MEXICO.

First Class to our final adventure.

That’s right. FIRST CLASS.

Wednesday afternoon Mike {that owns Costa Rica Dive & Surf in Dominical} and his girlfriend, Alicia came to visit. We walked out to La Sirena, had a beer, swam in the pool and then cleaned up for my last dinner in Costa Rica: TSUNAMI SUSHI. It was only appropriate…it always seems to be where I have my farewell Costa dinner, and it’s perfect because I highly doubt there are sushi places where we are headed in Mexico. After sushi we went to Vago’s for some beers, and unfortunately a few tequila shots. Vago just won’t take no for an answer. JamieD was skating all over the place, in a little onesie and some flip flops – still whooping the guys asses, busting ollies and a bunch of other crazy shit. We retired home before 10pm and went right to sleep. Woke up the next morning and took Mike and Alicia to Bejuco. I was hoping for a repeat of the day before: overhead barrels, crystal clear water. It was pretty similar, just a lot faster and a lot heavier. Went back to the house to get ready for my LAST yoga class of this season. It was lovely and peaceful and all that a yoga class should be. Following the class I served up some brunch and before you knew it there was a full blown party happening at my house! Beers, pool, and more than 20 people! Though the day was filled with chaos I managed to sell my truck, get one puppy adopted in Dominical {Arena went home with Mike and Licia for a friend of theirs} and in the final hours Brett decided to adopt my little Miss Tibby! Mama Lee arrived a little after 2pm and joined in on the festivities. We hung around for a few hours, said our goodbyes and then hoped in the car with Lee and headed back to Atenas. I was definitely filled with a bit of sadness as we pulled out of town, but not to worry…I’ll be back in a few months – this family and I will pick up right where we left off in no time! Back in Atenas, Mama Lee fed us a huge delicious dinner – we started a movie, and were all asleep within 20minutes. Woke up at 4:25am, loaded up the taxi @ 4:45am and were standing in the airport by 5:30am for our 7:15 flight. My PIC and I were all smiles and so ready for our next adventure.

We board the plane and quickly realize that we are seated in FIRST CLASS. Once before this has happened to me, but we didn’t get the royal treatment, I think that they had just been out of seats. Well seconds after sitting down we are approached by the steward who asks us if we’d like a refreshment before takeoff. Of course! Café con leche, por favor! We were grinning from ear to ear, or as JamieD would say “STAGE DIVING” over this little perk…and after takeoff we almost died of excitement when they fed us fresh fruit and orange juice, using real tableware…and CLOTH NAPKINS! We had more coffee and then just when we thought it couldn’t get any better they asked “French toast or omlette?” I had the French toast, which was probably the best I’ve EVER had. It was served with delightful sausage links and warm rolls – with butter and jam. Jamie had the omlette which she was moaning and groaning over: filled with meat and spinach with melted cheese and topped with a perfect salsa…served with grilled potatoes. We were like little girls, laughing hysterical. We couldn’t stop. Two scruffy, unshowered, sleepy surfer girls…surrounded by Mexican businessmen, laughing uncontrollably. As soon as I thought that our laughing was done I took a sip of my OJ, only to have it come out my nose seconds later – prompted by more hysterical laughter from my PIC seated beside me. “Good times on the reg.” We stretched out in our huge, comfy “lazy-boy-esque” seats and napped for a while. When we went to the VIP first class bathroom, we were ecstatic with the discovery of HOT WATER. We both gave ourselves mini-facials…the first hot water that we’ve had in months. Now we are sitting in the airport in Mexico City. We have a few hours to kill before our one hour connecting flight to Ixtapa, so we are gonna chillout, have some coffee, laugh over the goodtimes, think about the adventures to come and lay in the Legs Up The Wall pose for a while – all this traveling has made us stiff! Pura Fucking Vida.

A quick and easy flight to Ixtapa, about the same sized airport as Atlantic City. Perfect. Grab our boards and my big duffel bag filled with coffee, spices, condiments and food and then we are through customs. You can’t miss Bill, he has a crazy head of curly hair—and he couldn’t miss us, two riff-raff scruffy girls hauling a ten foot double board bag through the airport. We all hit it off instantly. Loaded up Bill’s Toyota Tundra and then cruised to the big supermarket in town. Well, Bill’s got quite the setup. For $36 he is allowed to bring his truck into Mexico. He has a sweet camper on the bed of the truck and for $5 a night he can camp on the beach under a palapa that has hot water and all the amenities. Pretty sweet. Anyways, arrive at the supermarket and Bill warns us to stock up – because we won’t be coming back this way, and the two little supers that are near our town don’t have much – and by the way, they aren’t walking distance, so you probably won’t be visiting them much either. We grab all the essentials and for a little under 70 bucks each we a full cart and enough food to last us the two weeks until JamieD leaves. I was pretty impressed with the supermarket, they had a huge variety: and we even treated ourselves to goat cheese with herbs, bleu cheese, and some amazing baguettes and loaves of bread! REAL bread, delicious, you’d-think-it’s-from-the-states bread! Dear Mexico, please teach Costa Rica how to make a decent loaf of bread. We load up the truck with our essentials {rice and beans} and treasures {good wine, bread and cheese}, and then we are headed towards the beach. Bill is the BEST tour guide ever. Super informative, super helpful and has made this transition from Costa to Mex super easy. We pull up into a very small, muy tranquilo town. It’s less then half the size of Esterillos, which is pretty damn mellow. We traded in our huge house on the hills in Esterillos where we’d lay in bed sipping coffee and watch the sunrise, for a small shack literally steps from the beach in Mexico, where we can lay in bed and sip wine {or rather, Tequila} and watch the sunset. Not too bad. I’m a bit thrown off by the sunrise and sunset here: right now it is 6:30am as I lay in bed and type this blog, yet the sun has still not made it’s presence known. Pitch black. And I’ve been up since 5am! Last night the sun didn’t really go down until just before 8pm as well, which is a few hours later than Oeste. Oh, the excitement of a new place! Hopefully the bugs are more mellow here than they’ve been in Costa the past few weeks. JamieD said that she surely has more bug bites than there are people in this town – and I’m not too far behind her. In this new place we are looking forward to early nights, early mornings filled with yoga, less bugs, spending less money and surf surf surf. This is a left point break, so it looks like my backside is going to be whipped into shape. Oh, and just FYI: every freaking break in a 100 mile radius is a left point break. Whooopow!

We’ve traded one paradise for the another. Pura Vida.

Okay, Saturday morning. Alarm goes off at 5am. Hit snooze several times because there is no sun in sight. Wake up at 6am…still pitch black but figure that the sun has to be rising soon. Made coffee in my Bialetti…Adam was holding it hostage for awhile, but now it’s back. 6:30am, JamD and I are sipping coffee, wondering where the sun is. Listening to the waves, began prepping our boards: fins in, waxed up, ready to go. 7am…where in the hell is the sun? I would have been in the water for atleast an hour by now if this was Costa. Christ. What’s going on. Finally around 7:15 the sun begins to peak through and around 7:30 we paddle out to the left point break. Whoa, get worked cause I drop in too late and too deep. This wave has power. Shoulder high {not on me, on a person of average height} and then a few feet overhead on the sets. Clean and perfect and peeling and holy shit, we are in heaven. Now if only this were a RIGHT point break as opposed to a left. Oh well. Start out with only 5 people in the water…great vibe and steady exchange of waves. About two hours later team Roxy, literally team Roxy, paddle out. With them is Linda Benson – she paved the way years ago for women’s surfing. A whole crew of Cali girls…and now we are outnumbering the guys – 16 women in the water. Holy estrogen! Peak gets a little crowded, but everyone is super friendly and sharing waves. We get out of the water at 11:45…a solid four hour session. Despite the long water time we don’t have a sunburn! The water here is cool, actually a bit too chilly for me the first hour out this morning. The air is cool and sun is not nearly as fierce as Costa. Stomachs growling, we throw down some yogurt and granola and then nap…for a few hours! Bill came by for a visit so we chatted away on the front beach, steps from the beach and a beautiful breeze. Unfortunately you can only get one session in around here this time of year, but I’m not too upset – because my one session was pretty freaking fantastic, and four hours has left my body feeling whooped. Going to do some yoga, hop in the internet so I can post this blog and let my family know I’m alive, drink a beer and then head back to la casita for dinner and bed. Life is good.