We spent the day taking our time packing up our gear and sorting out what stuff we could leave behind with a brother here in the local congregation, so that we don’t break our backs lugging it to Oaxaca city.

… he snapped the newly repaired board in half …

Ashley picked up his board from the repairers. It was a fantastic repair job on the nose. So he was super keen to get out in the surf and try it out. The wave was super heavy and messy, anyhow on the second paddle out Ashley went to duck dive a monster set and the worst happened… he snapped the newly repaired board in half. Whats more it snapped in a different place.

… the night passed slower than an week old iguana taco …

We booked a 10pm bus to Oaxaca on first class, it was a horrible trip. The road was so windy and bumpy that the night passed slower than an week old Iguana Taco, I don’t think I got a wink of sleep all the way till the bus pulled into Oaxaca city at 6pm in the morning. Ashley even resorted to sleeping on the floor of the bus… funny thing was he freaked out a man when his hat fell on the floor and Ash handed it back to him!! Haha I would’ve loved to see that mans face.

… drive was in was worth the detour and the photos …

We ate breakfast in the hotel resturante, I had a nice “ensalada de fruta” they are always loaded with all the tropical goodness of Mexico with fruit like banana, papaya, piña (pineapple), cantaloupe and sandia (watermelon). We had a surf spot tip from a sister from the USA that lives in Puerto Angel, she said often surfers go to a waves break called “Aragon”. So we set out in search of the location, it was easy to find with a little local knowledge however if you lacked that you would struggle to even get to the coast because it is very well hidden and not visible from most main roads. The surf was ok but not great… not inspiring enough to paddle out. But the drive was in was worth the detour and the photos of some rugged isolated Mexican coast line.

… chest pressed to the sand lung wrenching hold downs …

We returned back to the same spot that we surfed yesterday afternoon. The surf was cranking out some solid 4-5 foot sets both lefts and rights. It was a little difficult to get out but worth the effort with some classic waves to be had if your wave selection was dial into the right combination. Forrest obviously had the right set of keys and scored himself a couple on nice barrels, on the other hand I scored some massive hits on the head with some chest pressed to the sand lung wrenching hold downs. In actual fact I did score some nice waves… some of my best yet with some video that you will probably never see to prove it.

Lastnight and for lunch today we went to a mexican restuarante called “Alex”, it makes a dish call “Tlyuda”, basically it is an el grande tortilla about the size of a family pizza with toppings of your choice like cheese, ham, sausage (Chorizo) or chicken. They are like what pizza is to Italy, except the Mexican equivalent is much more healthier and tastier… especially with loads of chilli salsa on top.

The Kahuai boys needed to get back to Oaxaca that evening so Ashley and I caught a bus for $25 pesos back to Puerto Escondido. One more day and we are heading back to Oaxaca city ourselves.

… Pueto Escondido just isn’t happening at the minute …

So with some brain storming amongest the brothers from hawaii we decided to try and find some surf down Puerto Angel way. Since the surf at Pueto Escondido just isn’t happening at the minute. So we packed light and travelled south for about 1.5 hours. Forrest knew of an American sister who owns a hotel in Puerto Angel “La Buena Vista” so he phoned ahead and arranged for us to stay there the night (saturday). On arrival we went straight to the accomodation and dropped off our stuff.

The next mission was to find to find some surf. So we drove on southward according to some surf maps printed off the internet. They turned out to be pretty much useless, so instead we drove on in search of surf following our noses. All was good because we got to see alot of the real Mexico that we otherwise wouldn’t have seen. We got to the spot (eventually) that we wanted to surf. It was supposed to be a river mouth break with lefts and rights having the reputation of being the best barrel south side of Puerto Escondido. Anyway it wasn’t working… the river mouth was all blocked up with sand and the waves were just closing out right on shore.

… an El Grande shark fin surfaced right in front …

We turned around reluctately to drive an hour back to Puerto Angel to surf a beachie with a super heavy wave. I got cleaned up by a mega set on the second paddle out and so I was totally zapped of energy and feeling like never wanting to surf a heavy beach break again… give me a point break any day. Forrest and Ashley stayed out a bit longer. However it wasn’t much time till Forrest came in hurriedly saying that he had just seen an El Grande shark fin surface right in front of him while he was paddling out again… scary stuff although I have to admit the water did look a little sharky that day.

“La Buena Vista” is so nice with superb views over looking the port of Puerto Angel. The rooms are nestled back in the green foliage of the surrounding hillside with ample space to spare inside, the bath rooms are pure luxury compared to the standard thus far. All this for half the going rate!! good going I say… it really is to bad that we don’t have more time to spend here. This truly is one of the highlights of the trip so far and it would be an unreal spot for a holiday. Apparently the sister who owns it lives in Santa Barbara and only comes down during the cooler winter months.

… a teaching of the church and not of the bible …

I met a man in the field today who is american and has lived in Puerto Escondido for the last twelve years, he now works here as a missionary from the Four Squares Christian Faith?. Anyhow we intially talked on general terms eg… Australia and surfing since this was the was one of the reasons he moved to Puerto Escondido in the first place. He however is a staunch Trinitarian, so I tried my best to reason with him… and at the same time I was trying to recall all the points in the latest awake magazine article “Is Jesus Christ God?”. I didn’t get anywhere with him but I did say I would bring back the article so we could discuss some points from it. I raced home and reread that article word for word and scripture for scripture… how could you possibly believe in the trinity? a man made doctrine? a teaching of the church and not of the bible!! Anyway at least my mind is made over.

… also inviting two young sisters …

As a gesture of our appreciation for all the kindness that Brother Jorge and his wife have shown us over the past four weeks we invited them out for dinner at our expense. Brother Jorge however took the liberty of also inviting two young sisters from the local congregation (Margali and Gabriella) to the dinner as well… hmmm he is rather forward about it all and I wasn’t particularly impressed.

Donde esta la Olas?

The surf has been no good the couple of days, not even in the mornings. I don’t know whats up with it, the surf is just like a washing machine with rips and strong currants going in every which direction. There isn’t even a surfable peak to be seen on any stretch of the beach. But that’s ok… I’ve had some time on my hands to do more on the spanish language front.

… stayed up late laughing and joking …

Forrest and his brother Sam and also another brother from hawaii called Casidy arrived late in the afternoon. It was such a joy to just have a few more english voices to listen to… it’s amazing the relief you feel when you can understand entire conversations. We had fun and stayed up late laughing and joking, the guys showed us a new game called “greed” using 6 dices. It’s a great game and moves quickly, the game is totally chance and so you can’t cheat the score.

Anyway on the way there we pass by the entrance to the Chez Ines hotel… and Taj Burrows walks out!! I wasn’t sure at first so I give Ashley a whisper…

Justin : “Is that him?”

Ashley : “What?”

Justin : “Taj Burrows” I say in an urgent whisper.

Ashley : “Yeah that’s him” as he walks on trying to look like he doesn’t care.

We sat down in the bakery side of Carmen’s Cafecito while Taj Burrows with some of his mates had a table over in the restuarant side (It’s two places joined, Carmens Bakery and Carmen’s Restuarant… the whole places makes the Cafecito).

I whipped out my camera to have it at the ready, Ashley mutters something about the “Paparazzi” and I pretended I didn’t really hear that comment. I couldn’t summon up the courage to go over to the table and ask for a photo, I was thinking “poor guy he must get hassled all the time“. Ashley left for the internet joint to catch up on his emails while I stayed behind to see if I could get an opportunity to take a photo with him.

I walked out the front passed the restuarant and stood waiting half way between his hotel and the cafe. He came out of the cafe by himself… and I say…

Justin : “Hey Taj. How you doing?”

Taj Burrows : “Yeah good!” in a big friendly smile.

Justin : “My name is Justin. (as i reach out and shake his hand) I’m from Australia, would you mind if I get a photo? My friends back home arn’t going to believe this”

Taj Burrows : “Yeah sure man, where do you want to take one?”

Justin : “Oh anywhere… here is fine” so I snap a couple of shots and ask as I take a photo.

Justin : “Is this your first time to Puerto”

Taj Burrows : “This is my first time to Mexico”

Justin : “Really… yeah me too… it’s a great place isn’t it?”

Taj Burrows : “Yeah it sure is.”

His mates come on out of the cafe and Taj Burrows says to one of them to snap a photo of us. We the walk backtoward the hotel.

Taj Burrows : “So do you Surf?”

Justin : “Yeah… but my board is out of action. I broke two fins out in the surf the other day. It didn’t damage the board but the fins are RedX and are abit hard to get here”

Taj Burrows : “arghh… that’s a shame.”

Justin : “Yeah… there’s a surf factory that apparently shapes with that system here so I’m going to go and get some there hopefully.”

We chatted a bit more about how cheap board repairs are here and what a good job they do in fixing them up. We reached the hotel…

Taj Burrows : “See ya later Justin”

Justin : “Yeah see ya Taj… and thanks for the photos”

Taj Burrows : “No problem”

So I’m glad I made the effort to say G’Day, he’s a super nice dude. And that ends my story of my brush with Australia’s surfing elite.

… maybe it was her good looks that helped …

As you would expect the program was in spanish, but it’s getting much easier to pick it up… I’m beginning to understand alot more words, in some cases understand sentences and in one instance I even understood an interview with a young sister who spoke very clearly or maybe it was her good looks that helped? Just kidding just kidding… but seriously folks.

The program was attended by a visiting brother and his wife from the Mexican bethel, traveling with him also were two sisters from Michigan USA. They were on two weeks holidays traveling with the bethel brother as he went around the SAD gatherings and conducted some parts on the program. He was a very fluent speaker in both english and spanish, in fact I don’t know which language was his second one? I certainly couldn’t pick it up in his english and he spoke very fast in spanish so he was clearly comfortable with either tongue. He did say that he was born in the USA and raised later in Mexico so by the sounds of things he got a decent amount of exposure to both languages at an early age.

… enormous walls of white water …

It was very hot sitting in the assembly hall, its sides were open to a breeze however the wind was no where to be seen. So when the program ended we were desperate to get in the surf and cool off. We arrived back at our hotel to find that the beach was closed down for swimming and surfing due to very strong and enormous walls of white water. So instead we went for a run up the beach and back straight into the hotel pool. We stayed in the pool for one and a half hours because it took that long to cool down our core body temperature.

A bunch of the young ones in the congregation that we are associating with arranged to get together in town after the SAD. So we met on the Playa Principal strip for some company and eats. Brother Jorge was with us for the evening… he is the only elder in the congregation and he’s alot of fun to have around. I wish that I could speak spanish fluently… I (we) feel like I’m (we’re) missing out on a lot. Its hard not having the freedom of speech/expression that you take for granted, it truly is a gift and I now envy those who are multilingual. “There is nothing like a NEED to create within you a DESIRE to accomplish a SOLUTION”. That’s my profound saying for the day but somehow I think it’s been said before… on the note Adios.

So I got up early in the hope of catching the Australian pro’s blowing up in the olas (waves). Disappointingly they weren’t out, but I still got some nice shots of waves that went both riden and unriden. I did the same again in the afternoon and got some good ones of Ashley surfing aswell as some other guys. Still no sign of the Aussie contingent. Where did they go? I hope they’re in town still. I so want to get a photo of Taj Burrows taming escondido.

In preperation for the upcoming Special Assembly Day on saturday we arranged with the brothers to help out with the clean up of the assembly site.

… a massive site and is well suited in this climate …

The facility we used is called the “Salon los Mangalis” (very roughly translated in to The Mango Hall), is located right in the middle of down town Puerto Escondido, so it’s nice and convenient for most of the brothers to attend. Its a massive site and is well suited in this climate, the hall has no sides on it so thats a plus for the cross flow of air.

The site doesn’t seem to get alot of use and hence it was littered everywhere with with mushy Mangoes and Mango tree leaves. So we spent the majority of the morning raking the dust clean and free of leaves. There are about 1000-1500 brothers expected to attend the gathering. Seating was also one of the jobs for us to do for this morning. So we jumped in a truck and went to a storage facility where the chairs were stored, 500 of them. We loaded/unloaded these and set them out in an orderly fasion, being careful not to create to much leg room for added brotherly warmth. More chairs were to arrive in the afternoon, adding 800 more to the total seating capacity.

… us marvins were starving …

The work had mostly finished by 1pm at least untill the extra chairs arrived. So we walked through down town Puerto Escondido toward the Playa Principal area. Us marvins were starving and so we stopped by a little cafe that we had eaten at before, run by some German folk. Being a beautiful but really hot summers day it was all to easy to keep sat in that cafe drinking fresca’s (Soft drinks) playing a few rounds of checkers and chess. It’s a cool (figuratively and literally) little place that comes highly recommended by the LPG and us aswell.

By the time we got home our energies were zapped so we did us the locals do and had a siesta till half past five in the afternoon. Before the siesta, I stopped by a surf shop to enquire about some RedX surfboard fins, they didn’t have any fins but shop owner directed me to a house in the neighbourhood, the funny thing was I knew exactly where the house was that the surf shop owner was describing because I had only just been there the day before witnessing!

… hey wouldn’t it be cool if Taj was in the surf …

We were still wondering from the night before if it really was Taj Burrows that Ashley had seen going in to a restuarant on the Zicatella strip. So in the back of our minds as we hit the surf in the afternoon was “hey wouldn’t it be cool if Taj was in the surf”. We weren’t disappointed, he was out with a posse of Australian pro’s like as mentioned already Jake Patterson and Luke Hitchings. Apparently they’re here doing a photo shoot for a surfing magazine and are staying in town for ten days or so. I guess we should have been tipped of by the camera men on the beach with their gigantic Canon zoom lenses (600mm fixed).

… boosting out of a wave with so much sheer speed …

Anyway on the paddle out I looked across to see one of these guys boosting out of a wave with so much sheer speed it was like he had just been towed in by jetski, it’s beyond me how they generate so much momentum so easliy but then I guess that’s why they’re the professionals. I don’t know what sort of move he was going for but came down spinning like gyroscope. He didn’t stick the landing but it still looked good.

I will keep you posted on any further sightings and details.

… from Switzerland and she spoke five languages …

However little did I know that Brother Filemon’s idea of english speaking people includes Italians and Germans who don’t speak a word of English! Even so I had a reasonable morning in which i met two english speaking people. One of the girls I spoke to was from Switzerland and she spoke five languages!! French, German, English, Spanish and some other language that I didn’t catch. She spoke the first three languages fluently… amazing huh?

A Surfing News Flash

Please follow this link to read this part of the story. I’ve separated this part of the post out so that I could make it a public news item.

The School and Service meeting was tonight as it had been switched because of the special assembly this weekend on saturday. After the meeting we were invited by Brother Jorge for pizza, we went back to his pollo (pronounced – “Pohl – Yoh”) restuarante/casa and ordered a massive Hawaiian pizza. I couldn’t resist the urge to dowse mine in chili sauce because it tasted so good and goes with everything.

… i sat there absolutely enthralled with the whole tortilla making process …

It’s not uncommon for people to invite you in to sit down (they bring out the chairs) and talk with them about the bible. As was the case this morning, we sat down at two houses and were there for about thirty minutes. They all seemed interested in the “odd” one momentarily (me) that is untill they find out he doesn’t speak mucho spanish. Oh well I don’t mind providing a bit of amusement at my personal expense. At one place we went too the woman was making tortillas whilst the brother preached to her, I sat there absolutely enthralled with the whole tortilla making process. First they take the corn (when old and dryed out) and grind it in to a powder. Then it’s mixed with water and made in to a dough, then small amounts are are rolled into a ball and placed into a tortilla press. The press flattens out the mixture into a flat circle. The pancake like tortilla is place on a hot plate specifically designed for cooking them. The hot plate is shaped like the top of a steal drum (the musical instrument) with a fire built underneath. It’s made out of a terracotta like clay material, they must crack after a while because I’ve seen a few broken ones in the rubbish heaps around the place.

We did a bit of relaxing this afternoon, beside going to the lavanderia and hitting the internet joint to catch up on the news we didn’t do a whole lot.

… clothes stick to you like glad wrap …

The book study was at 6pm and it’s not far from where we are staying so it seems a waste to spend money on a taxi, so we walk to it. But I’m beginning to think a taxi might be a wise move because the humidity make you sweat so much that your clothes stick to you like glad wrap… not a good look. It was still daylight after the group so I was busting to get wetter in the surf since I didn’t get one earlier in the day.

… the board came back around in the wave …

So I grabbed my board and paddled out into the line up. On the way out a wipe out set came through at the most inopportune time while I stuck on the sand bar in waist deep water, the set crashed on my head while i was trying to duck dive it and ripped the board clean out of my hands. The board came back around in the wave and collected my upper leg with two of the fins. Those two fins ripped out leaving me with two fin cuts and only a solo fin in the board. The cuts didn’t really bother me… I was just ripped off that I didn’t get some wave time in… the surf was epic.

So my surf was cut short (pun not intended but amusing none the less) so Ash and I hit the streets for some eats at around 8pm. On the way back from dinner Ashley reckoned he saw Taj Burrows (one of australia’s or arguably one of the world’s best surfers) going into the same restuarant that we had just eaten in not more than an hour ago with about six other guys. Could it really be him? Nah what are the chances?

… secret family recipe so they didn’t divulge …

We had lunch at Jorge’s Chicken joint, the infamous pollo (Chicken in spanish – Pronounced “Polh – Yoh”) restuarante in Puerto Escondido. It was as good as I remember it from the first time around too. Apparently it’s a secret family recipe so they didn’t divulge the finer details of the marinate.

Epic Escondido

I spent a fair bit of the afternoon on the internet uploading a lot of photos of our day trip tpo Puerto Angel and San Agustinillo. Afterward we headed up the beach for a surf. Initially the surf wasn’t anything we weren’t acustomed to so far in Puerto Escondido, nice and solid at about 6-8 foot maybe.

… 16 foot of mean Pacific ocean exacted it’s toll …

But then as it got later it climbed in size and I saw some of the biggest waves I’ve ever seen in my life. The wave face would have easily been two stories high, thats a big wave when you consider that the wave breaks in waist deep water. I saw a body boarder take a massive drop on the wave of the day and he took the take off seriously late, it was a wave I wouldn’t have even taken on a body board. He made the drop and bottom turned but some chop on the face of the wave cleaned him up then 16 foot of mean Pacific ocean (funny huh? when Pacific means peaceful.) exacted it’s toll and worked him over for good measure. I was happy to watch from the shore as a jetski towed in a surfer on to the waves one after another, it really was the best way to get on those big swells early and have the speed to get out of there as fast as possible. Having said all this it’s actually a better wave when it’s bigger because the wave stays open for much longer and doesn’t shutdown like it does when it’s under 8 foot and smaller… you know how it is.

… holiday here in the winter time …

We didn’t find any Americano people but we’ve come to expect that we won’t in this part of town at this time of year since people tend only to holiday here in the winter time because of the summer heat (they head home for the cooler north american summers).

Land 4 Sale – Water Views

Twelve years ago you could buy a plot of land (tierra) for US$20 (American Dollars), eight or so years ago (mid 90′s) the price had risen to US$500. Now the the blocks of land are US$30,000. And that’s for a block where you literally only have to walk twenty paces and your stood on the sands of most famous mexican surfing/holiday beach. If only I had known all those years ago I would’ve saved all my pocket money for a few weeks and become a Mexican land tycoon.

We spent the whole day in the service till about 3pm in the afternoon, witnessing in the “bococho”(the english speaking part of the territory). I could no longer stand the heat and needed someone to ring me out dry. So we headed for the “El Jardin Real” (The Royal Garden) for some early din dins and a swim in the pool.

… sat in that pool till we went prune like …

The pool is fantastic, at one end they have an undercover area that you swim into with a bar in the end of the pool, the seats are built-in to the end of the bar/pool. The bar has overhead cable TV & drinks all served while you sit in the water. We sat in that pool till we went prune like, a real oasis amidst the relentless Mexican heat.

Brother Eduardo served us with his Baja speciality “Baja Tacos de Pescando” fish taco’s in english words. They have to be tried to be believed… too good for words. I’m definitely ordering these again with out one ounce of hesitation.

We worked a couple of blocks in the territory back toward the main road then caught a taxi to the Playa Zicatella (Hotel Area).

… damaged his board on his last ride in …

The surf seemed to be picking up again so we spent an hour or so catching our share of waves. Ashley damaged his board on his last ride in, the nose has a nice crease on the bottom side due to some heavy double suck backwash wave action. At least it was the board and not the Ash that copped the discipline.

The man was an older gentleman, it´s hard to guess the age since i don’t know what the general life expectance is of the average Mexican. At a guess he was in his early fifties but they were hard years. I was able to follow along as the study was conducted using the “Require” brochure because i had a spanish one to follow with, I even had to read a few paragraphs (in spanish) in turn with the man we were studing with. I felt like i was in kindergarten all over again, I read every word as a word and not as a part of a sentence as you do when when you are learning to read. Oh well small steps… small steps.

… a horse with no name and wishing for rain …

After the first study we drove to the mecanico to drop off Brother Filemon’s car to fix a rough running motor. This is the reason we didn’t go out into the Mexican wilderness because the transport was in no state of traveling to remote areas. And trust me out here your on your own in the dessert with a horse with no name and wishing for rain.

Point of Interest: The average mecanicos work shop looks like a wrecking yard. Only in the front yard of someones house. In fact you wouldn’t even know he was a mecanico except for the car parts strewn across the bone dry sparce scape and also for the smell of old oil.

So we were carless and needed transport to our next destination. The cheapest and most prefered way (except of course owning your own car) is to travel by bus for only 3 pesos per ride (AU$0.30c). We headed north past the aeropurto escondido (airport terminal) to a little housing estate inhabited 100% by Mexicans. The houses are cookie cutter style but quite nice, roads have cemento gutters when most don’t, roads are still dirt. Brother Filemon wanted to visit a new publisher who is giving the 2nd talk (Bible Reading) this week on the theocratic school, it is going to be his first talk.

This brother (not yet baptized) is about about 60ish. So i think it’s a major thing for him at his age to give a public reading, so it was a loving thing to spend a bit of time with him so he is confident with it. The bible reading was of David & Goliath. What a great first subject!

… over hanging above were mangoes …

Afterward we went for a walk (i didn’t know why at the time) down a dirt track into the brambles through a tree lined section following a little narrow path into a secret garden, over hanging above were mangoes (literally the branches were nearly breaking under the weight and quantity of them) the air was still and cool. Guess where we were? The aeropurto congregations “Salon Del Reigno” of course! What a great spot… out in the fruit garden in the cool shaded air under a El Grande mango tree. Would the new system be better than this?

Win a Prize

The first person to tell me in english what “Salon del Reino” is word for word translated to in english wins a prize. No correspondence will be entred into, judges decision is final. First correct comment wins.

Whats the prize? Well that depends who wins and what they might like.

Mango Mayhem

Mangoes grow prolifically here in mexico and it’s a shame I don’t like them much, it seriously would be a mango lovers paradise. They grow every where including the side walks, in peoples yards, on vacant blocks of land and even smack right in the center of town. If you didn’t want to pay for a meal you could just go a pick a few off a tree and start eating.

… trample them into the sidewalk underfoot …

Really in fact if you didn’t help them out people would and do just trample them into the sidewalk underfoot. As I said I’m not generally a fan of mangoes but these ones are nice but not as big as the ones you can get in australia. They are about the size of an average apple, small and sweet and very easy eating.

Ash and I had gone our separate ways this morning, So my time finished with Brother Filemon at 12 noon, I went back to the Papaya Surf absolutely ready crash… man it was a hot day. I don’t reckon it would’ve been much off 40 degrees and 100% humidity… calor (hot).

More spanish practise again this afternoon. Ashley came back at about 3pm with Hadiel (a young brother in the local congregation) from witnessing with him in the ministry. So it was good to have Hadiel around for a while to teach me a little spanish, he helped to “real world” the information in the spanish book that I have.

Surfing on a Tortas

Simply had to go for a surf. Could you blame us in this heat? We frittered our afternoon hours away in the fading Mexican light till dusk. The surf was another Siestas & Olas moment. Carmens Cafecito was the venue of choice tonight for dinner. Most cafe’s here love doing a mean “tortas” (sandwich) for your hunger. I had a egg & cheese tortas. Why do cafe’s here like the “Tortas”… who knows but I’m happy to help out with the over supply problem.

… it’s the coolest part of the day before the heat and humidity sets in …

I spent the rest of the day reading and relaxing. Oh… we did take a trip into town (Playa Principal side of town) to do a bit of washing, this heat is murder on your clothes. Right besides the lavanderia is a “helados” (Ice Cream) shop. They sell all sorts of ice creams but the best things are their “Fruta” ice blocks, I had three of them, one Coconut, one Sundiaz (Water Melon) and a Chocolate de Creme. Hmmm they are so good on hot days in Puerto… wait a second everyday is a hot day in Puerto.

Travel Tip: The Ice Blocks come in all sorts of fruit flavors eg Pina is Pinapple, Limon, Papaya, Water Melon, Coconut, Manzana is apple and many more and all for AU$0.50 each.

Wednesday noches (nights) are book study nights, so we have to be ready by 6pm. It’s only about 1 kilometre from where we are staying (Papaya Surf) – a short walk in anyone’s book. But in this heat you end up drenched if you walk and your clothes don’t last one wear. So I choose a AU$2 taxi ride and pass up the opportunity to look like a wet fish.

… hurried inside to bring out three chairs for us all …

After the group Hermanos (Don’t pronounce the H in Spanish) Jorge invited us to go with him on a study. It was really nice to have had the privilege to sit in on the study. I think it was the mans first study because we did the first three paragraphs of the first chapter in the Require brochure. He seemed really happy to have all three of us there (Justino, Ashley, Jorge) and hurried inside to bring out three chairs for us all to sit on. We sat outside in his front yard and thats were the study was conducted.

Afterward Hermanos Jorge invited us out to dinner to a hermanas hamburger restaurante. I had eaten late in the afternoon so i wasn’t overly hungry… but those burgers were so good. Hmmm I don’t know what they put on them but it was not trouble eating two of them. (The sauce is the part that makes your mouth water.)

A hot night again… Ash and I stayed up talking till late, not a bad idea anyhow to let the heat of the night pass a little before trying to siesta. On that note “Buenos Noches”

We needed a lazy afternoon, the heat totally nada’s (Nothing – technically doesn’t work in the context of the sentence but I’m going with it) your energy. So we headed out for lunch, I had a delicious Italian “tortas” (Spanish for sandwich… Italian?) for lunch. Then we did some shopping to stock back up on the breakfast items.

… waves were rolling in and the sun was starting to sink low …

It was a splendid afternoon, the waves were rolling in and the sun was starting to sink low with the heat of the day passing us by, the water temp was about 25 degrees. No prizes as to guessing where we were that afternoon. Had the best surf session since i’ve been here too… just to rub it in a little more.

Update: I forgot to mention that during this surf i managed somehow to put my two front teeth into my left knee cap… ouch. It’s a savage little wave.

We came across a fantastic dinner special, two hamburgers and a Sol (Brand of beer – word means sun) all for 30 pesos (about AU$4). While we ate i snapped some amazing pictures of the sunset aswell. Another top day en Mexico.

… we had two surfs …

The book study we attended was on wednesday at 6pm, it was good a study about Jehovah’s “lealtud” (loyalty), it was in spanish which i’m still finding difficult to understand but it’s definitely getting better.

Afterward we were invited back to a brothers casa (house). They gave us some Frescas Naranja (Orange Juice) and Cajetta which is a goats milk candy spread (Leche de Cabra – Milk of Goat), it was similar to nutella but more like a treacle.

… a goats milk candy spread

The evening turned into a Spanish lesson for both Ash and I, it definitely is one of the best ways to learn spanish or any language for that matter. It was kind of funny in a way they took us under their wing and instructed us till we had it right. The trilling of the RRR’s is the hardest bit for me… for some reason it just doesn’t happen past a certain hour at night.

The roads are dry and dusty and not much sombre (shade), not that that bothers me much kind of used to the heat at least. Los ninos are gorgeous, so very happy and super polite will always shake your hand and give you a beautiful smile.

I worked along with Brother George this morning, he is a really nice brother and he tried hard to communicate with me… but alas my spanish is still malo (bad). Hitting the Spanish idioma (language) books harder now with renewed vigor. At least now spanish doesnt seem so foreign to listen to, i can now hear the individual words that are being said… albeit as fast as they still are.

We only spent the morning in the field service today after which we were invited back to Brother Georges restuarante for lunch. He runs a pollo (Chicken) restuarante, it tasted great, cajun style not fried and served with leche de coco berida (Milk of Coconut Drink).

Spent the afternoon studing more spanish, not so much words but rather the structure of it eg… nouns, adjectives, Definite articles and Indefinite articles. Theres alot to a language when you start digging below the surface, i guess it serves as a solid basis for which to keep learning and applying the idioma (language).

No surfing for me today, must admit i was wrecked after the morning in the heat witnessing so i had to have a little (poco) siesta.

Interesting Fact: Spelling is not a subject taught in the spanish curriculum in spanish speaking countries. The spelling can be easily sounded out phonetically

Adios Amigos y Amigas

Shopping List

• 3 x Cornflake Boxes
• 3 x Longlife milk
• 3 x Musli Bars
• 2 x Cartons of Juice
• Plates and spoons
• String (for a clothes line)

Total Cost: $25AU

A good result i thought, We headed back home, upacked our stuff. I did some study in a spanish book. Riveting stuff i know…

The surfing was beckoning us in, it was small but fun at about one to two foot in size. Hooray my shortest post so far.

Adios Amigos y Amigas

So its something i’ve have always dreamed of doing traveling the world looking for surf, meeting people and leaving some of the cares behind for a good few months. We are going to places like Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Venuzuela, Peru, Chile, England, India, Napal (if we can get in… political unrest threatens to foil our plans) and China.

We are backpacking the journey and taking our surf boards as well. I’m already so loaded up just thinking of all the stuff i’ve gotta take for example my camera and equipement (Nikon D70), Surfboard and books. Thats the part i can’t get over why am i taking so many books?. What books i here you ask? Well i’ve got some learn spanish books and we are taking lonley planet books so we don’t get lost.

Just in case you were wondering what Sietas & Olas means, well its means Sleep & Waves… sounds too good to me. And on that note Adios Amigos!.

The main feature was called Fair Bits, the film is done in a different style, it contains lots of little 6-7 Minute sections so this does help to keep the movie moving along. By far i thought the best section was one called garage sale… i won’t give to much away but i’ll just say this you won’t be looking at junk in a garage sale the same way…. hmmm i wonder if i could ride this.

Yes you heard me right Ben Stiller is in the movie, he has a funny skit where he plays some sort of heavy local telling people to get off his beach, he goes head-to-head against Andy Irons and fairs badly.

Over all i thought the movie was a good evenings entertainment so get out to see it when it rolls into you town (check with your local surf shop). Would i see it again? hmmm yes but only because it has surfing in it. Would i buy it on DVD? No it doesn’t cut it for me in that department. I’m more into surf documentaries… and so this film left me wanting more, disappointingly there was only a very small section where Taj Burrows reflects on his former years growing up and progressing as a surfer.

I rate this film a 7.5 out of 10, it had some good moments, but to be totally truthful i think Jack McCoy shot himself in the foot by making a better film last year “Blue Horizons” its always going to be a hard one to top, beacause really who can top Laird Hamiltons tow-in at Teahupoo on THAT wave…

i was totally inspired by that trip i came back and edited some video of myself surfing into a 1 Minute video clip and also built its own website dedicated to that time… the website complies with the current web standards, its built using XHTML and CSS. Go check it out! and download a video clip whilst you’re there.