La Ticla

After spending two days in Barra de Navidad or Natividad as Chad kept calling it, we said bye to our amazing Canadian friends...Suzanne, Christian and Pumpkin (11 month old girl-cutest thing ever). We headed south down the beautiful coastline into the state of Michocan. We made a quick stop in Manzanillo to drop off our Arizona friend, Lee, who was attempting to finish the lengthy five year process of becoming a dual citizen...in case the US collapses he has something to fall back on (gotta love the paranoid). Although Manzanillo appeared to be a worthy stop we continued south on our never ending search for waves. We checked out the waves at the famous surf break, Pascuales, and Chad decided that due to the excessive afternoon wind and lack of organized sand bars it was a bit too closed out to surf. After talking to a couple of ex-pats who informed us that they were towing into the DOH waves that morning Chad became super anxious to get to our next stop. Due to Chad's excitement over the first decent waves he had seen all trip he failed to get diesel in Manzanillo convinced there would be some in a smaller town along the way. Unfortunately our lack of Spanish got the best of us and after speaking to a local man we were under the impression that we would have to drive all the way back to Manzanillo (through the $10 toll road AGAIN) to get fuel. Ugh...we went all the way back to Manzanillo to get diesel and it turned out that the guy said to go towards Manzanillo not to Manzanillo. Had we taken the free road we would have found a Pemex just a few kilometers down the road, not to mention one about every 10 k the remainder of the way towards Manzanillo. Another positive to knowing the language of the country you are traveling in. After this slight detour we stopped along the road to indulge in some lard fried adobada tacos, according to Erin they were the best tacos we have had to date.

We came around yet another mountainous turn and looked down to see clean overhead lines wrapping down the beach. Erin had to continually remind Chad to keep his eyes on the road in order to avoid another near collision. We pulled into La Ticla and were immediately greeted by Cisco, the 59 y/o Mexican surf guide from Punta de Mita, an absolute character. He gave us the scoop and ensured us that the burb and our belongings would be safe or "seguro" in La Ticla. Shortly thereafter we were living in our oceanfront expandable studio tent. We stayed in the humble palapa campground for $4 a day opting out of "Hollywood" which was the next step up with casita's and palapas with private baths. Cisco pinned us as the Hollywood types and was pleasantly surprised at our camping choice. Within minutes Chad was out in the lineup. Although there were about 30 surfers out, there were plenty of peaks to handle the crowd. Cisco introduced us to the professional surfers that he was escorting around Mexico...Sep (Canadian), Shannon Brown (Australian), Martin (Mexican) and two 18 y/o Canadians. They were phenomenal surfers, dominating every wave, and absolutely hilarious outside of the water. Due to the fact that they hadn't seen a decent looking girl in weeks they made jokes about stealing Erin away from Chad in the middle of the night. The next day Erin filmed Chad out in the line-up with the pros and was pleased to see Chad hold his own.

Our neighbor Chuck, who owned his own expandable studio tent, is a surf photographer. He takes pictures of surfers all day and then charges $4 a print in order to sustain his Mexican beachfront lifestyle...not bad! Erin has now taken an interest in photography and is looking into buying a nice D-SLR Sony or Cannon camera (Tyson what model sony do you have?). Her interest in photography and not surfing was solidified following her near death experience being caught in a strong rip current. Ok, near death is a bit of an exaggeration, however once you panic out in the water all is over and it feels like you are going to die. After taking pictures of Chad surfing for a few days Erin asked Chad to go swimming with her. She knew there was a strong rip which is why she consulted the water pro before entering the water. They entered the water up the beach and were immediately pulled into the rip. Due to the fact that Erin has not worked out in over three years her swimming ability was a bit weak and her confidence was extremely low. Chad advised weak Erin to swim as hard as she could directly to shore, against ever rip current advice she had been given throughout her life saying to swim parallel to shore. Clearly this was not going to happen. Chad attempted to pull Erin to shore, however without fins this was another failed attempt. Eventually the two made it to shore with Erin bitching at Chad the whole way for overestimating her strength and ultimately for taking her right into a rip. Lesson learned: Don't listen to Chad, gain some muscle, and wear fins when you are swimming near a rip.

That being said, La Ticla was our favorite spot. Rhino loved diving for rocks in the river, Chad loved everything, and Erin loved her swim! Main lesson learned: Don't pee in the river...little one-way spiney fish will swim up your pee hole like the salmon returning to Capistrano :).