Monday, January 26, 2009

blogless blog

man, getting to this blog thing has been tough so far. i´m more concerned with trying to find a bano or ducha, much less worried about updating a blog. And now, what 10 days later or something, I have so many stories I could write a novel. I´m pretty sure it´s safe to say we´re the only car with a usaán, venezuelan, costa rican and mexican driving down baja or driving anywhere. so to start, we met a guy named Jose in ensenada on our 1st day and he surfs, lives in cabo san lucas and we hung out surfing and skating with him and his friend. he needed a ride to cabo so we decided to bring him with us since he seemed to know where to go. one thing you learn in mexico is that nobody knows where to go. everyone says different directions and distances and jose always says in his broken english ´¨it might takes 2 hours o 4 hours¨to get anywhere. we drove the roughest terrain possible in baja, always lost and always worried about gasoline. camping under more stars than ever seen, waking up only to see giant pelicans gliding on huge swells with not a soul in sight and eating more shrimp & fish tacos at 10 pesos a taco than you can imagine. the surf has been good, the weather really nice, the driving good some & mostly bad and have met so many nice people. We were offroad, like 4 hours off the only paved road and didn´t know when we´d see people or gas again and stopped a shanty shack to ask for some help. these people gave us gas out of a tub and fed us fresh caught fish and lobster in their back yard or should I say dirt in the back of the house, not really a yard...and of course with homemade tortillas. I gave them maui surf and skate hats for the hospitality and got some classic pics of the old mexican lady rockin of the hats. Haven´t been able to upload any photos yet. Everyone everywhere has been so nice, people driving in front of us to show us where to go, being helpful, letting us use their bathroom or whatever. All the military checkpoints were easy and eventless and the only policia action has been us stopping to ask them for directions. Jose brought nothing with him other than surfboards, skateboards and a back pack. I wondered if he´d try to eat our food but no, he jumped in the water and got clams and abalone and even an octapus....made ceviche and I even ate all these things with him. we borrowed a fishing line from some nearby fisherman at el conejo and caught fish off of our surboards after finding bait in the low tide rocks (hermit crabs). Surfed with whales breaching in the background, huge jellyfish which stung the hell out of me, seals, jumping fish and really really good waves with no crowds. We met a guy pablo and camped in front of his families trailer in san pedrito. He & his wife and kids were really nice and cute, they have a laid back lifestyle that I could see myself doing. He hooked us up with the guy we just met today, on mainland mexico in san blas who runs this surf camp. This guy is telling us all the safety tips, which we ask everywhere and is already going to link us up with someone to stay with further south when we leave. last night we rode the 15 hour ferry from la paz to mazatlan. whew, I know that´s a lot but maybe nobody is reading this ...I was going to put a smiley face there but I can´t figure out how to do it on this spanish keyboard. My spanish is coming along but not fast enough, I guess I need to be patient and not expect to learn a language in 10 days but if john travolta could do it a day in phenomena, then why can´t I in 10 days¿¿¿ I also am realizing that the spanish my friends from costa speak is a little different than the people in mexico, different slang I guess and john travolta didn´t have to deal with that. mas tarde. salud

3 comments:

  1. Jesse - well sounds like your are doing just what you wanted. Experiencing life in a way that just isn't possible any other way. Keep up the blog so you don't forget all the experiences and we can share in your adventure. I am so jealous and wish I could be there (except for the no banos and long ferry ride). I love you and think of you daily.
    Mom

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  2. So good. Keep it up buddy. This cube-jockey is living vicariously through you. Sounds like an incredible time. Send pics. Send burritos. Send me a plane ticket to come meet you.

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  3. Gotta love the upside down question marks....we are def readin, so keep bloggin! Good stuff man. Peace in the middle...west?!?!

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