The sun woke us up again and we had the included breakfast outside. Nicole had a waffle and I had huevos rancheros, which came presented in a way that seemed more American than Mexican. In any event, today is our wedding anniversary. I haven’t surfed since 2006, and Nicole since 2008, so it seems as good a time as any to give it a go.
Anyway, we set forth toward Playa Cerritos and arrived just before 11am. It required driving down another unpaved road. Considering this is quite possibly the most popular beach in the region, it seemed rather far-flung and remote. Cerritos is basically the only beach that has waves calm enough to surf. The beach near our casita is like many along the peninsula, which is to say its waves are extremely violent and would pound us into the ground. With surfing in mind, we looked for a vendor who wasn’t as aggressive with their sales pitch. We settled on a nice young lady named Alexia, who spoke very limited English.
We were able to rent two boards that were about 8 feet. These would be considered “fun boards,” in contrast to the more popular longboards that surf schools like to use, which are approximately the size of a garage door. Alexia informed us that we could have the boards all day, as well as two chairs and an umbrella on the beach. We had no intention of using them all day. One can only surf for so long.
Alexia pointed out where the best breaks were and where the riptide and strong currents were more likely to occur. With this knowledge, we carried our boards away from the strong current area and set off into the waves. Though the area we were in was recommended for people like beginners, it still posed its own problems. The waves seemed to be quite frequent in comparison to other places we have been. “Too big, I’ll wait for the next one. (5 seconds later)… Also too big. I’ll wait for the …. (Gargle gargle gargle) (Gasping for air) Aaaaand here comes ano….(Gargle, flail, get dragged along the sand). And I’m back at the shoreline.”
This is not to say that we didn’t have a few semi respectable rides in there. We each hadn’t surfed in basically fifteen years (or “hace mucho tiempo” as I told Alexia. Despite this, we managed to do okay, all things considered. Both of us were able to stand up and ride a wave for a spell before nearing the shoreline and almost running over a small child. Then we would look back at all the waves we would have to traverse to get back out to the breaks, and it just seemed like . . .a lot. I have decided that surfing isn’t my thing. It is far too much work.
We started rotating out and taking breaks due to the aforementioned hard work necessary to keep fighting the waves, digging in, bracing for impact, getting dragged along the sand etc. It was a rather intense workout. My chest got rubbed raw, as I didn’t have a rash guard, and we had sand adhering to us in all areas. Our arms felt like jelly and after a couple hours, catching waves began to have diminishing returns from the fatigue.
It was about 1:30pm when we left the beach. We made our way to Taller 17 in the town of Todos Santos to pick up some muffins, scones, and cookies. We brought them back to our casita to enjoy them outside as a late lunch. We then spent the rest of the afternoon in recovery by the pool. Our bodies were not capable of doing much else.
We watched the sunset from just outside our casita, which proved to be some kind of breeding time for all sorts of insects. We were running around trying to evade them, but were mostly unsuccessful. The amount of insects here is uncanny. I would never have expected this for a dry climate and coastline. The more you know . . .
We returned to Five Tacos and a Beer for our anniversary dinner. It is going for its Michelin star, as you can see by the stray dog and fancy looking taco stand behind. The strung lights were a nice added touch, and the low brow establishment was made to look quite nice. They knew Bricole were returning and pulled out all the stops.
We returned to our casita where I did some astrophotography on my camera and cellphone. It was a relaxing, yet shockingly busy day. Both of us are quite exhausted from the day’s events, and I suspect that we won’t have much difficulty falling asleep tonight.
passports & pepto bismol 