While I was doing my Open Water Diving Course, I was also making progress on the animation for my remote customers from the comfort of my connected little room. During those days, Lalle (the friend of a friend I had met upon arrival) and I got together many times for dinner at the Punta and promised each other that we would go on a short surf trip to better and less crowded waves as soon as I could allow myself to step away from the computer. She told me about this cute little village with no wi fi or mobile connection that had great intermediate level waves. The minute I sent the final render for AgBag’s animation, Lalle and I synchronised our schedules and left to Barra de la Cruz looking for waves. Lucy, an English girl who had volunteered at Lalle’s hostel earlier in the year, decided to come along. So on we went the Italian, the English and the Argentinian; looking to discover Barra de La Cruz.
We first got on a van and then a taxi to get to Barra de la Cruz. It was around 3 hours all in all. Barra is an adorable, tiny and quaint village. There’s a half an hour block to the beach (unless you have a car or find a ride). Once there, you need to pay a small entrance fee to a cooperative of neighbours who take care of the road, the beach and run a beachside restaurant. They were always very nice to us and it was a pleasure to see them on the way to the break. The beach is pristine. All there is on it is the restaurant were we had exquisite ceviches and breaded seafood. The restaurant runs inside a palapa: the typical Mexican construction that uses palm leaves for the roofing. The rest of the beach is untouched and gorgeous. The pleasure of seafood and beers on the beach can only be outdone by the pleasure of seafood and beers on the beach after 3 hours of surfing. (Check my ecstatic face on the photo above).
Mexican Roads are always full of flavour and taxi drivers are professionals at sticking boards in through the window.
Waves that rock
Barra is a point break offering right hand waves that start just after a point of beautiful rocks. Because of the way it’s shaped, the waves run very close to the rocks during their first meters. I almost crashed myself against those rocks a few times during my first minutes in the water. I quickly decided to move a little bit further out so as to catch the waves after the rocks and avoid ending up against them like a bi-dimensional and reckless Pink Panther. We stayed at Cabañas Pepe: simple and cute palapas with a bed, mosquito net and fan where they also rent surfboards. It cost 100 Mexican pesos mexicanos per person. There are two restaurants in Barra: a typical Mexican kitchen serving fish, seafood and featuring a jukebox full of rancheras (but other genres too); and a dimly lit Pizza place with baroque decoration. We ate once at each and I really enjoyed both. Barra is a must-see destination for any surfer going through Puerto Escondido; but also for anyone who enjoys untouched nature and beaches.
Salty and Accomplished
We stayed in Barra for 2 nights and headed back to Puerto only a few days before my flight to the Caribbean. By the end of my time in Puerto I was feeling utterly happy and wanting to stay. I had finished my online project and got paid for it, got my Open Water certification plus some fun dives with Lore and had finally come back to surf and the salty lifestyle I had been missing in Guatemala and Chiapas. On top of all that, I received a fantastic invitation from Buenos Aires. The Organisers of DNX Buenos Aires, the first Spanish speaking Digital Nomads Conference; invited me to take part in it as a speaker. This would be the very first event of its kind to ever be done in Spanish and in Latin America. The date was May 1st, which perfectly matched my plans to swing back through Argentina for a couple months by the end of the summer. Ever since they invited me, I used every cycling minute to brainstorm the content of the talk in my head. I was so happy in Puerto I didn’t even take the trip to see Oaxaca City. Not even the Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos) could tempt me enough to get out of my beloved evanescent home in the small, hot, salty and cheap town of Puerto Escondido.
