Day 13 - Stoner’s Surf Camp, San Blas
It was fantastic to wake up on the beach, a nice start to the day. The beds in the cabin came with mosquito nets, always an ominous sign for someone that has had malaria twice, not once, twice! I was good, but Jorik seemed to have taken a bit of action during the night. We got sorted out and ready to leave following a quick breakfast in Stoner’s Surf Camp. Day 13 wasn’t to be too long, a few hours in the saddle, and we wanted to stop to get some drone footage of the beautiful landscapes and great riding, and we would arrive in a small town called Sayulita. Jorik had been before and said it was going to be a great spot to chill, so we had a rest day in the bag for the following day. Following some awesome riding, great twisty roads and just incredible scenery. There were even a few signs to watch out for wildlife, which was pretty cool.
We pulled into Sayulita around 4pm, after a couple wrong turns, one of which nearly ended us up on the beach, we pulled up in front of a bar. It was cerveza time, and I was thirsty. The bar tender spoke some English and was super impressed with the bikes. He told us about a hostel down the street for mxn300 a night. The cost of things has definitely gone down the further south we travel. Beers were about mxn50 and the food looked pretty reasonable in some nice spots. Sayulita was already turning out to be an awesome town. Settled into our dormitory in the hostel, the Le raDonda (https://www.laredondasayulita.com/), we headed down to the beach for a swim in what looked like paradise. Walking along the beach, the sand appeared to have gold flakes in it. Walking into the water the gold flakes dance around your feet, it’s mental. The bay offers some incredible surfing and loads of people in the hostel were there just for the surfing. A few others were there for the fantastic vibe that Sayulita gives off, just an awesome town. Having a rest day the following day meant we could get a little loose that evening. The “young people” in the hostel said that the sun set at 7:30pm, and that it was unmissable. We had just got back from showering and getting ready to head out for dinner and a Pacifico or 2, so we headed down to the beach. With no beers in hand, we jumped into a shop, but the queue was ridiculous. Poor planning on our part, but we rushed off to catch the experience. We missed it, just by 5 minutes or so, but we missed it. It was still spectacular, but we fucking missed the actual sunset, damn!
From the disappointment of seeing something so beautiful, but not quite getting to the point where you really feel satisfied, I was glad we had the next evening to ensure we didn’t miss out. We needed food, and as we had not managed to secure any beers for the sunset (that we missed), we need a Pacifico. Walking through the town is just great, loads of colours and a really vibrant place. It seems that the most popular area is around 3 square blocks. Completely walkable, but as much of it is cobbled, it was tougher to navigate in poorer visibility conditions. We had some great tacos at a street side stand, where we were served by a guy called Alxis (or something like that), a couple of Pacifico’s and then headed back to where we had seen a big inflatable screen on the beach. They were showing short independent films of about 20 to 30 minutes in length. A very cool hour or so was spent watching the films and then we headed back to the Hostel. As we were leaving the beach, a little wiper snapper Mexican Jack Russel mutt, slipped out of nowhere snapping at Jorik’s heals. Jorik freaked out and was jumping up and down, twisting around trying to avoid the little buggers snapping jaws, but it got him on the foot. Little bastard. As an observer of this episode, I did laugh. Sorry, I have to admit, I thought it was funny as shit! However, the little runt drew blood. We got back to the Hostel, cleaned up the wound with our first aid kit, and then spent the evening at the Hostel. I’m just going to say that we had an entertaining evening and leave it that.