Papoyo.... Sweet, Sweet Papoyo

22nd - 24th August

On the third morning of small waves at Maderas I was itching for a bit of size, a wave to get the  heart pumping. I was on the road by 10am having said goodbye to Oscar and settled my $6 tab for the two nights camping.

The roads from Maderas were a mix of dirt and stones/rock for the first half hour or so. Not long down the road I noticed the sky getting very dark and a heavy rain storm came over within ten minutes... I hid under a big tree for five minutes until it had all but passed then carried on. In a small town I had to ask for directions as the GPS on my phone wasn't working. An old lady pointed me in the direction of Papoyo and off I trundled.

Back on the dirt roads and dodging chickens and pigs I came to a fork in the road with a sign pointing right to Papoyo just as I was blindly following the truck in front going left... I stopped turned around and went right... a group of locals casually sat in a concrete shelter on the side of the road start whistling and waving at me??? In short they said it was left to Papoyo and I said why does the sign say right then??? They said left, something, something, something the road is better?!... I went left. Navigating around without GPS requires a little trust...

Another 20mins later I roled into a dusty little town with plastic and rubbish lining the streets and the smell of open sewers thick in the air. A sign saying Majestic Rock Hotel was left so I carried on straight??? The road just got narrower and narrower as it went around an estuary and dropped into a road/town lined with small hostel/hotel/cafe places just on one side, the beach side! I had found Playa Guanacasta??### at the end of the road is an ugly concrete hotel right on the mouth of a mangrove estuary looking out to sea. Across the river mouth I could see surfers walking back and in the background a quick looking, turquoise,  3ft clean wave!!

I wanted to get closer to the wave for camping so stopped in a really cool little 2 bed hostel / cafe which looked really nicely done up and asked in spanish if there was a closer place... he was an American and she was a Panamanian... we got chatting and the guy made me an incredible Banana smoothie with homemade granola mix and honey, it was genuinely incredible and they were really nice people. Anyway, they were full but gave me loads of good info on the wave and where to stay... I had to go back to the majestic rock sign in poo village and take a right around the estuary and ride out of town until I got to a big set of gates and a sign for Finca Papoyo. There a guard swung open the gates and said something, something, something to which I said ¡Si! And rode on along this tiny little farm track through the trees and around to a stone car park and thatched bar on top of a 20ft cliff bang on top of a beautiful A frame peak with crystal clear water and a reef bottom! It was midday and there were 6 guys out!!

With some bartering I agreed on $3 per night down from $5 on the basis that I didn't want to use their tent but simply put my hammock up between the posts of the lean to / barn. I setup camp under the thatched palm roof with a view directly over the wave. Bliss!

I spent three days at Finca Papoyo and endured a rigorous regime that consisted of waking up at 4:45am, cooking porridge and a coffee on the camp stove and watching as ten guys beat me to the waves despite me being the closest and only person staying actually on the wave!! I made it out to water just after 5:30am each day and surfed for about 3hrs. The mornings were super fun, light winds groomed the mid tide waves and the crowds were relatively small untill 9am when every man from miles around rocked up in 4x4's and joined the wolf pack. By mid morning there would be 50 or 60 guys hustling for waves with a hardcore of 5 local kids who had the wave dialed and would spent a good few hours showing everyone else how the wave should be surfed, snagging the odd barrel and smashing the lip so hard 8ft spray would come flying out the back of the wave. Very impressive to watch.

The wave itself is super fun, breaking over a slab reef with a long left and super quick but shorter right hander. It worked all the way through the tide but was better at mid and the wind, thanks to the lake in land, blew offshore all day long. For the three days I had here it stayed at 3-5ft and was exactly what I wanted, heavy, fast and challenging. It took me a day of floundering around before I got my first good wave, the peak shifts quite a bit and it took some learning but by the end of the 2nd day I had found my rythm and was catching a lot of heart pumping rights. My surfing, compared to the locals was embarrassing but I was up there with the majority of the gringos and definitely felt like I was improving.

On the 2nd day whilst sitting in the line up the best of the local kids kicked off and started berating this American guy, shouting at him telling him "get out, just go, get out now" when the American tried to stand up for himself the kid paddled right up to him and shouted "you wanna go, we gotta problem..." it was proper funny but I really thought he was gonna hit him! The reason he kicked off was because 30s before the Yank and I were paddling for the same wave, a heavy set wave with no one else in position but the guy was on my inside shoulder, in other words he had priority... I paddled alonside him hopeful that he would screw up or pull out but he looked commited until right at the last minute when he put the brakes on and pulled out... I had all but given up leaving the wave for him and despite watching closely, my last minute affort was not enough and I couldn't get into the wave... I was pissed but kept quiet. The local kid had watched all this from the inside as he was paddling back out and although it had not affected him at all he was clearly used to gringos ruining his or others waves and blew up... despite feeling somewhat responsible I watched from about 5m away as the guy was well and truly verbally destroyed, suffice to say I didn't see the American again!

At 9:30 - 10am I would get out, shower make a sandwhich and chill for a couple of hours on one of the hammocks at the bar. At 1pm most of the crowd had gotten out the water and buggered off back to the hills for some lunch... the tide was high but the wave still worked, it was just a little more mellow. I would surf for another couple of hours with only 5-10 other guys and catch a lot of fun waves. At 3ish I would go up for some water and chill then head back down for 4:30pm and surf till sunset with the crowds. This routine truly sucked?!!!!!! I was a happy bey!

On the 2nd night the barman who was busy serving no one came over to my hammock as I was cooking my spaghetti and hot dog sausage dinner and started chatting about the bike and the trip and gangsters, shootings and robberies etc!! He saw I hadn't much water and went away and came back with 2ltrs of clean drinking water free of charge... he then came back with Mosquito coils and carried on chatting away. We ended up chatting for a couple of hours in broken spanish and he made me feel genuinely welcome and safe in what was a very isolated location. There were no other hotels for another 10mins drive and no other people staying at the farm... they didn't have potable water other than from the fridge, there was a shower and toilet but other than that and the bar there was nothing... it was cool!

On the third day I surfed the morning and as I came back up the same kid who was working the bar the night before was still working and had made me a mango, papaya and orange fruit smoothie which was mind blowingly refreshing... and again for free. What a nice dude. He was young, chubby and had a baby girl due in November and worked solid shifts. The guys there, about 12 - 15 of them, rotated shifts at the bar, the gate and patrolling the huge grounds. They did 12hr shifts then slept for 4hrs on site then another 12hr shift for 4 days on the trot then went back to their families for 3 days before returning for more work. They were all super friendly and gave the place a super chilled and safe feel. The place was an amazing find and suited me perfectly. Give it another two years and there will be 3 large dorms and some private rooms, there was a constant stream of locals filling empty plastic bottles with sand in preperation for building the walls and as the guy explained there were grand plans for this place. It was a privilege to see Papoyo before it becomes even more developed, and interesting to see a place mid way through a big overhaul. 

I packed my kit, had a last short surf, paid the guy $20 for my three day stay (including drinks and beers), gave the guy a shameful tip as I had no more cash and got a Wave Project sticker on the fridge before heading off for Granada happy and surfed out!