3rd - 5th Sept
Leaving Tortuga Verde I headed North toward San Miguel then West up the Coast aiming for La Libertad, the ride took just under three hours and was dead easy, cruising in full sunshine and happy to be back on the road. A further 15mins from La Libertad I had reached El Tunco, the most touristy surf spot on the El Salvadorean coast. Turning off the main highway a paved road runs down into a small town lined with hostels, bars, restaurants and hotels. I parked the bike out front of a restaurant and jumped off to eyeball the surf and check out some hostels, as soon as my feet hit the ground a local guy came up to me and asked for $3 for parking. I argued the point that I would only be staying for ten minutes but he was having none of it... it sucks when places get popular, everyone piles in to take money from the gringo, in reality it's just the same as home but it was a definite shift in the vibe from the rest of my trip so far.
El Tunco is situated right on the beach front, a solid beach break crashes in front of the restaurants whilst a short walk up the beach is a long, friendly right hand point break called El Sunzal. Glassy three to four foot waves were rolling down the point in the late afternoon sun, it looked beautiful.
I wasn't that keen on the vibe at El Tunco and had been recommended a hostel by Rory just down the road in the tiny village of El Sunzal. The hostel El Balsamo takes it's name from the stretch of coast in the North West of El Salvador and is a very basic concrete block of four rooms, including one dorm situated in the garden of a super nice, chatty and smiley local woman called Veronica and her Dutch Husband. There is a small concrete half pipe and skateboards to rent, a small decked area with a bar & well stocked fridge of beer, two hammocks, a set of gas hobs and cooking utensils and a toilet/shower. I took a dorm bed for $6 and had the place to myself for almost a week!
El Balsamo is tucked away down a tiny, stoney dirt road just off the main coastal highway. A small sign out front just about gives it away with out which you would think it was just someone's garden. The track continues for another 500m down around the perimeter wall of a hotel and pops you out right on the boulder point. It was late and I decided not to surf, instead I just sat on the point and watched the waves as the sun set behind the next headland. I was treated to another amazing colour fest!
Two peaks form over the reef depending on the angle of the swell. The good guys take off further up the point where the wave stands up first and makes a quick right hand wall which joins up with the second peak before rolling on gently down the reef. Depending on which direction the wave was coming from it was possible to link the two peaks by racing down the line and trying to get there before it stood up and broke ahead, or on top of you. Because of this the take off is quite shifty which serves to spread the waves around the crowd and cause the entire lineup to get smashed by the odd freak wave!
On my first two days the swell was building to a solid 8ft @ 16s and the point was picking up plenty of swell, I was up early making porridge and coffee on the stove and in the water by 7am. A light offshore wind groomed the waves and the occassional double over head faces were breaking up the point. Clambering over the boulders and down onto the beach I jumped in from the sand and paddled about 300m out to sea to where the second peak was forming and sat for 15mins watching the way the waves were breaking. After a while a wide set swung round the point and a wave popped up just where I was, I turned, paddled and dropped down the face for a long straight roll in, leant over on to my toes and carved back up the happily overhead face and round for a quick top turn and then faded and followed with another three or four cut backs before finishing a few meters short of the beach, it was too easy!
During the next days I got progressively deeper but got frustrated by the amount of people and really struggled to get the waves I wanted. A crew of 20+ with a quality local presence dominated the main peak and had it wired, I got maybe three or five really good waves in a 2hr session and just found myself getting angry that I couldn't get more (rudy greedy!). Sitting alert in pooey water for thirty minutes or more, getting constantly excited and paddling for a wave to find that five guys have just paddled into a better position and taken the wave before you is really annoying, especially when it's such a perfect wave. Anyways...
In the middle of the day I would read, blog and speak to my Bennun on Skype before going back out for an evening session. I cooked my self some spaghetti in the day and at night walk out onto the main road and into the village where a pair of young Salvadorean women seemingly endlessly churned out traditional Papusas (doughy, potatoey, flattened balls stuffed with cheese and refried beans) over a wood fired hot plate. A que of locals waited as the women slapped the dough balls around and sweated in the heat from the fire. I ordered five for $1.75 and took my bag of treats and the complementary pickled cabbage and hot sauce back to El Balsamo. The nearest supermarket was a 15minute ride and there was now way I could compete with the girls on price so for about 6 nights on the trot I ate five pupusas for dinner... stodge!
As Saturday came around I had arranged to meet a friend of a friend in the capital, San Salvador, check out a museum and go out for a drink. On route was the town of La Libertad the home of the most famous surf break in El Salvador, Punta Roca. I was due to meet Gaby at 5pm so after a chilled morning I rode to La Libertad, found a beach front restaurant with an incredibly friendly owner and parked up to take some lunch. The guy told me to ride my bike into the restaurant as it was not safe to leave it outside and I walked ten minutes up the promenade to the main break, waves were breaking pretty much the whole way down as I walked... with the right swell this wave can break for over a Kilometre!
Notoriously unsafe the promenade and car park at the break is famed for tourists getting held up at gun/knife point... I saw no such drama buy was more on edge than normal. The wave itself was incredible, the longest continuos wave I have ever seen and it was so glassy... Unfortunately thirty guys were on the peak and were absolutely killing it, taking off in front of a dry rock, pulling straight into a 5s barrel then busting out huge top turns and charging down the line for 300-400m, it was awesome to watch but impossible to compete with. I snagged two smaller waves that the pack missed and still had to hustle four other guys to get on them... both were super fun, fast, really fast waves that ran for about 200m, between pumps I got three or four hits on the lip and surfed them pretty well. Still I had major wave envy and left feeling a little unsatisfied.
Getting in and out of the water was comical. I watched a load of people before me to see how it was done... there was no graceful way! Wait for a set to pass, scamper over the burning hot dry boulders until your in the water, then feel your way across the next boulders getting progressively deeper until a wave comes , then spread feet over two different slimey but barnicle covered boulders and brace yourself while you get smashed by a 2ft wall of white water, knocked over onto your bum and dragged backward into the boulders behind and repeat until there's a big enough gap to jump on your board and paddle hard to avoid the next barrelling wave landing on your head! Getting out is the reverse but harder as the water gets shallower and you have nothing to balance on... picture bambi on ice but with a surf board under one leg getting hit in the bum by waves and bouncing off slimey barnacled rocks cutting legs and feet until beached in an embarrassed yet relieved mess! Both my legs, both feet and one hand had streaks of blood running down them, I looked a state!
Anyway Punta Roca Is one of the most impressive looking waves I have seen, I would love to go back and spend a couple of weeks figuring out... maybe another time.
I got cleaned up, washed off the blood and jumped on the bike just as a big storm started to drop the rain... The ride to San Salvador was going to be fun!
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