From Houston, TX, to Michoacan and back, January 2001
Submitted by Dave Lilliott
We (Tommy W__, his girlfriend, April P__, and myself) took off from Houston, TX, on a bus bound for Guadalajara, Mexico, on Friday, January 12, 2001.
Twenty-three hours later, after changing buses in Monterrey, we landed in Guadalajara. The next morning we took a cab to the aeropuerto and got our reserved mini-car rental. We were stoked that it had slots on the roof for my soft rack and we loaded up our boards and headed for Tecoman.
We awoke the next morning and went straight to Pascuales, where the surf was not quite big enough to surf, but we had fun bodysurfing in the monster beach break. We had a nice lobster lunch and headed south for San Juan de Lima. We stayed the night there and awoke the next morning and headed to Ticla. Tommy and I surfed all day in overhead conditions at Ticla and were totally stoked to finally get some good surfing in.
Things at Ticla looked built up and safer than our last visit, so we went back to San Juan de Lima to get our stuff and April and headed back to stay at Ticla. Tommy and April rented a palapa there and I stayed in a tent for $2 a day (Tommy snores way too loud to sleep anywhere near him, not to mention that three’s a crowd). We stayed and surfed in Ticla for a full week and met many people from all over the world. There were our palapa mates from South Africa, Greg and Ross, and Greg’s girlfriend, Carla. There was a funny hairy little man, Ariel, from Israel and two very funny blokes from England. There were a few Aussies and a New Zealander.
We met people from all over the US as well. We even hooked up with some fellow Texans, Tim, Lilly, and Grom, all from South Padre Island. We all had a blast surfing all day, every day, and partying around bonfires or at the bar at night. There was lots of things to do to keep yourself occupied. If you weren’t surfing, you could go on a hike up to “the rock” that overlooked the point at Ticla. It was a breathtaking view up there. You could walk down the beach, take a siesta, wait for some food to be cooked, get some reading or writing done. I even had time to do some nice sketches of the area.
After a full week of nice surf and friendly fun, we decided to be tourists and head farther south. We packed up and headed for Nexpa, but were disappointed to see that it was not nearly as consistent as Ticla and decided not to go out in the small sloppy mush there. We headed farther south for the tourist traps that are Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo. We found the cheapest hotel we could find in Zihuatanejo and did the tourist thing. Eating at fine restaurants, swimming in the bay, riding parachutes pulled by boats, and of course, shopping.
We only stayed for a couple of days and one night and decided to head back towards Ticla. Once there, we got our same spots back and met a few newcomers. We surfed for a few more days in the consistent surf at Ticla. We visited a spot just south of Ticla called El Farro which I highly recommend for the virtual beauty of the spot. It is in a small cove/bay with ultra blue water, steep coarse sand beaches, rocks to climb, and a nice restaurant.
We went back to Ticla, surfed for one more day, and decided to try Pascuales one more time before we headed back to Guad [Guadalajara] and Houston. We said our goodbyes to all our new found worldly friends and headed north. Unfortunately, Pascuales didn’t cooperate and we were forced to say goodbye to the blue Pacific. We headed back to Guad, turned in our rental, and headed for the bus station. Twenty-three hours later, on January 21, 2001, we were back in Houston to relive our fine adventure.
Photos of our Mexcian Surfari can be found at:
www.geocities.com/surftexas365
-Dave Lilliott Related link: Surf Texas 365
