Sat on the sofa in layers of clothes clutching a cup of tea, being able to run fingers through untangled hair usually means one thing, I’m home. Returning from a 5 month trip exploring Mexico, with a quick visit to Las Vegas, LA, Hollywood and Venice beach.
Leaving the Uk on the 8th of November 2014, I set out for Mexico, with dreams of surfing perfect waves, eating tacos and owning a donkey called Eric, all achieved, apart from the ownership of a Donkey, but I did get to call one Eric.
Mexico was new to me, so it was nice to to go into the country with no idea what to expect, with so many horror stories of girls being abducted, drug wars and robberies, yet none of this was enough to put me off spending 5 months out there checking it out.
I spent the first 3 months in a small surf town called Sayulita, working as a surfing instructor. The wave was over-rated, but was perfect for beginners, it never got big, but had consistent, small, fun longboardable waves. It does get extremely crowded however, with aggressive locals, but you can still catch waves.
The surrounding area of Punta Mita is beautiful, with lots of waves in the area, crystal waters and fun peaks to surf.
The town of Syulita was super fun, with great restaurants and bars and colourful buildings. After 3 months in Sayuilta and after suffering 3 weeks of ear infections from the dirty water, i left work and headed south to find cleaner waters and challenging waves.
On the 8 hour bus journey south to La Ticla, it was great to see that there was still parts of the world that hadnt been taken over by Mc Donalds. The locals I met along the way were great, drinking beers at 7.30am seems to be normal and they were really welcoming and they always seemed to be smiling. The languae barrier could be quite amusing at times, with my knowledge of the Spanish languge being minimal, asking for directions could turn into a game of pictionary.
La ticla is a small town with a population of 250 locals, if you dont surf, you would probably go insane with boredom. Sometimes if the surf was bad the only excitement we would get would come from the new delivery of bananas in the shop. I was camping on the beach in front of a perfect wave that breaks from the rivermouth, i found heaven. It was great to be sat in the ocean watching humpback whales and dolphins jumping out of the water and making the occasional beach fire to keep warm in the cooler evenings. I camped there for 2 months, robbery free, taking a couple of trips down the coast to stay and surf in Nexpa, a long left hander, where last year visitors and locals had to avoid open gunfire and grenades from the ongoing drug war. Apart from finding a machiene gun shell on the floor, i didnt get caught up in any of it.
After spending so much time in Mexico I found it very difficult to leave, i met some amazing people, surfed amazing waves and had some crazy experiences.
The plan was to travel to LA for a night then to get the bus to Las Vegas for 2 nights, and to stay in Venice for 3 nights, with a quick trip to Hollywood.
LA was scary, but when we got to Vegas the next day it was just as i expected but on a much bigger scale! it is like Butlins on steroids… so many people, no one with a care in the world, open bars for women, street performers, there was even a couple of guys holding up signs saying ‘kick me in the nuts for $20’ or ‘too ugly for prostitution’, it was simply mad! and i loved it! Venice and Hollywood was fun too, but i will definetly be going back to Vegas on my next trip to the USA!
After being home for a week I have had time to sit back and look through all of the photos and to reflect on the past couple of months and it really has been a couple of crazy months! I will definetly be returning to Mexico, there are so many waves to surf and places to explore, its going to take a while!
I will be returning to France at the end of June for the summer season, working for Feral, camping in France under the stars, surfing great waves and meeting great poeple! Follow the link below to check them out if you are thinking of getting away and learning to surf this summer!
http://www.feralsurftours.com/
Allannah Brown 