Moto tours, Mexico City and national emergencies!

It’s been a fun couple of weeks as we start to wind down our travels in Central America.

Stupidly (looking back on it now), Niko and I took a moto tour through the mountains here. Well, I take that back, Niko took a moto tour and I held onto his back for dear life. To be fair, it was remarkably safe despite how it sounds, but looking back, it would’ve been a reeeeeal bummer if something bad had happened to us. All in all, the tour was beautiful and it was refreshing to get out of our bubble and explore some of the nearby towns and countryside.

To shake things up a bit, we decided to take a quick little trip to Mexico City this past weekend, on the recommendation of Brad and a bunch of people here at K59. We immediately became enamored with the city, understanding why everyone we talked to had nothing but positive things to say about it. While it resembles any other modern city on paper, it has a distinct cultural feel that separates it from similarly sized cities that all sort of feel the same. Amidst the hustle and bustle and diversity of restaurants and people and architecture, Mexico City still manages to feel like Mexico.

We had been talking a big game about all of the tacos we were going to eat for days leading up to the trip, so naturally, we went a little hard the first night we arrived. We talked with the concierge and got some good tips on where to find the best tacos nearby, and off we went. I would like to

say we acted with dignity our first night in CDMX, but unfortunately, it’s just not true. It was so easy, too easy, to keep ordering more and more tacos. They came out in less than 30 seconds from the time we ordered them so we never had a chance to figure out when we were full. Hence, how we ended up eating 17 tacos our first night in the city. It was amazing, I’ll be honest. Afterwards we decided to further indulge ourselves by ordering a handful of mini sweets from a nearby bakery. It was incredibly gluttonous (and again, amazing). We love Central American food and have been nothing but content eating rice and beans, but having a proper, Mexico City taco was pretty next level.

The following day, I booked us a taco tour of the city so we could properly get our bearings on where to gorge ourselves next. A couple months before our trip, Niko and I watched a Chef’s Table episode on a group of women who make some of the best cochinita pibil tacos in the world. Ever since then, Niko (and I, the part-time vegetarian) have been dying to try one. We had one on the tour and let me tell you, it did not disappoint, at all. By the time we settled in for the night, however, I could tell something was amiss with my body. I wasn’t feeling right but tried to shake it off, as we were going on an early morning trip to the Aztec pyramids of Teotihuacan. When I woke up early, I knew I was not only not going to see the pyramids but that I was also doomed to spend the day in bed. I’ll spare the details and just say it was absolutely miserable. Getting sick while traveling happens to everyone so I tried to take it in stride, but I couldn’t help but feel bummed that our already short trip was being cut down even further by being bed ridden for an entire day. I started to feel a little better the following day, our last day in the city, but was still taking it easy and not eating anything too wild. All in all it was fantastic little trip and one I would definitely do again, and recommend to anyone!

Our flight out of CDMX was relatively early on Monday morning, so we got an extra jump on the day by getting to the airport well in advance, not knowing how crowded it would be at the start of the week. While we were eating breakfast in the airport, I saw a CNN Spanish news story on El Salvador pop up on a nearby TV. I couldn’t quite understand what it said so I quickly googled the story. Come to find out, El Salvador’s President announced a nationwide state of emergency due to a large number of homicides that took place the previous weekend. Sunday was the deadliest day in the country’s history since the civil war ended. It was pretty alarming, to put it mildly. Not only were we a couple hours away from boarding the plane back to the country, but some of the killings were not far away from we’re we were staying, and Niko’s family was set to arrive in only a couple days time. We started making phone calls, trying to get a feel for the situation with our contacts in El Salvador, and with Niko’s family to decide if we wanted to change locations for their vacation. Tony, the hotel manager at K59 mentioned that he was going to stop offering tours around the country for guests and just have everyone stay put at the hotel. We heard other small tidbits that ultimately persuaded us that having everyone meet us in El Salvador was not the right move. We, however, still needed to go back to get some of our belongings that we left at the hotel, so off we went! Everything was pretty casual except for the increased military and police presence everywhere. The entire hour drive from the airport to the hotel was lined with police and military personnel. Comforting, in a sense, but also slightly unnerving. Niko’s family quickly decided to change course and meet in Panama instead of El Salvador, so we ended up spending several days at K59 again before heading back to the airport. We fell back into our routine of surfing, eating, reading, socializing and napping, trying to soak up our last remaining days in the country as much as possible.

After 5 weeks, we finally said our goodbyes to K59 yesterday morning. When we first told a couple of our French friends that we were planning on staying at 59 for so long, they told us we would probably get bored of the wave and the area after only a couple weeks. Surprisingly, that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Despite being in a very remote area with little food options and entertainment outside of surfing, we couldn’t have been more content the entire duration of our trip. It was definitely slow travel, but I wouldn’t do it any different. I felt like we were able to do a deep dive into everything: learning the wave, the language, making friends, and appreciating everything the country has to offer. In spite of all of the hardships the country and the Salvadoran people have suffered, we have never met a kinder, warmer, more generous people. Strangers smile at you warmly on the street, local kids in the water cheer you on into waves and give you big smiles when you paddle back out, and the friends we made were so giving, despite not having much. It was humbling to travel for so long in El Salvador. I know we have said that we’ll probably return to this place or that place, but I have no doubts we’ll be back to K59. Between the friendships we’ve made, and the relative ease in getting to El Salvador even from the west coast, it’s kind of a no brainer to return. So while it was hard to say goodbye, it felt a little more like a see you later.

Writing from Panama City, Panama now. We're hanging out for a couple days in the city before we go on a sailing adventure in the San Blas islands, and then head back to the states later next week.