Saturday, April 18, 2009

El viaje a México estaba loco

Fireworks, tequila, surfboards, and la policia. That is how I sum up our Mexican adventure. It started off with an 8hr drive from San Francisco to Poway, CA. We arrived around 3pm and spent the rest of the day at the beach, a roof top bar, and playing in an adult league softball game. We were in no shape or form prepared for any sort of competitive activites. Sandals were not allowed in this league, so Brian borrowed some guys business dress socks and some old Goodwill looking shoes while I lucked out and got to wear my surf booties. Friday we packed up for our departure to Mexico and all met at a harbor in the San Diego Bay. With uncooperative weather, the sailing unfortunately did not take place. We did however climb aboard, daydreaming about what it would be like to be out on the open water, and then headed to Mexico in our caravan.

We crossed the border without receiving full
body searches, and made it to our condo. The
rest of our caravan wasn't supposed to arrive until late in the day, so Brian and I pulled on our wetsuits and grabbed our boards and headed out into the water. Google "K38 beach" and this is where we surfed. Friday night turned into a "pre-party" to what was supposed to be the "actual party" on Saturday night. The night ended around 2am with us throwing glow stick rings (out of Brian's survival pack) off of the 10th floor balcony and trying to make them into the pool. This game was quickly ended when security caught us. Saturday was a day full of waking up hungover, drinking lots of coffee and eating little food, surfing for 4 hrs, and then getting in the hot tub with a styrofoam cooler full of beer. The day quickly turned to night as we (we from now on consists of 4 guys, a.k.a LOTPs or Life of the Party) got dressed and headed for the "real party" celebrating Carolyn's graduation with her Masters at UCLA. Margaritas, beer, awesome mexican food, and a Mariachi guitarist. Everyone became increasingly roudy and we decided to grab our headlamps (out of our survival packs) and fireworks (not from our survival packs) and head to the local beach to light up the sky. Pictures were hard to take during this outing while we were all either trying to light fireworks or avoid losing our hearing. On our trek back to the condos, we had to trespass onto some locals land, dodge a furious canine, save Brian's pet rock that he would not leave behind, all as we were climbing a fence.
Waking up Sunday morning wasn't too hard. The past two nights I had slept out on the 10th floor balcony with my Kelty mummy bag (20 F) and my air mattress. Nothing beats the sound of the ocean and hard tile flooring after a night of drinking. Sunday we had to trek back to San Francisco. That was supposed to be about a 10 hr drive. About 1/4 of a mile from the border to the US, we were stopped by la policia (Brian was driving of course). Illegal left turn from a middle lane on a one way street, and the cop wanted us to follow him the the police station in Tijuana. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Brian talked the cop into taking $40 and letting us go! As we crossed the border, reminiscing about our weekend and about how we wanted Taco Bell, the car engine check light went on and off. We hoped this car would make it home, for we were on a tight deadline to make it home for a Easter dinner with the family by 5:30pm. Now it is about 2pm and we are broken down on the side of I-5 North. The car decided to completely shut down, which we found out later that the oil pump had failed and exhausted the entire engine (and turbo) of oil. Calling AAA got us a tow truck who towed us 3 hrs home!! We were only two hrs late for Easter dinner.
Things we learned:
-Don't drive your own car across the border
-Have some cash on you at all times, but not over $60
-Try to learn some Spanish before you head out on this adventure
-Take more tequila than you really want
-Don't throw a lit M-80 at the feet of your drunk friends
-Rocks don't always make best friends
-Never make this trip with out people you trust or people who should be there...meaning Charley next adventure we have you are COMING...no excuses!