20th - 21st August
After a morning swim at Playa Del Coco, I packed my tings and rode back to San Juan Del Sur... I poked around the shops for a while and picked up some supplies ready for some proper camping, they have lots of nice hammackas in San Juan but they were too much for my budget. On the whole the town is really cool with a nice chilled out vibe and lots of surf tourists cruising around. Still it was too busy for me and not close enough to the waves so I rode on to Playa Maderas.
For $3 a night I was allowed to pitch my hammock between a pair of friendly trees next to a super smiley group of backpackers who were also braving the weather in tents. There was water, of sorts available in the toilets and showers provided by the bar but it was very basic and far from drinkable. I set my hammock up with a nice view of the ocean and went for a small but fun surf.
In the evening I met a guy called Oscar from Barcelona who was travelling indefinitely in a 4x4 camper he had bought in California. He had made his way down through Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador and was taking his time! We got chatting about the bike and compared trips and each others setups... I was almost jealous, he had done a real nice conversion in the back of his truck with a gas hob, fridge, bed etc etc... it looked soo comfy compared to my hammock! Oscar asked if I fancied a smoke and we went halves on a doobs worth of weak weed from a local guy and smoked one up in his wagon. We chatted for a couple of hours in Spanish, he was very enthuastic but spoke in a clear and easy to understand way and was patient as I tried to piece together meaningful sentances... I was chuffed to hold a conversation for that long!
Soon after the doob my brain shut down and I was struggling to form sentances so clambered into my hammock as the rain and wind came in and battered my tarp.
The next morning the swell was still small but I had a little splash around and then got out and setup the majestic Trangia for the first time! A Trangia is a Swedish military camping stove that my very kind friend Jules lent me for the trip.... my first cook up was some porridge and a coffee... yum!
The day passed with no real excitement and the surf never picked up... I did however manage to cook spaghetti in the Trangia which was mmmmmm.... bland!
Oscar had been into San Juan for the day and came back with another joints worth of weed and again invited me to share. In his wagon, in hushed tones to avoid locals over hearing him, he explained that he was working as an artisanal type person to pay his way as he travelled however on this trip he had scaled it up and rather than sitting in the street making bracelets and little money he had gone wholsale! He had bought up a load of necklaces, earings, bracelets, beautiful fossilised rock cut into pretty shapes etc, etc... and would go into tourist towns and sell direct to the shops. That day he had made $300 in an afternoons work!! He was careful not to draw attention to his work so only sold small $30-$50 packets to multiple shops and was very careful not to let the locals know what he was doing for fear that they would jack his van and take his cash and stock. A clever plan and it seemed to pay well... I was making nowwhere near $300 in a whole day of work and he was doing on the beach and surfing everyday... legend!
The next day the swell was still small and I decided to move on in search of real waves. Oscar and I got the maps out and he showed me the hundreds of waves I had to visit on my way North and I explained the South. He was appalled that I only had plans for 3wks in Mexico and impressed upon me the need to re-jig my timings to allow time for the mighty Olas of Mexico... Noted!
No comments:
Post a Comment