ChrisJenTravel.com – Honeymoon Trek

We had a long drive from Barra de Nativadad to Pasquales. First we drove through the huge port city of Manzanillo, taking a wrong turn and ending up on the Malecon (waterfront street), which cost us about an hour. We escaped out of town and took another wrong turn, ending up about 12 km in the wrong direction at the wrong beach. With the help of some extremely friendly locals, we were finally on the right path to Tecoman. Pasquales is a very well known surf break right outside of Tecoman. We stopped for lunch along the way. Yes, you guessed right….tacos. And we tried a cold coco. There are stands along the streets selling fruit and especially coconuts. The good ones have huge coolers and you order one for about a buck and watch as the vendor quickly hacks the coconut with a machete, just enough to put a straw through a small hole. We thought it was okay, maybe could have been a little better if we could have managed to squeeze a splenda packet or two down…..but refreshing nonetheless.

Eager to get there, we drove into Tecoman and began asking for additional directions. Every local gave us directions with more fervor and passion than we hoped for. They spoke very fast and used huge arm gestures and after circling the entire city a couple of times, we were finally on the right path. We drove past what must be the area’s coconut capital and arrived to a pretty dirty, black sand beach. We looked around for a place to stay, the surf bungalows seemed appealing at first. We got a tour from a nice, but kinda strange expatriate and decided that his palapas (thatched roof hut) and abandoned trailer were too gross for $20 a night. We strode across to Paco’s hotel, a clean hotel on the beach and decided to go for the clean, safe bet….getting ripped off for $40 a night. Knowing that we would stay for only one night, Chris rushed to the beach to catch some waves….they were too strong for me.

Chris: I was anxious to get out in the water since I had heard great things about the break there. It is compared to Puerto Escondito a little further South which is the Mexican equivalent of the Banzai Pipeline. With the swell still a bit weak the waves weren’t huge, but were definitely the strongest I’ve seen so far. The swell comes in uninterrupted due to a deep trench offshore then breaks on a shallow sandbar about 50 yards off the beach – pretty hollow, fast and intimidating but forming perfect A-frame tubing waves. While we were there the 2-4 foot swell produced waves about a foot overhead. I got out for a late afternoon session with only one other guy in the water (I later learned the mornings are glassier and therefore more crowded) and caught 2 or 3 waves with really fast drops. My short board I had been using for the smaller surf until then was definitely too small for the waves and the drift was daunting, but it was a fun session.

That night, we headed down to what seemed like “the strip” for dinner. We quickly saw that the bustling beach town closed down pretty quick after sunset. A restaurant decided to stay open a little longer for us – it was obvious that business is pretty slow in their “off” season. This was the first time that we found ourselves looking at a menu that we could barely interpret and no one spoke a dime of English. The only words on the menu that we could make out were fish and ceviche. We had no idea what type of fish or how it was cooked and there were about 12 different fish options. It was way too late to trek back and get our pocket dictionary, so I chose ceviche and Chris randomly pointed to one of the fish options. We clanked our beers together and hoped for the best. It turned out pretty good. Chris’ choice was basically fish and a stick of butter. A dirty sock could taste pretty good drenched in that much butter. We called it a night and Chris hoped for glassier waves in the morning.

The next morning I got out in the water early to similar sized but glassier waves, which was good since the crowd filled in quickly. I caught 2 or 3 really fun waves again and saw some great surfing from other guys in the water. All the time, I had been paddling almost constantly just to stay in the same spot due to the drift. Then, while taking a short break to talk to a guy from the States, we both got caught in a riptide and I spent most of my energy paddling 150 yards back to where we started! Exhausted, I caught one more and decided to quit while I was ahead. One note: It was fascinating to me that most of the crowd at the break, and actually some of the most aggressive “surfers” were actually local boogie-boarders. Now, where I come from, no one over 12 years old rides a boogie-board and those that do definitely don’t get any respect when it comes to demanding waves out in the water. Here though, they travel in packs and seem to carry more attitude than the surfers. It was a pretty funny scene.

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