Tepic

Once we left Mazatlan we only managed to get a far as Tepic, which was a really cool place with an amazing view from our room's balcony.

I woke up early and wandered through the town and checked out the Cathedral. It was a beautiful old building which looked quite gothic from the outside but was amazingly pure on the inside. There was a mass on when I arrived, so I took a seat and watched a while but decided not to take any photo's of the inside of the church.

After a bit of breakfast with the girls overlooking the Market place we headed off for Sayulita, usually a 2 hour trip but it will end up taking us a little over 4 hours to get there.

A view from out Balcony

The Ferry ride to Mazatlan

Well the trip was pretty cool. All we did for most of it was sleep. Once we found our room we took a quick walk around the ship, then returned for a few hours nap. We all got up for dinner, however the line was massive so we stood around for about 15 minutes waiting to be fed. It was kind of like a cafeteria at school (if you had those at school).

After dinner we watched the sun set which was pretty cool, then I had a Almond Magnum and headed off to bed again.

I woke up a couple of times at night, but all in all it was probably one of the better nights sleeps I've had.

In the morning the line for breakfast was similar for dinner, and after a 15 minute shut eye we were getting ready to get off the ferry again.

Here's a warning for you if you take your car on. WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO PUT YOUR CAR ON THE FERRY. This will allow you to drive straight off and not have to wait 40 minutes in the belly of a ship dodging crazy truck drivers (turned out they were trying to get out to the parking lot quickly because the three girls were sat there trying to making passing vehicles crash).

When they say they pack the cars in like sardines, they're not joking. Have a look at the below picture, it gives you an idea about the distance between trucks and cars.

We're in Mazatlan now and just finished a nice feed of garlic shirmp (prawns) and a surf at Playa Bruja which is about 20 minutes north from the centre of Mazatlan.

We've checked into the Mexican Hotel (where do they come up with the names) and I'm about to have a well deserved siesta.

Ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan

The first thing that you should be aware of is that the Ferry company Sematur went bankrupt 5 years ago, so it no longer has any ferry's running this route.......... or any route at all for that matter.

This might not seem like a big deal, but it's listed as the place to go in every guide book as well as any information sources on the net.

The process is fairly simple, it just takes a little while to get it done.

First of all you need to get copies of your documentation. One place I read you didn't need it, another place said you need 5 copies of each, but in the end I only needed one copy. To be safe, get a couple, it can't hurt having too much then not enough.

You need a copy of your Passport, Vehicle Registration, Tourist Visa and your Drivers License (I used my International Drivers License). You can plainly see a copier in the office where you get the permit, but they will NOT copy anything for you . You MUST get copies before you go there.

I've read that if your Mexican Tourist Visa has somewhere on Baja listed as your destination then they will not provide you with a ticket to the mainland. One of our crew had La Paz as her destination, and after a barrage of questions at the Immigration Office they assured us that it did not matter. In this case they were right, but why take the risk? Make sure that your tourist visa has somewhere on the mainland listed, Mexico City would be the safest bet.

Once you have the copies of your Passport, Vehicle Registration, Tourist Visa and your Drivers License you need to get a permit to import your vehicle to the mainland.

This can be done at the Ferry Terminal, however it is best to get it done at least the day before you leave incase you run in to any issues. The Ferry Terminal is located approx 20km North of La Paz at a place called Toppenangle.

The license, passport and visa have to be in the same name that the car is registered to. If you have borrowed or hired a car you won't be able to import it to the mainland (as far as I know). I believe this is to reduce the number of stolen cars being shipped over from Baja.

Give the paperwork to the Official in the Office (someone will direct you as you drive into the Ferry Building) and he will ask you to pay the $US 27.00 with a Visa Card. The Visa Card needs to be in the name of the registered vehicle owner as well.

He takes the card and asks you to come back in 20 minutes once everything is verified.

Once verified you get a sticker for the front window, best to put it on right away because we nearly lost ours out the window as we drove back into La Paz. Keep the paper work that the sticker is attached to as well, you will need this when you get your tickets.

Around the corner from the Permit Office is the ticketing office. I'm not sure if this is all the time, but the window on the left does NOT take credit cards, but the window on the right does, so line up as needed. You don't need to pay with a credit card, but the price breakup in peso's are as follows.

$800 per person
$2250 per car under 5.2 Meters in length (chrissy was fine)
$250 for a 4 bed cabin.

Our total was $5700 peso's, hence the use of the credit card.

It's best to get the tickets a couple of days, before just in case the rooms run out, and more importantly so there is room for you car. Also, the Ferry's don't run every day, definitely not on Thursdays and the weekends are usually booked out .

We did it the day before and had to get to the ticket office at 9am the day the ferry left to try and get the car on (there were only a few spaces left), not fun if you went out the night before. Like I said do it a few days before so you've got an easier go of it when it comes to the day you leave.

When you arrive on the day you will be directed around the far right hand side of the the building. I had to pull up and show my ticket for the car and myself, and the paperwork that the car permit sticker was on.

They chatted to me a bit, not that I understood much, lots so Si, si, ahhhhh, si. You have to drive forward and press a button on some lights, then a green light with "Passe" comes up and you drive through........... weird.

Don't go right around the back from here! I did, then someone came up asking me questions, pointing at the car and saying "Scalpo" or something similar. que? I eventually worked out that I had to put the car onto the scales for it to get weighed.

The car in front of me that I followed in didn't have to do that, so I assumed that because I didn't speak Espanol they were going to screw me out of money by saying the car weighed too much and I had to pay extra.

I drove around on to the scales and handed over the ticket, they had a list of names and cars with the weights written next to them and put mine down before waving me on and back to the line of cars. Hooray, no extra costs!!!!

The next 1.5 hours you sit in line waiting to get on to the boat. It's hot. Muy Calor!!! Fortunately I had an esky with some tepid coronas and some limes, a diet coke and the guitar.

After a while they motioned me forwards and I reversed the van into the boat.

After parking in between truck trailers I locked the car and they blocked the tires.

As you walk back out the passage there's a door on the right with a guard that will check your ticket and look at your carry on luggage, if you're carrying a giant bottle of water don't be suprised if he says "Grande Tequila?" "No, Grande Agua".

Take the stairs up to the Information Desk, which will be closed, and wait for another hour before people start boarding the boat. If you've got a cabin you'll need to line up to get the key, but if you just went with the seat just go and seat yourself.

Be warned that when you get the key they'll ask for a deposit, not a cash deposit but your license.

That's about it, hopefully it'll just be a straight forward drive off the boat tomorrow morning and off north to check out the right point break in Mazatlan.

Calbo Pulmo at Sunset

This was a pretty amazing sunset, and worth an entry just on it's own.

You can check out all the photo's here

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39653&l=8d112&id=676270374

For now though, here's a quick sneak preview........

La Paz

Just a quick note............

1. Had my first run in with the Police at Zippers beach, nothing eventuated, it just looked like I was trying to break into my own car
2. Spent the last two nights on the beach, got drunk last night, sweeeeeeeet. First time since I got to Mexico.
3. Ran into Dustin (owns a surf cafe/internet cafe place in scorpion bay) in La Paz, we're crashing in his room tonight.
4. Heading to the mainland tomorrow on a 18 hour ferry ride
5. Selling the car to Bags and Vinni, I'll still be with it, but I'm handing over the papers.
   

Mexico - Cabo Pulmo

I just finished pouring out a Banalla Pacifico Beer into four hot plastic cups in Cabo Pulmo. The hot cups made the beer froth up to look more like beer-a-chino's then beers, but it's hot and the beer is good.

We've got the beach to ourselves, beautiful white sands with a coral reef and hundreds of species of fish, yet when I walked away with the beer the wind caught the top of the big bottle (it filled four beers after all) and you could here a low pitch hum rise out. All that was in my head was Homer saying.........

"Lisa, never ever stop playing in the middle of a ho-down"

It's funny that in the middle of nowhere, in perfect paradise that your mind will still cast itself back to the Simpsons............... well maybe that's just me.

I can't recall where the last place was I wrote about, but since Scorpion Bay we headed to Punta Conejo and stayed the night. It's a really nice place, with a better accessed road then what Scorpion Bay is on, plus you're a little more isolated which means fewer people and less people in the Surf.

We spent Saturday night in Cabo San Lucas. I, to the disappointment of my San Diego friends I'm sure, stayed out of the show girl clubs. In fact, we stayed out of all the nightclubs.

Cabo is loud, expensive and full of people trying to get drunk and pick up.

For some reason unbeknown to me that wasn't something at the time which I was all that keen to do.

I think I'm getting old. That's now the 3rd town that I haven't got into a bar because it was too loud and they were forcing people to drink.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still the same person that'll spend another 2 weeks in OB trying to kill my liver, but that's not nightclubs with thumping music (except if Dara is thumping out country....... again!!!). At the moment give me a beach, the van and a group of people searching for waves.

Speaking of waves, the day after we spent the night in Cabo we headed towards San Jose to check out the surf in "The Corridor". Zippers had some waves, but they were yet again more of a long boarders wave and you needed to avoid the jagged rocks that reared out of the water.

Further down in between the two Zippers surf shops was a stage with some live music (DJ only, no musicians...... and no DJ's do not count as musicians) and a surf competition was on as well.

Awesome!!!! A chance to film some waves again.

I've never actually seen a surf competition take place in 1 foot waves before, and while I'm sure they are all great surfers........... 1ft!

That night we grabbed some food, taco's of course, and bumped into our friends Victor and his son (Edwardo I think, he was always quiet). We met them at Scorpion Bay, caught up with them at Punta Conejo, followed them to Cabo, and ran into them again in San Jose at the restaurant. Victor was nice enough to buy us all a Governer Taco (shrimp with cheese grilled). Cheers Victor!!!

That night we drove around for 1/2 hour trying to find a place to stay, I was beat so I didn't really care where we stayed, as long as it was somewhere in the next 30 minutes.

After nearly getting in 2 car accidents (someone nearly rammed us at the traffic lights, had to screech the breaks and all) we arrived on the beach and found a place to bunker down for the evening. The area we were at was the local hang out for a Sunday night, so it was busy and loud. That of course meant that it took me about 10 seconds to fall asleep instead of 5.

We left San Jose and headed up the Mexico 1 towards La Paz.

We stopped in at the Tropic of Cancer and took some touristy photo's, we even found a little piece of Australia there as well (the beer cap was Tasmania).

Now, like I mentioned earlier, we're chillin on the beach in Punta Calbo.

Tomorrow, well tomorrow is another day, and I'll wait until it arrives before I start guessing what we'll be doing with it. Hopefully somewhere nearby will be getting some swell at some stage so that we can get more of a surf in. As for now I think I'm going to get the board and go for a paddle on this lake of an ocean just so I do something else today besides gorge on Taco's.

"Bed goes up, bed goes down, bed goes up, bed goes down........"

(internet connection is slow so no photo's yet...... there coming)

Scorpion Bay

This place is great, but be warned that it is a bit of a bumpy ride on the way in.

We were going alright for most of the way, but be warned that if you spend too much time looking at the Volcano with the plug in the top then you'll miss the turn off and head into La Purimisa and into San Isidro. If you do this, you've gone too far.

Instead, take the left about 5 km before the town across the battered bridge over the small amount of water flowing through the river and continue slowly along the dirt road.

Good news is that they are paving the whole road, but unfortunately only 1/3 of it has been done so it's long going for the rest.

When you get to San Juanico go through the town and turn left and follow the dirt road that runs along the coast until you see the sign for Scorpion Bay.

The place is beautiful, sunset was really nice, but don't expect it to be like mexico in the camp itself. The town is definitely mexico, but the camp is quite Americanised........ burgers, steaks, bacon and eggs etc.

Check the swell before you come, and if it says 1-2 feet it is not hawaiian style, it is quite the opposite. Bring your longboard!!!!

Sunride would struggle to catch a wave here. We're about to go for a wander into the town and check it out.

Haha, the dude that just served me a diet pepsi looks like Slimer (chris), but in about 10 years. Dude, you're going to start going grey in your beard. Even he is checking out the young girls here, it's like I've got Chris here with me.

I've left the camera in the car, so photo's will follow...... I haven't forgotten Skevos.

Off to Scorpion Bay

Yesterday we completed our longest leg of the journey to date.

We woke up just after 6am, which might sound a little bit silly but once the sun gets above the horizon on the sea of cortez the temperature goes straight to 35, and when you're sleeping on the beach it's a good idea to get up and find some shade or start moving.

We left our new friend Rosa much to everyone's disappointment. She had formed a very quick but strong bond with Bag's and was sad to see us go. She tried to give up the nights camping for free, but we insisted she take the money so in turn she gave us some oranges for the journey.

We left Bahia de Los Angeles at about 8.30 am and headed back to the Mexico 1, through Punta Prieta, Villa Jesus Maria and stopped at Guerrero Negro for some lunch at 11am.

We pushed on, losing an hour to Mountain time, at 1pm and went through Vizcaino, San Lino and pulled up in Santa Rosalia where we enjoyed some fresh fruit juice and ice creams (it was freaking hot).

Holly spent about 30 minutes taking money out of the bank because the atm machine was air conditioned.

While we were getting our juice (they even did me a mango, paw paw and banana drink for me... I miss the markets) we met two californian families that were heading back up to the US after spending a couple days at Scorpion Bay.

I thought, after the adventures so far, that the car would have not chance of getting in there and we'd miss out, but after talking with the guy's at the juice shop it seems like we'll be able to do it.

We thanked them for the information and headed further south through Mulege, Punta Concepcion, Bahia Concepcion and on to Loreto where we spent the night.

We even bumped in to Craig, a guy from Wales that we met back at Coyote Cals, while we were heading out for dinner.

So the new plan, once everyone wakes up this morning, is to head south though Puerto Escondido and on to Ciudad Insurgentes, take a right and go back up north towards La Purisima before taking a left onto the road that takes us to Scorpion Bay.

Apparently the roads are a little patchy, but one of the cars that had just done the trip had the same clearance as Chrissy so we should be sweet.

Hopefully the next post will be of empty lineups and 200m rides at Scorpion Bay.

Skev, I promise to get some pics for you mate.

The First Few Days in Mexico

This is the first opportunity we've had to kick back and relax since we crossed the border on Tuesday morning.

It's Saturday morning and we're in Bahia De Los Angeles.

The first few days have been adventurous, but not without drama.

After getting mexican car insurance at the border I crossed over expecting the worse, but it was relatively simple. Well actually, it was extremely simple.

Once I drove through the check point, where there weren't any actual checks, I pulled off to the side of the road to pick up Bags, Vini, Holly and Ness.

We piled into the car and set off through Tijuana. After taking the first couple of turns in the wrong direction and doing a LOT of retracing steps we headed of to Ensenada.

We stopped in at Ensenada for some lunch and decided to head back up North a few kilometers until just before the 3rd Toll on the Mexican 1D and pull into a quaint little place where we could camp on the beach.

View from the back of the van

There is a nice right point break that peels off the rocks there, but unfortunately there was no swell to get it going while we were there.

We enjoyed a light dinner at the resteraunt that looked out over the ocean and had $1 Corona's and $3.20 Margarita's before getting our first nights sleep in Mexico. Before we left the resteraunt I suddenly realised that I forgot all about handing in my US Visa Waver tag to prove I left the country, and also forgot to get a Mexican Tourist Card which is needed once you pass Ensenada.......... woops!

My first night was spent sleeping on my board bag under a sheet and one of the girls sleeping bags out the back on the van, and while I had thoughts of someone dropping the near by boulders on me, and someone wrapping me up and throwing me in the ocean, I had a pretty good sleep and awoke unscathed.

In the morning there were a couple of guys who had come and parked in front of our view of the ocean. Now most know that I'm not the best morning person, but I knew being cranky wouldn't help anything so I went over and said hello.

Richard, one of the guys, lived in camp area (above the beach camping were a bunch of small homes (like coogee bay homes but smaller) and was a surf instructor. After chatting with him for a while it turned out that his twin brother, also named Richard because his mum didn't know she was having twins and only picked out one name, ran a surf camp called Cuatro Casa's (4 houses) further down south.

We headed back to Ensenada to pick up some supplies before pushing on, but not before we stopped in at the port to pay $6.50 for a form, and $5 fine for not getting our tourist visa, and $22 for our 180 day mexican tourist visa.

We spent a bit of time wandering around Ensenada, and unfortunately a cruise ship had just stopped (every wednesday and Saturday) so all the horders were out on the street. Of course, we looked like tourists so they thought we were with them and hounded us just as much.

Vini bought a new board (which we still haven't been able to find any surf for) and we hauled ass on down to Punta LaBufadora to see the blow hole. Not too bad, definitely a more impressive drive up though the mountains then the blow hole itself, but it was a good detour.

On the way back we stopped off at a Tomale stand and sampled everything we had. It again proved that having a fluent speaking spanish person, Bags, was a god send because we were able to find out all about the different types of food.

Us trying all of the things on offer

We pushed on and headed to Puerto San Isidro and stay at Coyote Cal's for the night and hope to get a surf in the next day.

The road into San Isidro although sealed, is terrible. There are potholes everywhere and it made for some interesting swerve driving. Kind of like daytona, except there were cars and trucks coming in the other direction as well.

Once we finally got to Coyote Cals it was well past sunset, and as we drove up one of the last hills into the place we hit a really big rock........... and "Chrissy" (the van) started to give us some trouble.

Sunset on the way to Coyote Cals

The hostel itself is really nice at $15 US a night, and would probably be even better if there were some swell around the place.

As we left in the morning I slightly scraped one of the speed bumps and continued on the way. About 5 minutes later a Mexican man over took us and was yelling something which I didn't understand. Bag's had a listen and said oil leak.

Oil leak and then some.

There was a trail leading as far back as I could see, and it was pouring out of the bottom of the car.

I jumped onto the ground and felt around, there was a small hole in the bottom of the pan and it was pouring out.

For those that know me you know that my knowledge and ability with cars reaches as far as asking Cory what to do.

No Cory here this time, so I managed to get the chewing gum off the girls and plug the hole well enough to stop the leak. Hooray. For about 5 minutes until the leak started again.

Back to the drawing board.

More gum to stem the flow of the oil and then I decided to try out the surfboard resin I have for ding repairs, surely that would work well.

It did not work well, and stop calling me Shirly. The resin in designed to harden in sunlight, which takes about 20 seconds, but underneath the car with hot oil it was taking a lot longer.

We did the only thing that we could think of...... I sealed the leak as best I could and we had beer and Tequila to celebrate Holly's 12 months abroad.

A couple of people stopped to help out, all American's, and it turned out that it wasn't motor oil, but the Automatic Transmission Fluid that was leaking. That didn't seem as bad.

We stopped the leak as best we could and headed into the mechanics to get it fixed.

4 hours and 4 quarts of ATF later the car was repaired and we were off to San Quintan.

Again we arrived in San Quintan late in the evening, and subsequently drove past it without finding what we were after.

After a day in the hot sun, spending most of my time on the dirt covered in resin, transimission fluid I really wanted a shower, and a rest, something to eat and somewhere to relax.

We pulled into El Rosario and got a double room for $30 (split 5 ways). We went and grabbed some Taco's from the local and headed back to the room for a few beers before going to bed.

In the morning I got up and checked all the levels, oil, water, break, transmission, power steering (who would have thought!) and everything was fine.

Just before we left Vini noticed that were a couple of drips coming out of the bottom of the car.

CHRISSY!!!!!

Same place, same problem.

We asked a couple of people where the best place was to get it done and found it easily enough........ at least this time we could explain what needed to be done quickly.

2 hours later the pan was fixed, again, but this time it was done properly with Bronze instead of a poxy fix.

Here's how the van was looking from below

We even got him to raise the front suspension so that we had a bit more clearance! We checked that back suspension and it was mission the actual shocks and had been lowered. I was going to take 2 hours to get it done, and we wanted to get to the beach at some stage during this journey.

We headed off and pushed on through the desert for what seemed like an eternity. It was hot, but not unbearable, just a normal drive down to litchfeild on the hottest day, but a dry heat.

There's few and far gas stations along the way, in fact it is just a guy with Jerry can's in the back of his car with a "Gasolina" sign. 155 peso's for 5 gallons. Take it, or run out of fuel along the way.

Bags drove the car after our first fuel up and made me nervous as she drove close to the edge of the road, but that was more because I no longer had control of "Chrissy". Bag's drove well and got us down to Bahia de Los Angeles, which is a small finshing town on the sea of cortez.

I've got a couple of pictures of the drive in, and while they look good, they don't do the trip in justice.

I'm not sure if it's the fact that we were hot and coming out of a seamingly endless desert, or that it's just too beautiful to capture on camera, but it's something you have to do yourself to fully appreciate it.

We're staying two nights here so that we've got a whole day to relax somewhere, and that's what myself and Vini are doing right now.

I'm tapping away on the keys as the ocean laps up on the shore, slowly rising and filling what was our beds on the sand under the stars last night, while vini is practicing the into to Nothing Else Matters on the guitar.

Unfortunately Ness had to go back to San Diego today, so Holly and Bag's have taken her up to the bus stop (140km round trip in the desert, love your work girls). Holly has decided to prolong her stay with us indefinitely, now all we need to do is find some surf at our next stop.

Sunrise at Bahia de Los Angeles

To wrap up for now, Mexico is fantastic! The people here are more then friendly, everyone is more then helpful, and everyone we have spoken to has wished us the best on our trip. Of course, having someone that speaks fluent Spanish has made this trip WAY more easy then it would have been without Bags.

The car is going alright now, touch wood, and hopefully the fun and excitement with continue for the trip.

Fingers crossed for some waves!

Bahia de Los Angeles

I wrote a long blog message earlier this morning but can't get a hold of wireless and this is dial up.

I'm safe, the girls are still with me and we're having a great time. Mexico is wonderfull, but hot, and the people are fantastic.

|Will post more when I get a chance....

Oh, and still no surf but we took the boards out with beers today just for a paddle.

Viva Mexico

This will be short and sweet.

Tomorrow I'm finally doing it, although I can already here everyone at Ocean Beach saying "sure you are Justin, we'll see you tonight for dinner".

I'm heading off at 10am tomorrow on my own towards the Mexican border. Apparently I take the last American exit off to the right, around and around before getting to a big car park and a building titled "American Insurance".

In everything I've read and heard about traveling this route this is the one thing that I DEFINITELY need. Actually tonight someone said if you don't have it before you hit the border you may as well just give your car away.

See........... this is why I stayed at the pub for a few beers tonight, for that one very valuable piece of information.

I had a great last night. I spent an hour at the pub with the boys watching the Home Run hit out before heading to dinner with Tiny, James, Angela and Dara. A nice last feed of Sushi and Ice Cream before crossing over for burritos and taco's.

I'm only going over on my own, then I pick up a couple of people I met at the hostel. What started off as a lone trip down through central america has now picked up a further 4 people. Luckily we all get along well and have similar interests for this part of the trip.

2 are only staying on for the first 5 days of the journey, and the rest of us are traveling togther until we decide to go our seperate ways (or I sell them the car and bus off to Honduras).

I'm guessing that internet will be a little harder to come by down Baja, but I'll attempt to keep this as up-to-date as I can.

Thanks to everyone from OB for making my last 2 weeks one of the best times of my life. I consider myself lucky to have been able to spend the time I did with each of you, and have taken away some fantastic memories and treasured freindships. Of course, as you would probably assume from my very drawn out leaving process, I'll be back at some stage to say hi, but in the mean time stay in touch and any one is MORE then welcome to come and visit during my trip and once I return back to Australia.

Love you heaps, every fortnight, with my esky!

Staying for the Weekend

Thanks for the comments guys, I'm going to stay for the weekend and head off to Mexico on Monday with two Australian girls that I met at the Hostel. The car is getting fixed this afternoon and will be finished by tomorrow, Hooray!

We're going to cross over in Tijuana and head straight down past Ensenada until we find a beach we like, and then set up and go surfing (fingers crossed the waves are nice and small with a great big channel to paddle out in)

It's hard to explain just how much fun you can have here in OB, without experiencing the people, the beach, the way of life, the sunshine and the waves, it's tough to understand.

One thing that is pretty clear now though, is if I had to pick somewhere to hang out and it couldn't be Darwin, it's definitely going to be Ocean Beach, San Diego.

Of course it may be over taken when I get around to visiting the other places in the world, but for now this is the place.

As always, it's easier to convey these things into meaning through some shortly explained photo's.

This is where it all started. My Shenannigan's of Ocean Beach.

Friday
Friday 12pm: This was our start to Friday. Who said you can't have a liquid lunch, a liquid car bomb lunch.

Friday 12.01pm - It was all down hill from here

Friday 12.45pm - Okay, now it's getting a little silly.
Saturday
Dave, Shelly, Deb, Rita, Chick Pete and James.

After a looooong Friday afternoon and evening I made it back to Tiny's..... in last nights clothes. When I called James to ask where he lived to get a lift home he replied "just come straight to Tiny's, we're all here.

James and Brooklyn 11.00pm

Brooklyn kept me company while everyone else was at the wedding.

Saturday 11.30pm, James

Sunday 12.05 am - Me and Chrissy

Chrissy is one of my favourites, obviously gorgeous but a very cool person as well....... unfortunately Jeff, her other half, is a champion as well.

Sunday ????? - Sarah did her best to make sure I was going to forget a bunch a this night.

Sunday
Sunday 2.30pm - After a little Breakfast at Tiny's we grabbed some beers and headed to the beach........

Sean and James

Sunday 5pm ......then back to Gallaghers for Guinness and Pizza (and shots of Jamesons). A couple of kids showed up a few hours later asking for $1, then they asked to buy them beers. We politely showed them which way to go......

This is an evening I spent down the beach with the guitar and no beer.....

Mike, Margaret, Tiny.

Monday
Dara, James, Sean, Tiny, Me, Margaret

Monday ???? - It is Tiny's Birthday so we went out for a few drinks starting off at Tiny's and working our way around the town. I actually made it out for a surf today. 40 minutes paddling and one wave back into shore. I'm sore, tired, and dying a slow death.

Me and Dara after I lost us a game of doubles at Lucy's

I played a couple of games of pool against Dara at Tiny's place. After 2 games I had sunk 3 balls and felt less like a man and more like a little school girl. Fortunately she took pity on me and let me win the next 2 games before giving me a hiding in the deciding 5th game. Oh, she also went of to thrash me at the bowling game as well.

Dara and Tiny, Tiny had a thing for sticking his tongue out for pictures this night

After a few drinks at Lucy's (beers and shots of Hawaiian punch thankyou Jay) we headed to O'Bistro to see Brenda and the gang. Here it all went a little bit pear shaped and all the girls were trying to pick up Tiny for his birthday. There were more beers, more shots and everyone kind of started losing their memories from here on in.

Tiny and Chrissy, apparently they both had a tongue theme going

Chrissy, Brooklyn, Tiny, Dara and Brenda Here are the girls "picking up" Tiny

Tiny and I trying to get a picture in O'Bistro's mirror
Ben and Tiny

After O'Bistro we headed back to Tiny's for some final beers and ended what was a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday bender for a couple of us.

The next day was quiet, really quiet, to the point that I went to the pub for some lunch and Kim poured me a beer with out asking if I wanted one. I graciously handed the beer to the guy next to me and proceeded to down about 17 pints of water for one solitary visit to the bathroom.

We got an early night that night, it was going to be a big day for the 4th of July, but that's for another post all on it's own.

I look back on the misdirection that I was lead on during the journey from Santa Barbara to San Diego and can't help but smile. Melissa was sooooo suprised at how well I was taking the wrong turn, the eventual problem with the car, the fact I had to spend a night behind a service station in the desert etc..... but it's things that happen like that which lead me to experiences like this. Without a simple misread of a map I never would have met the people here and gained the friends that I have to date.

It's all about the journey, never the destination.

4th July in Ocean Beach, San Diego

Well it has just ticked over to 12.47am on July 5th, and that will finish what was one of my better days in life.

I have a bunch of photo's that I want to share with you, but the connection is slow and will have to wait a few days, or at least a walk around the street to find a better wireless connection.

I've very quickly settled into life in Ocean Beach, San Diego (you stay classy).

It is a very easy going place with a great bunch of people. And while NONE of my friends in Darwin can ever be replaced, I think I've found most of your dopplegangers here in Ocean Beach.

But not just Ocean Beach, but in a small community formed at Tiny's Tavern.

After talking with two of the more popular gals in the group, the sisters Dara and Angela confirmed what I thought was true. I had somehow managed to land myself in the best group of people in all of OB.

So if you ever pass through Ocean Beach, be sure to head down Voltaire St and stop at Tiny's Tavern for a beer. While you're there enjoy a cheap beer, good food, and the company of the likes of Tiny, Coach, Kim, Dara, Angela, Brooklyn, Chrissy, Vanessa, Ben, James, Sean, Pete, Jay, Jason, Doug, Thor, Pete, Jackaroo, Shelly, Rita, Debbie, Larry and numerous numerous others that I can't think of at the moment. You will only end up with good times and great memories.

Oh, and on a surfing note, Ocean Beach has had some great swell in the past few days. I went out for a surf the day before (more to get wet, have been kind of hunger over the past week), and got waist to chest high beach breaks with the occasional shoulder high sets.

I was talking to a guy at 6'4 who was out yesterday and apparently the waves were overhead, but as Myles would say "about 3-4 ft................. Hawaiian style!"

The car should be ready to go by tomorrow, which means I'll have my final drinks with my new friends and head off to Mexico on Friday, although I've had a lot of arguments to stay the weekend and leave Monday............

Any suggestions? Run to Mexico or stay a few more days?