worst wipe out of my life. Unfortunately Ricardo only saw the wipeout one:(

We were just about to get dinner started on our secluded beach and tuck in for the night when the Military showed up. Ricardo turned on the charm and after a long 20 mins of chit chat and a few photo opps AND a box of Tim Tams - thank you Holly! they told us we would be safe as they were camping near by. Well nearby was actually only about 100 ft away which made us feel safe - I guess they want to keep an eye on us.

Today we are in Mulege and tomorrow we will be headed out to Scorpion Bay - google it for all ou surfers out there. It should be good and I´ll try to get some more photos up soon.

New pics at flickr.com/photos/kraraya

Addition to September 30th and October 01, 2008

I had to add a second part to this day because it was really the best so far. After we left the cafe in Santa Rosa we headed for some wine tasting in the Sonoma Valley at Benziger Family Winery which as it turned out was the same estate Farley, Laura and I had toured on my 28th birthday trip. It is still beautiful, the tour was updated along with the winery and we walked out with a great Cab Sav for $40 that we are currently determining the best time for consumption. We continued on to the quaint little town of Sonoma and hit up the Sonoma cheese factory for some free cheese tastings of course picked up a nice block of cheese along with some smoked salmon and crackers for dinner then we headed around the plaza to the chocolate factory where we tasted some chocolate gnash with champange - see I told you it was a great day:)

And really ins't that what budget travelling is all about - the freebies!!!!

We then proceed to drive Paris over the Golden Gate bridge - also Ricardo's first time "look at the structures and the connections and whtacha ma callits and the......" I stopped understanding halfway through the first sentence. We ended up camping nect tot he beach at Halfmoon Bay stoked to see several places with some good surf along the way. 

Segway to today - got up early for a nice run along the coast, surfed a longboard break at Pacifica and headed into Daly City for a few errands. Drove up to Santa Cruz and could not believe how many people can actually surf at one break at one time - and with sea lions all around too!!!

Tonight we're at a KOA living the life of luxury - just got out of the hot tub and thinking we'll go for a swim in the heated pool in the morning - oh yeah we're paying through our camping nose for this place - 2nd most expensive KOA to stay at in the country - better make the most of it:)