We woke up when we wanted to wake up and we did what we’d been looking forward to for a while – we had showers. The wind had died down so it was warm enough to do so. We both treated ourselves to a three bottle shower (it normally takes just two). I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed until I felt clean again then Dan had a turn. It was blissful to feel a little less dirtbaggy. We still hadn’t solved the bug problem, I got ripped to shreds in the night so that the backs of my legs were now covered in bites. We’d thought that maybe cleaning the sheets had helped and we hadn’t been able to find a bug bomb so we didn’t really have a solution to the problem.

Neither of us were hungry, so we hit the road without breakfast after Cleo had had her fill of chasing things in the bushes. Thanks to the bugs, Dan hadn’t had much sleep so I took driving duties. We didn’t have any issues on the sand road out but after htting the highway, the straps holding the surfboard to the roof started making an unpleasant humming noise. We obviously hadn’t twisted them enough. I pulled over and Dan fixed the problem while I fixed myself some cereal to cure the hunger that had formed. On the road again, we continued heading north. Just as I was thinking we should stop and get some fruit and avocadoes if we saw any, we noticed the same stall on the side of the highway that we’d visited on the trip down. Knowing we had a good thing, I pulled over and we bought a couple of tomatoes, onions and avocadoes for 50 Pesos ($2.50).

Onwards, we felt more familiarity as we drove in to Ciudad Constitucion. We thought this was where we’d gotten 12 Peso tacos on the way down and so were on the lookout for the stall on the side of the road. We never found it, but Dan spotted a hole-in-the-wall place advertising 7 Peso tacos. Could it be?!?! I flipped a bitch (u-turn) and parked right at the door. They weren’t offering pescado tacos, but we were happy to try the birria (pulled pork). The tacos were humorously tiny, but expectedly so for the price. The toppings were still perfect an the pork filling was delicious. It was a perfect little snack, just what the doctor ordered. We sat in the shade for a while after before we head off again.

I kept driving and after we went through Ciudad Insurgentes, we were in new territory, heading directly north towards Scorpion Bay (San Juanico) off Highway 1. We’d considered hitting this spot on the way down but figured we didn’t need to, even though it was fabled to be the most popular surfing spot in all of Baja. The road was rumoured to be paved all the way having been dirt for many years and I found the rumour to be true, though at different levels. The road was dead straight for about 100 km, but instead of corners and hills for entertainment, there were sections of potholes. Dan fell asleep just after we passed through some farmland when the road was smooth. Half an hour, I was weaving through a minefield and he didn’t have much luck getting any shuteye.

After the potholes were done and we turned off towards San Juanico, we came across some haphazard roadworks. Most of the time, it was nothing more than a single cone on the side of the road to indicate that men were working. There were materials and tools piled willy nilly all over the road leaving cars to weave their way between them. We’re definitely in a different world.

We saw the ocean again and drove another half an hour to the town of San Juanico. It was a quiet one and with only a quarter tank of petrol, we were kicking ourselves for not filling up at Ciudad Insurgentes but we still had the jerry can on the back if we got into trouble. We found the cliffs over the beach and followed the dirt road along the ocean, looking for the world famous waves. As we stopped at the Cliffside to scope out the swell, we saw a white van coming towards us so pulled over to let them by. As they got closer, we wondered if it could be the Aussies we’d met at our Baja 500 spot. Dan was convinced it was them, but I came up with reasons why it couldn’t be. They didn’t have a black stripe on their van, they had a Dodge not a Toyota and how could we be so lucky? Turns out, Dan was right. They were just as surprised to see us as we were them and we chatted a while window to window. Charlie and Jazz been here a few days surfing and met a whole bunch of people so we said we’d join them after checking out the surf they’d just been enjoying further up the beach. A few more vans passed us by and we assumed they were all hanging out.

We found a beach not far along that had some easy white water stuff that would be good for me. Dan had first surf so I could get the jist of the waves. While he was out, I saw with Cleo on the cliffs doing some sunbathing. It was nice to be by the Pacific without the foggy marine layer over our heads. Dan caught a few good waves which was encouraging. My turn, I head out in the only sandy patch and went out to the last break. I got a couple of waves in, but tired myself out from paddling through the whitewater. I didn’t stay out long, coming back in for some advice, which Dan duly gave. He went back out for another round, then I followed for a second turn. Too tired to really have much success, but still good to get out into the waves.

We showered ourselves off (two in one day, I know) then drove back to see if we could find our Aussie friends again. They weren’t hard to find, they’d parked up right on the point with another Dodge van and a tricked out ambulance. We parked nearby and introduced ourselves to Jackie, the only person at camp. The rest of the party were in the surf. Jackie and Sam were in the black Dodge, Aussies who had spent time working in Canada before starting their van trip. When people slowly rolled in from the sea, we met everyone. Ian was the proud owner of the ambulance and Dillian his travel buddy with Dino the dog. The ambulance was the fanciest of all the vans and he got it for only $2,800. They were only on day ten of their travels. Jackie and Sam had a timber roof inside their Dodge, a decent-sized bed and a sweet storage cabinet. Dan was envious of this one because it embodied everything he wanted to do in his van long term. Charlie and Jazz’s van we’d seen before and it was the biggest with about a car’s length over the back wheels.

We got our chairs out, cracked some beers and joined everyone at camp, parking our car just outside the circle that had already been made with the three other cars. We then met the Brits in the Astro van parked not too far away. Four dudes in a van, they’d come over for a few months to climb and surf. This was the most people I’d hung out with in a long time and it was easy to talk with everyone since we all had very common interests. Our camp was right on top of the most popular point break in the bay and a perfect vantage point for watching other surfers. When we first saw it, Dan was going to put his wetsuit on, but we got distracted by socialising and he never made it.

Once all the surfers were back on dry land, we hung out around camp and soon enough, a fire got going. We made ourselves burritos for dinner using the left over rice we had and settled in around the fire with beers. Around the fire, there were five Aussies, four of them from Sydney, three Americans and four Brits. Not a bad mix really!

The fire was explosive, literally, with rocks blowing up all over the place. Me and Dan seemed to bear the brunt of it with hot stuff flying towards us constantly. We discovered later that my chair suffered a couple of holes as well as Dan’s hoodie that I was wearing. I called it a night early, leaving the fire for bed since I was tired from the day of driving. It was the most driving in one stint that I’d done on this trip. Dan followed me to bed and we fell asleep to the sound of the waves behind us.