Cerro Hermoso

I'm once again ensconced in the welcoming quarters of the Mission de los Arcos hotel.  It's a nice little hotel with A/C, nice tv's, relatively fast internet, and comfy beds, all in the heart of a really nice little town called Crucecita, and all for about $40 US per night.  Since I'm here, and headed south again to Barra de la Cruz where the internet is spotty at best, I'm putting up two posts from my recent travels.  Oh, and Nookie turned 100,000 miles on the odometer on the drive today--she's still running well.

Nookie is under that enramada somewhere.

Before I left Saladita, I was talking with Lourdes and her boyfried, Federico.  He's an interesting dude--from Mexico City, but spends half the year as a captain on various tug boats and other vessels around Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest.  I surfed with Federico and Lourdes' godson Omar at the little "boca" break south of Saladita last week.  Anyway, he mentioned that as a stopping place on the way to Barra de la Cruz, a little place called Cerro Hermoso, or beautiful hill, was a nice spot.  He was right.

Aerial view of Cerro Hermoso--I did not take this...

ground view of the jetty.  tons of dudes were out there drinking beer later in the evening.

Cerro Hermoso sits at the southeastern edge of the Lagunas de Chacahua National Park.  Anyone who's been to Puerto Escondido has heard about the great wave that can be had at "Chacahua".  You have to take a boat ride through the lagunas (sort of a large marshy estuarine system) to get to the isolated Chacahua.  I stayed on the edge, and could have gone over on a boat, but there wasn't a great swell in the water and going alone on a boat is pretty expensive--most people split the ride between 4 or 6 or 8 other dudes.  You need to stay overnight for a few days (or more) in order to get it good, and I wasn't quite ready to do that.  I plan to hit it for sure on my way back up the Mexican coast next year some time, but I got a taste there in Cerro Hermoso.

Beach looking south

Cerro Hermoso from the jetty

There's a giant man-made jetty with a small navigation light at the end.  There's a bit of a wave there, but it was not working too well.  I surfed for a bit, but nothing to write home about.  The beach is really broad, white sand, and pretty darn cool overall.  I'm not quite sure why the jetty is there--as it doesn't protect any sort of navigable inlet to the estuary--just separates two expanses of beach.

decent little right--best wave I saw this guy catch

more view to the south

Anyway, I'm back in la Crucecita now and almost done with catching up on internet stuff, banking, etc.  The Redskins play the Cowboys tonight, and I hope I can find the game somewhere.  A remnant of my US football fandom, I guess.  I also learned my Atlanta Braves are trying to crap away their seemingly sure-fire playoff position, but I doubt I can find that game anywhere.  Off to Barra de la Cruz tomorrow, maybe a week or so there, then down the road into Guatemala.

As always, more to come!!!