100 Days Central America Ep3_ Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua

In Episode 3 we cross into Guatemala a country not really known for waves, beautiful none the less. Entering into El Salvador in the night was a fun experience but we woke up to a fun right point break. David has to fly home for a family wedding for a few days while I make some new friends and find a waterfall in the jungle! When David returns we venture south to the Las Flores area where we hit a swell dead on and get some of the best waves of our lives. On our way through Honduras we run into some trouble at the boarder which results in David getting injured and not able to surf in Nicaragua. Which ends up being the smallest waves we had seen in over a month!
Surf Shop in Guatemala!
http://www.surfinguatemala.com/?page_...
Epic Surf Resort in El Salvador!
www.K59SurfResort.com
Need somerwhere to stay in Nicaragua?
www.CafeConLecheNica.com

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Music by:
Pacific Dub- Sundown
Midnight Oils- Beds are burning
Naxxos- New Orleans

One 30 second long wave in El Salvador

After an all day drive and search for this wave, we showed just before dark and camped on the point. Woke up to about 25 guys out at 6:30am in the water, so waited until 8:30am and got out there to grab a few to ourselves this was one of the good ones!

Week 5 // Part 1 // The journey to the perfect right....

     First off sorry everybody for not keeping this blog as up to date as promised, sometimes it is very hard to sit down and concentrate for hours on typing up an interesting post. I do post as regular as possible on my instagram ( @travelsurflive ) and on facebook ( www.facebook.com/travelsurflive ). I like to keep all my blog post full of story and adventure, I have a few backed up half written posts still saved to be published later on. But this part of my trip was way to cool to wait and post so I want to tell you now!

Airport, Bali, Indonesia prior to departure.

     The journey to the Mentawi islands and this specific island in general is quite a bit of planning involved, my mate David has done it twice so he had a good idea on what we need to do. None the less last time he traveled there was 2 years ago and everything in this country changes everyday without notice or updates to websites! The whole journey would take an estimated 30 hours of traveling going something like this taxi, plane, plane, taxi, ferry, taxi, boat...... After we all sat down and went over prices for a few hours couple days in a row, the decision was made and we headed to the airport to book flights leaving on Thursday morning in two days. After getting all our gear packed and inside and on top a van heading to the airport for the 7 am flight to Jakarta (Java), which was of course delayed an hour. Arriving from Jakarta to the city of Padang (Sumatra) at 2 in the afternoon we waited for our bags to come out the baggage claim door. Once realizing we were the last ones standing there and no more bags on there way out we instantly had all sorts of thoughts and emotions. A friendly local Indonesian in the same situation told us to come with him to the counter and told us this happened to him before, after some translating we found out the bags will be on the next flight arriving from Jakarta in 4 hours.

Approaching the beach after a 2 hour boat ride.

     We had heard form some other traveling surfers that the ferry we were trying to get onto is being fixed and is not working anyways so we wrote off that were not getting onto that later in the evening. So wait we did for 4 hours and sure as shit our bags had finally arrived we got outta that airport as fast as possible right as the rain had started.... Getting to a hostel near the port the ticket office for the boat was closing in 10 minutes, we threw the bags off the car while David and myself hurried to the ticket office 1 minute away. Upon arriving they told us the boat the next morning (Friday) was now full, just like most third world countries pulling out a stack of cash will change there minds pretty quick. Walking out of there with 4 tickets for the 7am boat the next morning, finishing off the night with a few beers, and some locals lounging out front the hostel talking about the season and the people they have come to meet.

Heading to the village to find some necessities.

     Walking through the humid morning down the street with 70lbs of board bags and backpacks sweating in places you didn't know you had is a wonderful start the 2nd day of travel. Getting onto the ferry finding out the last minute tickets we got were basically standing room only, but screw it we were almost there, or so we thought. We didn't mind much until 30 minutes into a 3 hour boat ride were surrounded by 30 people chain smoking/ throwing up from being sea sick. I think we all agreed that was one of the worst parts of our trip by far! Finally landed on the island of Sipora, all the bags off the boat and put off to the side we had another surfer join us trying to get tot he same place we were, a guy from California named Todd. After trying to haggle with a few people trying to get a ride to our destination on the other side of the island we decided to find a spot for the night to get a shower, some food, and relax after two full days of travel.
     Having a walk around the small town of Tuapajet there is not much going on other than what is the necessities in life. You won't find WiFi, a nice restaurant, warm shower, maybe just a little TV if you really search for it. After a bit to eat the hammock I had purchased the day before we left sounded awfully nice to sprawl out in, play some cards and wait for dinner. Dinner was a fish curry, everyone knows I'm not the biggest fan of fish but when you know that meat is a rarity on this island you eat all of it you can. a good nights sleep and we were off on a boat to the south tip of the island where our destination was. I would more so call the boat a canoe hollowed out from a large tree, with a make shift roof, and two 25hp engines on the back. Surprisingly we fit all 5 board bags and gear in the boat without it tipping over, and to our surprise it actually made it's way through the water decently fast. After two hours of mild choppy conditions, water squirting through multiple holes whenever the boat smashed a good size wave, we cruised right up onto a perfect white sand beach in paradise.

     Now the two weeks on an island in the middle of the Indian ocean begins. The place we are staying is located right in front of the wave, it is a families house that they have added some extra rooms to. The family is much older now but still very nice, helpful, and still cooking and cleaning everything for the guests. The price was 60K (5 USD) a night including dinner, over looking a white sand beach, with a view of a perfect right through the over hanging palm trees. The four of us took over 2 rooms upstairs with a nice big room to keep our boards bags in and a large patio with dinning table to converse. There were two other people staying as we arrived, one being Francisco from Spain and the other Ben from Australia. Both super easy going guys, Francisco did a lot of spearfishing, basically all day everyday unless he was fixing his spear gun or the waves were to big. Ben on the other hand loved to lounge in his hammock and read whenever he wasn't getting ridiculously barreled sitting way out the back ever session getting some of deepest barrels I've seen in person!

     A few hours after arriving, settling in, unpacking, and getting a quick mie goreng (fried noodle and vegetables) Jeremy and I headed out for a surf. There was nobody out and we saw a few fun lil waist to chest high fun rippable waves coming through with nobody out. We were careful for the first few waves since it was lowtide and quite shallow on the inside, after about 30 minutes we slowly made our way deeper and farther out to better waves. On my 4th wave, 45 minutes into our first session I took off on the biggest wave we had seen so far only about 5ft and had a late drop, air dropping a few feet before landing and unfortunately sticking the nose and falling over the front of the board. I had penetrated the water luckily and popped out the back unscathed until I pulled my board toward sme and saw there was only half remaining. I quickly yelled out a few curse words as it was a basically brand new board and one of the favorite shaped I've had in a long time, but what can you do.
     It wasn't the best way to start the two weeks here but luckily I have 3 more boards knowing this would happen eventually. I didn't surf the rest of the day but sat behind the camera lense and got some shots of the boys getting some fun ones till the sun went down and the Beer caps started popping of the bottles......

Look out for Part II coming in the next few weeks!

Outter reefs in Sanur

     Thursday was our first day in the new town were in called Sanur, we headed down to get some breakfast and rent a scooter. Had a nice lil breakfast downstairs while waiting for our scooter, we packed up the boards and went down to the beach to check the surf out front. We ended up in front of a resort where I saw some white wash way out there, started talking to a few guys with boats to see if could get a ride out there, ended up finding a guy that would take us out there and pick us up when were done for $5 each. We hopped on the skiff and cruised out to where we saw a decent left coming through, there were a few local guys out, they were nice and we all surfed this left for about an hour and half. It was really weird being about a mile off the beach in the middle of the ocean surfing, both of us caught some really long waves, getting 8 turns on a few for over 100 yards! It was a fun session and there were other waves breaking farther out and both off to the right and left of us, we think this place has some great potential but the waves and swell direction have to be right for it to get over here. After we got back to the beach, ran into a local guy that looked like he had just gone surfing also, talked to him for awhile and he said he goes and checks a few spots around there area, so said we would meet him down here tomorrow and hop a ride with him to the reefs. We got back to the hotel and both grabbed a burger for lunch since it was so good the night before, Jeremy was stoked to get a decent size burger also. Sat back and relaxed for a bit in our room which has AC and a TV which is both new to us haha, we wanted to go cruise around a bit, so hopped on the scooter and explored. Went down the beach road and saw all the cool lil shops and food, saw a sweet place we wanted to try for dinner. Got onto the bypass which is basically a big 2 lane highway that takes you around the island, except lanes aren't really put into use here. It looks like a nascar race with people on scooters all over the road not in a lane just weaving in and out of the cars going about 50mph, it is madness, you have to be alert and have your fingers on both brakes, gas, and horn at all times! We were on our way to Kerama's to see the setup, we made a turn onto a new highway in the right direction and were immediately pulled over at a checkpoint. Basically they ask for your scooter registration and an international driver license that both of us don't have, we tried to haggle with the guy for a bit. But ended up having to go to an atm to get some money out and come back to pay the guy so we could get our registration back. Gave him the $25 bucks, took back our registration and got the F outta there, pretty crappy situation but it is what it is, we got to Kerama's and it was windy, choppy, and no one out.  We hung around for a few but not long then headed back for dinner, went to a cool little Italian place called Sale Pepe that we saw earlier in the day. Each of us got a pizza that was pretty tasty, at the end of the meal they offered us a free lemon cello shot, both smelt the liquor and then just said eh and went for it. The shot ended up being pretty tasty, got back to the hotel which was literally around the corner and watched some TV before both passing out.
     Friday we got up early to meet our new friend Wayan down at the beach so we could go on the boat with him out to the reefs, another guy joined us also, his name was Rory and he was from New Zealand. We cruised out on the boat to check out a few spots, ended up surfing next to a large shipwreck, the waves were pretty fun at first lil overhead, then a few larger sets rolled through that were big and washed us down the reef. All of us ended up surfing a good size left for about 2 hours, it's so weird being so far out to sea, kinda sucks though since there is so much water moving around your getting sucked every which way and sometimes you might have to duck dive 15 or more waves just to get back out! Headed back to the beach and hung out for awhile and chatted with Rory and Wayan, Rory was telling me about an adventure he took with a friend. He and a friend sailed form Newport Beach to Fiji and in a year, since I got into sailing a few years back, I get very interested in these kinds of adventures that I would like to do someday. I picked his brain with 100 questions about the trip and how he prepared, I was also talking to Wayan for awhile about the kite surfing lessons he gives and how to kite, which is also something I would like to try when I get back home. After chatting and playing with a lil puppy running around, headed back to our hotel and both grabbed lunch and chilled in the room for awhile before dinner. For dinner we tried an italian place that Rory mentioned was the best in town, we got there just in time before it got busy, both of us had the Ravioli's that I thought were delicious. After paid the bill we were then introduced to one of our most frequented places on the trip, gelato... it was delicious and gone in less than a few minutes!
     Saturday we headed back down to the get on the boat with Wayan, this time found a pretty big right that was in between the waves we surfed the last 2 days. There were a few other people out but not for long, we each caught some double overhead waves and a few that we got some good snaps and turns on. But it was once again a lot of work to keep in the same spot, and you don't have anywhere to judge how far in or out to sit since your no where near a beach or land. On my last wave I got caught on a turn and went over the falls, and while falling I landed on my tailbone right on the rail of my board, my back got super sore, and as I started paddling in I noticed my board got a pretty bad crack on the rail, so I headed back to the boat. We motored back in as the wind started to pick up and the tide was getting super high, the water was washing up the beach and over a lil seawall in front of some locals shops and almost getting to there food and clothes that they sell. On our way back we  hit a cool lil warung on the corner, I got a mei goreng which is a local Indonesian meal with noodles, veggies, and chicken, I liked it and it's nice to try something different. Jeremy had a pretty bad headache so he chilled in the room but I went to explore this lil island nearby, it's called Serangon and supposed to have a surf break on it. I got onto the island and was exploring for awhile trying to get to the spot where I thought the wave was, on the way I went through some awesome areas of small lakes and bays that reminded me of going to Lake Havasu back home. The island was like it's own little world, most people that lived on it never left, there were places to eat, temples, lil warung's, hotels, and some fun boat  and water rental activities in the harbor. I finally got the wave after some searching, it's a sweet lil beach with 6 or so warung's lined up looking out into the ocean, I sat down at the only one still open by this time and got a snack and coca cola. A lady walked up and I started chatting and I ended up buying these cool lil hand made turtles she made, she didn't have changed for the $5 I gave her so instead she offered a massage, I said sure why not sounds like a good deal! It was a great shoulder massage while enjoying a cola and chatting about all her friend's she had met over the years from America and of course she asked me if I knew all of them haha! I had to start heading back since it was getting dark and I didn't want to get stuck on the scooter on the busy by pass on the way back, as I got back Jeremy was feeling a bit better from having a lil snack downstairs. I got something to eat for dinner also and went to pick up my surfboard from a ding guy down the street that fixed my crack for a few bucks, wanted to get it done right since its a brand new board!
     Sunday we packed up and headed down to a spot I saw the day before when dropping my board off at the ding guy, it looked like a cool setup and there was nobody out! We watched for about 20 minutes, this perfect lil over head peak coming in with nobody around. It looked kinda shallow,but any surfer will tell you how awesome it is finding new waves that you have never surfed before, especially when there's nobody out you get way more stoked. I said F it lets go and Jeremy said alright I'm in, we paddled out through a shallow channel and then a few hundred feet to the wave, halfway out we saw another guy paddle out behind us, when we got out there it ended up being a local guy. We asked him a bit about the wave since he said he surfed here all the time, just sitting there it was shallow about 3-4 ft deep, and not just reef, but live coral, like colorful coral you would basically go snorkel in, pretty heavy... I caught the first left and took it easy and got outta there before it bowled up to super shallow section, after a few more I found out the right was actually pretty fun and a lil more rippable. We surfed the peak for hour and half and as a few guys paddled out during the end of the sesh, we decided to paddle a few hundred yards up the beach to a long point break looking wave we noticed. This spot was now a lot more crowded but looked like a longer wave, the reef was also sketchy, we both caught a few goods ones before heading in for good. Both of us were dead since we just surfed for almost 3 hours and paddled around a lot bunch, we brought some money so grabbed a sandwich with fries at a nice spot right on the sand, I had been looking into the zoo here on Bali and really wanted to go check it out. We got back from lunch and chilled for a few before heading out to the zoo, it was less than a 30 min scooter ride away, got there and Jeremy immediately headed for the tigers. Checked out the whole zoo for over 2 hours and saw every animal and got some great GoPro footage for my new webisode. The zoo is much different form one back home, we were able to walk into some of animals habitats and get up close and personal with some large and baby deer, bats, peacocks, and other exotic birds. I love animals so I was stoked to see some that I had not seen in a long time and definitely a few I had never seen before, just all in all a great experience. We got back and grabbed some dinner downstairs and watched Rugby with all the aussies that stay here, the owner is aussie and I guess this is just the hotel they come to and watch there rugby!
     Monday we went back down to the spot we surfed the day before with the fun peak, sat down for some breakfast while watching both of the spots, but the wind was just onshore making both waves really bad. Decided to go check out the other side by Kuta since the wind should be offshore or at least much much calmer there, we went back to the room to grab a few more bucks and look on the map for a quick direction to head. As we got over there to check out the beach, it was really big and pretty closed out, thought about trying to hop a boat out to the reefs, talked to a guy and he wanted $10 each. It looked pretty crowded out there from what we could see, so just decided to paddle out to the beach break, it wasn't very god at all but at least we were getting in the water. Both of us had to work pretty hard to get a good one but they would come through here and there, it was a lot of paddling and duck diving since it was a beach break and the waves were around 10ft faces. Got back onto the beach and enjoyed a coca cola while hanging with a few locals and chatted about some other surf spots in the area. It's really cool whenever you talk to a local surfer here, there not stingy or weird about telling you where the good waves are.  guess if your nice and they can tell that your a decent surfer they don;t mind sharing some tips on, they will tell you directions to the spots, tides, swell directions and everything, most people back home would never give up a decent spot! We were both starving so we hit the road to get back to grab lunch, on the way back I stopped by a post office to try and track a package my mom had sent me. After lunch I decided to scoot over to the post office in Denpasar, the biggest city here on Bali, to try and get my package, I then find out I have to pay $30 for customs and taxes before I can leave with the package! I was more than furious after everything I have gone through to try and get this package, I tried to negotiate since I disn't have that much on me, but apparently the customs office was already closed so I just left and hopefully could come back tomorrow and figure it out. We went back to our first lil Italian spot Sale Pepe, the owner was there again and she was excited to see us, we enjoyed another great meal accompanied with a Bintang!
     Tuesday we had planned to head down to a wave we were told was near Kerama's but way less crowded, after a lil exploring we found it and it was big with huge barrels. Paddled out there and I caught the first wave, paddling back out I got pretty worked and drug on the sharp rock bottom, which I can say wasn't very forgiving. I got a few cuts on my hand and arms, and a nice cherry on my lower back, nothing to serious though, I walked back up the beach and paddled back out, there were only a few guys out here and now I know why, as I watched the biggest most perfect and heaviest barrels I have ever seen in my life! We each caught a few smaller ones, one I got pretty shacked on and was stoked, but the bottom was just so sketchy we just decided to paddle down the point where some others were at a less sketchy wave. A local ripper from Newport that most surfers know of Alex Knost was out surfing with some friends, I have surfed with him a few times around Newp, and he is just a trip. In his mid 20's but just has the style and mind set of the 70's era, and of course doesn't wear a leash, but he got some of the sickest and stylish barrels I have ever seen. We both caught a good amount of waves but I personally didn't have a good session, but it was a super sick spot and always cool to surf somewhere new! On the way back to the hotel I swung by the post office again, now with some money, I tried to talk them down on the price but it just wasn't happening, I payed took my package and left. We grabbed lunch at the hotel, relaxed, and cleaned up a bit since we are leaving here tomorrow to head back to Canggu for a few days to get our passports sorted out. We finished our last night here by going down to the beach and watching the waves for a bit since the tide was super low it makes everything so much different. Ate at a cool spot that had a pool table and ping pong that caught our eye, while waiting for our food we shot a game of pool and had a beer. After eating our pasta that we both enjoyed we hit the ping pong table and Jeremy basically cleaned house, apparently he plays a lot and I guess is ambidextrous in ping pong? We stopped by our favorite gelato place yet again for the last time, this time we made it count and got like 5 scoops each, great last night in this awesome lil town!

Fisherman at low tide

Sign says it all

Tiger jumping for food!

Orangutan

I volunteered to hold a vulture

The elephants were awesome

Our sweet tooth spot, italian gelato

Canggu Part 2

     Sunday we got up early and scooted up to the secret beach we had been surfing at, we had it all to ourselves, waves were decent size but pretty walled. We found a corner that was letting up and went out there to get some Go Pro footage for a bit, we were only out for about hour n half, then we made our way back through the villages and rice patties back to town! We stopped at our favorite place again, warung Bu Mi and got our normal big plate of rice, veggies, and meat for about $1.50, got back to the hostel and I skyped the family and friends for a few hours. We decided to head down to the beach out front and try to get an evening sesh before it got dark, it was super choppy as it usually is in the evenings around here since it's so open to wind. We both caught a few and were going to catch another one in, I went to duck dive one of the bigger sets and came back up and the nose of my board was snapped off! I was just surprised that it had just happened but of course mad, since that was the board I had been riding the most. We got back to the house and cleaned up, as we were both super hungry for dinner, we went to a place called Bj's that was known for there burgers. We both got a burger and it was definitely the best we have had on the island, most places have lil thin patties and small buns. But this place was much better with bigger patties and buns, and some pretty tasty fries! We chatted with the owner for a bit while finishing the meal and admiring the cool design of the restaurant, we payed for the meal and scooted back home in the dark to watch a movie before crashing out.
     Monday we slept in a bit and headed down to Echo beach which is a 5 minute scoot out front, we got in the water and Jeremy surfed the main peak out front and I paddled down the beach a bit to the river mouth. I went down there since it was a bit bigger and I was riding my 6'2" back up board, there were some fun ones but a lil crowded, so it was hard to get the bigger sets. I got out and walked up the beach and Jeremy was already at the scooter, apparently he was only out for 15 minutes when someone paddled in front of him as he was taking off and he ran over the guys board and ended up cracking his own board bad enough to where he had to get out. I said everything must happened in two's like how I got my phone stolen then the same day he cut his head, now I broke my board and his got dinged up! We got lunch at our fav place again, relaxed for awhile then went to a local surf shop to check out boards but I couldn't find any decent ones. Jeremy had fixed his ding with some repair stuff he brought, and wanted to get a evening sesh in, I cruised out there with a fin and the Go Pro to try and get some water footage. We weren't out to long, since the wind picked up and it was a bit crowded, we went out to dinner at a 3 course meal warung we had the first night in Canggu, good food, cheap, and close to the house. Finished the night off with a few beers hanging with friends at the hostel,
     Tuesday we decided to head into Kuta to look into renewing our Visa's and look at more surf shops for my new board. On the way to the airport we stopped at KFC, it was a trip, nothing like home, the biggest KFC I've ever seen with barely anything on the menu! We munched up some good chicken and fries then kept on through the busy Kuta streets to the airport. As we parked in a sea of scooters, literally a parking lot with easily 2,000 scooters, we made our way to the information area and immediately got pointed in different directions by everybody! We finally found out we had to go to a building away from the airport, we arrived and of course with our luck they had close the Visa extension section 15 minutes before we arrived. So we hopped on the scooter and headed towards downtown Kuta where we had been directed towards some good surf shops, we ended up at a cool lil shop and one of the boards immediately struck my eye. It was a perfect shape, similar to what I usually surf, I talked the guy into making a deal for the board, including a leash, kick pad and fins! I was so stoked that when we got back we went out for a quick evening sesh so I could try it out, unfortunately it wasn't very good again since it was windy, but we ran into some friends down there after surfing and decided to meet back down for dinner. The dinner we had with friends was awesome, right on the beach was a bbq setup where you could go pick from fresh fish and meat that would get bbq'd right away. While you were waiting for them to grill up your meat of choice there was a great salad bar to fill your self up with, we chatted about our travels and what were planning to do the rest of the time in Bali. Always nice meeting new people while traveling with such a different background from yourself, we said our goodbyes and headed home for bed!
     Wednesday we had planned on going to a new area called Sanur, we got a late start and went to a great place called the Canteen for breakfast. We got back to the house and relaxed while watching a movie, and looking into transport vans and places to stay in Sanur, we picked out a place gave em a call and they saved us a room. We decided to stop by a Visa renewal office that Bryce had recommended to us, the guy was a bit hard to understand but we finally figured it out and gave him our passports so he could renew them and get them back within a week. We could now pack up and call a transport to take us down to Sanur, we hired a guy for $20 to take us about 15 miles but in traffic, so it took almost an hour. We arrived at the hotel which was a lil hidden down an alley way, but had a sweet lil bar food area downstairs, we took our boards and bags up to our room on the 3rd floor and got settled in. We were both starving so after unpacking and hanging in the ac for a bit we went down to grab dinner, I got a burger with fries that was actually really good. It had a decently thick patty (which is hard to find in Bali) and lots of toppings, we both mowed down our food and went back to relax before crashing out. Our room has a tv with 8 or so american channels, we haven't watched tv the whole time in Bali, so it was nice watching discovery channel and catching up on some cool shows.

Broken stick

Living room and Kitchen of the hostel.

Improvise Go Pro stand, coconut and bamboo!

New board, yewww!

Love the scenery on the beach everytime you go for a surf in indo.

Riding on the beach