Central & South America

So, you've probably noticed we didn't blog or contact anyone at home for about a week. Well, thats because we spend a week on a remote beach. So this blog is gonna be a day by day of what exactly happened (if I can remember it all).

Day 1:

Arrived at the beach, called Playa El Zonte, we acutally got off the bus at what seemed like the middle of nowhere. Fortunately there was a road there, and we walked down it. This is when we saw the first other white people in El Salvador, it was actually a nice change, as we had been getting some minor hostilities in the big city (San Salvador).
Upon arrive (at the actual beach) we found the place we wanted to stay at very easily. The next thing of the agenda was to find someone to give us surf lessons. After asking around, we came back to our hotel, and asked one of the other surfers staying there. He suggested we talk to Alex, the guy who owned the place we were staying at. At the time Alex was out, but as soon as we got back we ambushed him. He said the surf was too big that day, so we had to at least wait till the next day. I forgot to mention, we went for a swim (in the big surf), and we lost the room key, probably less than an hour after it was given to us. Luckily there was another copy of the key. We ate at our hotel, then went to bed after some cards (I think thats how it went down). There were only 2 single beds in our room, so I volunteered to sleep on the floor all week (I know, I'm a saint).

Day 2:

Leigh woke up uber early to see a sunrise (5:00 am), I opted not to because I didn't sleep too well due to extreme heat and the whole sleeping on the floor thing. Uh, lets see, what'd we do today, we ate breakfast right at our hotel. Wait, I gotta take a moment to describe this place. It has a main house-like building with the bathrooms, and the bedrooms, a tv slash surf board room. Then outside, there is a hut, with all the tables for the restuarant, and many hammicks (I love hammicks). Just beside the hut was a pool (mostly for washing salt water off of people and boards). Near the pool was the bar slash restuarant ordering place, which had a set of stairs on the outside to a hangout spot on the top of it, which was probably one of the best places to eat, and it had another 4 hammicks.
Anywhoo.. back to the day. After breakfast, we were informed by Alex that the surf was still too big, so instead of surfing, we went for another swim in the big surf, this time with nothing in our pockets. It was a lot of fun, I swollowed quite a bit of seawater. We didn't do too much else that day; we found a restuarant that sells burgers for $1.50, and went for a walk down the beach. We had dinner at our hotel (Leigh and I downed 5 burgers with a side of fries with each one), after leigh and I did a exploration mission of the restuarants on the beach. Another night on the floor for me.

Day 3:

Woke up, I think we all woke up at some normal time (except for me, cause I was on the floor). We had breakfast at the nice cheap restaurant right on the beach. The prices were like $0.35 US for a pancake, which was a huge hit with Leigh. I believe Ryan and Leigh had pancakes, while I had eggs and pancakes (not completely sure). The next thing on the schedule was to find out if we could get some lessons on this day. Alex was around, and he said we could do some lessons that afternoon. I believe we spent some of the morning looking for shells, then we lazed in the hammicks for a while. Then we ate lunch, but I can´t recall where, maybe at our hotel, but probably at the cheaper restaurant (I think we had a $10 credit from the morning, cause they couldn´t break our $20 bill, so that was a neat feeling, it felt like a free meal). After lunch we probably played cards and then lied in the hammicks (I know, our lives are very hard) until about 3:30, which is when we got ready for our first surf lesson at 4.
Ah, yes, the surf lesson, what fun. Alex took us a ways down the beach, partly because the currents were lessened there, and there was fewer rocks (I guess he figured we´d be falling a lot). The first thing he did was give us a spiel on what the surfboards were not. They are not sun umbrellas (they don´t like sun), they are not seats (if you get sand in the wax, you will get a terrible rash when you lie down on them), there was a couple other things, I can´t remember, oh well. Then he made outlines of our boards in the sand, and made us practice the procedure for standing up on the board. It seemed pretty easy, and we were soon in the white water (which is whats left of the wave after its broken, they are about 1 foot to 6 feet in height, so some of them are really moving). We were supposed to wait for a big white water, then jump onto our boards and forward in the water, when the white water would catch us, and we´d be flying along. After about a dozen times, and a few tips from Alex, I was standing up on the board with about a 80% success rate. I´d like to say I was the first to stand up on the board, but I´m not really sure, so I won´t. Soon, we were heading back down the beach to the hotel, and we had a quick lesson in the pool, about how to turn the board around quickly in the water. Soon, we had discovered that our two hours were up (time flies when you are being washed up upon shore), and we each owed Alex $20 (well worth the mone I think). Alex then said we could do the next lesson on the next day. We were all fairly tired, but I think this was the night we had a few beers, ryan broke a ping pong paddle (oh ya.. there was a ping pong table there too, pretty intense games) but chucking it at the table. After Ryan repaired the paddle, and I went for a cool-down swim, we headed to bed.

Day 4:

I´m awake early again, and I think that Ryan tried to get up and watch the sunset, but he was back in bed fairly soon after he got up, apparently it was cloudly.. ya.. whatever Ryan. I was up fairly early, so I read some surfing magazines until the restaurant opened, then ordered a breakfast of Granola con Leche and a jugo de piña (both very good). Soon Ryan and Leigh were up, and we went and asked Alex about the lesson this day. He said he was heading to San Salvador, but would be back somewhere around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and would be able to give us a lesson then. We took the boards out that morning to go practice what we learned the day before. Unfortunately Leigh broke a fin on his board somewhere on the way to our practice location, so he couldn´t practice, but Ryan and I got a good little session in. We did it until we got bored of doing just the same thing over and over, and until we felt like we´d have had enough sun. Then we ate lunch (somewhere, most likely at the cheap place, well, cause its cheap), and lazed around in the hammicks, waiting for Alex´s return.
Unfortunately, Alex never returned.. DUN DUN DUNNNNN! (until the next day). So we never got a lesson on our 4th day on the beach. Instead, we took another intense swim in the ocean, then lazed in the hammicks (again). After dinner (nothing memorable) we went to bed, and I spent another night on the floor.

Day 5:

We woke up at a normal time, I actually slept fairly well, better than other nights, but I was still up first, at around quarter after 6. I read some more surfing magizines (in english, else I would just be looking at pictures) until the other two were up. We had breakfast (somewhere), and lazed around a bit (we did that a lot) we probably played some cards, maybe some ping pong. It was just before noon when Alex got back, we figured something bad had happened so we didn´t bother him right away. We instead went for another hunt for shells. When we got back we talked to him. Apparently, he got a super painful ear infection while in San Salvador. He had to drive around all night, trying to find a doctor. He said it was a miracle cause he found one at 4 am. So when he got back, he was very tired, and on a lot of painkillers. He also wasn´t allowed to surf because of the infection. In his words: ´´No surf, I know, it sucks´´. But he still said he´d be able to another lesson with us the next day, as long as he was careful. It was quite funny when he describe what the pain was like. (Warning, this is about to get a little PG-13 on all of you) He said ´´It was like, like, someone was sticking, uh, a.. a penis in my ear.´´ We all got a good laugh out of that. So we planned to have a lesson the next morning. His words ´´Be ready to go at 7:30´´. The rest of the day is a blur, sorry guys, I just can´t remember.

Day 6:

I woke up really early (5:30) to go for a private walk on the beach and watch the surf for a while. I wrote something in the sand, took a few pictures, and watched the surf engulf the rocks I was standing on. A very beautiful morning overall. After at least an hour on the beach alone, I headed back to the hotel. The guys wanted to woken up at 7 to get ready for the lesson. I woke them up by taking a nice sepiatone picture of them sleeping (with flash of course). They were soon up and ready to go. Alex didn´t make an appearance until 7:20, which was when his breakfast was served to him, after his breakfast, we expected he would come over and talk to us, but instead, he started a nap on the floor. We all thought (or at least I did), ´´We´ve got all day, whatever, maybe he didn´t get a good sleep.´´ Then he was up again, and drinking coffee. Thats when he said his first words of the day to us, which were ´´Hey guys, I´m still hungry, so you should probably get breakfast.´´ So we did. We ate breakfast at our hotel, and when we finished, we found Alex napping on the floor again. We didn´t get out on the waves until about 9:30, meh, whatever.
This lesson was a bit different, we were catching bigger waves slash whitewater, and we weren´t jumping onto the board, we started on the board and caught waves by paddling. We were also learning how to turn, but he told us it is a lot easier ´´in a real wave, instead of this whitewater crap.´´ It lasted about an hour and a half. He said we´d do some actual surfing later that day, out on the point, (catch some pointbreaks). Unfortunately, he headed back into San Salvador that day, and didn´t get back till about 8 at night, so we didn´t get another lesson. We ended up eating lunch at the cheap place right after the lesson. I had a fried beef, it was weak at best, but whatever. Again, the rest of the day is a blur of lying in hammicks mixed in with some cards and ping pong. Had dinner, and went to bed in good time, we had an early morning (sorta) the next day.

Day 7:

Woke up at about 6, packed up and were on the road at a little after 7. We said goodbye to the beach, goodbye to surfing (for now), and caught the first bus back to town.

I hope that is detail enough for you guys, you are probably all chomping at the bit, waiting for the information on the week where we weren´t in contact, so here it is.

Take it easy,

Peace,

Craig

Hey fans,

So, its hard to find a way top contact home when you are on a beach where it is hard to find a convience store. So, that was our latest predicament, not a bad one though. We spent the last week on the beach called El Zonte (pronounced Sonte, we were laughed at when we said Zonte). While we were there we caught a few surf lessons, which let us catch a few waves. Its pretty fun stuff, we now plan to find somewhere to surf in a few more places (aka Costa Rica, Panama, etc).

Before El Zonte, we were in San Salvador. Big city, not my cup of tea, too much confusion with buses and too much walking for not enough fun. We actually ended up in the red light district around sundown, fortunately a local was friendly enough to acutally drive us back to our hotel.

Gotta go, times up,

Will blog soon, we are in more civilized places.

Peace everyone, hope the weather is improving.

Later
Craig

it was thursday night and we had our malaria pills that day. i actually slept that night, contrary to that last few weeks after i had the pills. i guess all i have to do to go to sleep after having malaria pills is to be hungover and climb a mountain. we came into el salvador last friday, we werent able to cross the boarder because we took the advice of a local whom told us that we could get across the boarder with one bus insted of having to go back to guatemala city and then to the boarder. we made it to the southern boarder insted of the central boarder, that wasnt so bad. the bad part was that we had to take 3 busses to get there insted of two, and it used more money so we didnt have enough money to get across the boarder but we had just enough to get on the bus to the last town which had an ATM. we so we ended up staying the night at the town with the atm. we made it to San Salvador the capital city of El Salvador in good time. El Salvador has a population of about 2 million. so if you want to know what its like just picture toronto, where the malls are partially outdoors. they have all the same major brands we do for food like: subway, macdonalds, pizza hut, KFC and so fourth and so fourth. we found an ninendo we but it cost $600 USD, it was rediculous. we went for long walks around the city to try and find the conservatory garden, and the art museum. but they were definately worth it. we left for el zonte two nights after we came to San Salvador. el zonte was very small. it probably had a population of less then 150. but it was a really cool surfing community. there werent even any grocery stores so we had to eat at resturants for every meal, which wasnt horrible. we learned how to surf from a guy named alex who owned the place we were staying at. the waves were really fun to play in. the salt water made my hair super crazy; it was awsome. the beach was about 50 metres away from our hotel room so a swim was never far away. the only reason we ever needed to know the time was when the sun was too hot to go to the beach. that was about 11-3 so we stayed in the hammocks till then. surfing is the most amazing sport ever. i will definately come back to el zonte in the future. i really do enjoy lying in a hammock, surfing, sipping licuados de fruita, and swimming. we left el zonte on sunday. and after much travelling we having finally made it to the boarded town of......blank (i dont know the name of it) in Honduras. but it seems pretty cool. the people in El Salvador were all very helpful and nice. dispite the lack of tourist destinations, i suggest you hit the southern beaches for some surf and turf. Even though we were there for 7 night if i ever blogged again while i was there it was say something similar to what i have said above. tomorrow we head to copan to check out the ruins, we stay there for two nights, then move on to the bay islands which means.....you guessed it, more surfing. But we will actually have internet, so its really exciting.

Technically I'm no where near El Zonte... nor even in El Salvador... but that is besides the point. So, we left San Salvador in favour of the beach life, which suits the three of us quite well... there are no complaints about endless beaches, palms, and awesome point breaks. We headed to El Zonte ( pronounced sonte ) to learn us some surfing skills. We arrived to hear that the breaks were much to large for us to learn in, as was the next day, finally we got out for our first leasson. We all got up and were "surfing" in white water.. which is basically just the small broken waves close to shore. We were all stoked for our next lesson, so the next day we went out to practice what we had learned. We got out there and leigh discovered that he was missing a fin.. bummer, because they are expensive to replace. Craig and I stayed out for about an hour, and then headed in because the mid-day heat is terrible on white skin. At four that same day was to be our second lesson, but Alex.. the owner of the "resort" we were staying at and our surfing teacher, got a nasty ear infection and had to go to San Salvador to see a doctor. We didn't get our next lesson for another two days, which was simply learning how to turn and then practicing. That day we were to continue into real waves and try catching them, but Alex randomly went back to San Salvador. So, we did spend some solid hours getting the training, but we never got to try it on real waves... BUT, we have nicuragua, costa rica, panama, ecuador and peru.. which all have amazing breaks... I'm sure we'll spend some more time amongst the breaks again. Our time In El Zonte was awesome, we got a damn nice tan, learned some surfing basics.. got some seriously cool shells... got to see an amazing sunset out last night.. and spent countless hours in the surf, just swimming in the waves. I got some nice pictures of some locals surfing and of some beach art I sculpted outta the sand.

So, now we are on our way to Copain ruins in Honduras. We are spending the night here in Nueve Ocotopeque, and tomorrow heading for Copan, staying there two nights, seeing the ruins and some other attractions in the area. We then head out to the Bay Islands for three nights, do some more snorkelling... work a lñittle harder on our tans.. and maybe hike a trail or two. Next, we plan to head into the mountains to a small off the beaten track town for two nights, then hopfully onto Nicuragua the next day.

All is well with the three amigos,

we all miss home a little, but were having fun down here.

I miss you guys, were definatly going to have a huge "get together".. or "round" if you will when we get home,

happy trails,

Ryan.

P.S.: All you Hosers that are reading this and not leaving anything for us to read need to TAKE OFF EH! and to dang well write a comment... the parents are definatly winning in that respect... common show some love!