surfing o.a.x.

The backs of my legs are burnt, my knees, hips, and ribs are bruised, my shoulders and back are more sore than they've ever been, but it was definitely worth it.

I've attempted to surf before - Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Peru, Florida, New York, California - but I think Puerto might be my new fav spot. I didn't actually surf Puerto or Playa Zicatela because those were for the super hardcore crazy Aussies that were on a surfing pilgramage or something - Zicatela is apparently big time - but I did surf Playa Carrazilillo, the beginner beach, and it was crazy fun.
Kate and I took 3 days of surf lessons with Roger and Julio "Herpules" Soto at Carrazilillo. We'd get up in the morning, eat some mangoes, buy some bread from Cafecito, an awesome panaderia, and taxi it over to Carrazilillo. We did 3 hours in the water the first 2 days and after that, I was rocking pretty hard, or at least as hard as you can rock Carrazilillo. I was standing up on every wave and by day 3 Julio was attempting to teach me some style - walking out to the end of the board, doing fancy turns, handstands on the board, etc. I didn't quite get the handstand thing down, but whatever, I was new.
The last day we only got in an 1.5 hours because Julio was dying to get to the Punta. It was so funny because the night before, no one was out in the town because the big waves were coming the next morning at the Punta. The whole town revolves around surfing. Anyway, we let Julio peace out to go get his surf on. Not gonna lie, we were pretty exhausted anyway, so it was good for everyone.
And now I'm back in the ciudad for my last few days in the OAX. Sad face. I'm going to miss you, OAX...

More pics of Tulum and Puerto on Flickr.

Peace.