Eastside Swell: Send lawyers, guns and money

An absolute free for all. That's the only way I can describe driving through the US/Mexican boarder and down the Baja Peninsula. If you haven't ever done this drive, then you'll never understand. As soon as you pass through the boarder, which there is no regulation going into Mexico, you enter another world. There are shanty's tucked into the hillside just waiting for the next rainstorm or mudslide so they can slide or fall downhill to become boarder front properties. There are about 30 unfinished hotels along the water just waiting for someone to come along and finish or knock them down. The streets are swarming with dogs looking for food and people looking for money. It couldn't be more opposite of the city that lies just 5 miles north. Once through the boarder you navigate the poorly marked roads attempting to not make eye contact with anyone and avoid the insane drivers. If you manage to do this, then you're pretty much golden till after Rosarito where you start to hit tolls.

These tolls are nothing like the tolls we've all hit on America's finest toll roads(NJ Turnpike). They are the kind of tolls that you pay and hope the guy dressed like a Federale holding a machine gun waving down cars doesn't decide to stop you. After getting through this you hit the gem of a city Ensenda. If you're ever down there, you must get taco's from the stand below, they are hands down the BEST I've had. Seriously, the BEST!

So after crushing great tacos, we moved onto to Brian's cousins place in Punta san Jacinto. It's located about 50 yards from a great right point break known as shipwrecks. It's fittingly named as there is a huge rusted ship that was dragged aground right in the break. Easily avoidable it sets a great backdrop for fun surf. Dave, Brian and I spent three days in the water enjoying what little surf we had and the large amount of tequila and Tecate we bought. We spent the afternoons in the small town just up the road buying food at the market, watching a 10 year old work Dave over on a bundle of Cilantro only to get busted by her mom and have 1/2 his money returned, trying to buy meat from the grocery store and avoiding the crazy drivers.

On Sunday we got up early to find some waves, paddled out into the water, and surfed for about 2 hours. Then we packed up the place, locked everything and made our way back up north. Luckily we were only stopped at one of the check points, at which time, I had to get out of the car and let a Mexican military man look through the car with his machine gun in hand. Definitely not a nerve calming situation. We pressed on north, stopped again for more delicious tacos....did I mention they were good?.....and got to the boarder traffic line. We managed to cut the line pretty well by acting like stupid gringos and there we sat. The line leaving Mexico is hilarious, there are ton's of people selling the most ridiculous things. We saw everything while waiting on the line, tiny guitars, regular sized guitars, Churros(which we got), terrible ice cream(which Dave got), 8 year olds juggling, 4 year old's begging, people selling tiny plastic babies, people selling giant jesus statues....Everything that is a waste of money is available there for only a few pesos. It only took us an hour and a half for us to get through the boarder, no problems, and we got Dave to the airport. All in all, it was an amazing time. We were very sketched out by the head on collision we saw, loved the food and surfing. I'd definitely head back there, but be very careful doing so. Here are a bunch of photos

All of the required ingredients for a great Mexican adventure