The damn dog can surf! It was worth the 2400 mile drive down here just to witness this, meet SoSo the Bulldog & Chevy as well as their owner, Ron Davis. I met Ron while walking the beach I was camped at one morning. He was cruising the beach on his quad along with his two pals. Ron rescued Chevy after the pup was run over by a Chevy in town. Ron nursed him back to health and surprise......."Chevy" stuck. Chevy and SoSo tooling around town on the quad would put a smile on your face. Ron and I struck up a conversation about our dogs and when he told me SoSo could surf I mentioned that I'd seen a few videos on YouTube of another bulldog that could surf and ride a skateboard. Ron smiled and informed me that he knew that dog well as he'd sadly lost him a few months prior after 10 years together. Some of you dog lovers out there may have already heard of Ron as he was the owner of Tillman. Tillman was a legend and before his death, last October had over 370,000 followers on Facebook as well as going viral with his YouTube videos. Millions had seen his YouTube videos Video of Tillman. You could still see that Ron missed Tillman real bad as he'd tear up just talking about him. I know the feeling as I can do the same when thinking of old Hank, a Jack Russell I had prior to Petey. While Petey, SoSo and Chevy romped on the beach, Ron told me all about his old friend Tillman and informed me that SoSo was going to do a little surfing a little later if I wanted to get some pictures. Yea, I might be able to break away from my busy schedule to do that! Sure enough, a few hours later I see Ron and SoSo paddling out. Ron picks out a wave for him, gives him a push, and bam.... SoSo is getting it done....solo. He doesn't just stand there but moves about on the board to stay in the wave. He's actually surfing. It's fun to watch and certainly appears that the dog is having a great time. As soon as he gets to shore or falls off he wants to go back out but only after trying to digest the board. Ron has to hustle to shore as SoSo begins to chomp fiberglass when he can no longer ride it. Ron was telling me that SoSo has surfed some much longer breaks, in much bigger surf, where he rode well over a quarter mile from his take off point. He also stated he'd also done his fair share of board repairs due to SoSos fondness of gnawing on the board. Ron, SoSo and Chevy are quite the team and it was a pleasure meeting them.
San Juanico is a quiet little fishing village that is also known for it surfing. Unlike Todos Santos further to the south, it has fairly mild surf and is more suited to the beginner/intermediate level surfers. It's a beautiful spot and has a small community of ex-pats that reside here full-time. Yes, I'm considering it! We stayed here for almost a week and had wanted to do some more exploring further up the coastline to the north but the living here was so easy and laid back we never got around to it. Gives me a reason to go back. Just up the beach was a great little beach cabana style outdoor restaurant run by a friendly local Mexican family. When not taking a siesta, roaming around the village or walking the miles of deserted beach we'd stroll over, eat a little, drink a little, bullshit a lot, meet a few others doing the same and watch the world go by. Pretty much the norm for the day, after day, after day, after day. I get exhausted just looking at the pictures.
One day Wayne met some fishermen just down from our camp as they came in for the day and bought some Octopus. Not knowing how to really cook it properly he took it down to the little cabana restaurant and asked the lady running the place if she'd prepare it for us. No problem, just come back around 5 and it will be ready. Husband shows up in camp in about an hour wanting to know how we'd like it prepared or they could do it a couple of different ways. Now that's service when the cook sends someone to camp. We showed up and dined at our normal table and it was excellent. Easily the best Octopus I've ever had. I think she charged us something like $10 to clean and prepare it. A ton of food that two of us couldn't finish.
More to come...
Good job with words and pictures. You have a knack for meeting interesting people. I hope your posts don't bring too many people to those off-the-beaten-track places.
ReplyDeleteThose thoughts cross my mind sometimes when I'm posting. I try and not be too specific about an area and leave out a lot of stuff as well. Certainly not like anywhere I've discussed in the blog hasn't been crawled over by others in the past but I understand where you're coming from. In fact, a couple of upcoming posts will have locations that I won't disclose. Not like the locations are some big secret spot and people that have been there, will certainly recognize the location via the pictures but I won't be telling others how to get there. I want to go back and hope that when I do it won't be wall to wall with gringos. To me that's the draw of Baja. One can still escape the masses and do a little exploring as it's so open and not restrictive like here in the states.
ReplyDeleteWhat fun what fun! I wish I could be out there too!
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