Blog | Kite 2013 | a site about kitesurfing and some other stuff

A long but good day!

February 26, 2013

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Hi little blog! It´s been a while since I gave you some attention. I´m sorry, but I´ve been so busy with all kind of stuff during the days and to tired to write "on" you in the evenings. I´ll make it up to you soon, I promise! So as the title says, this day was a long day! I went to the beach 8 am this morning and was back after sunset, except for a short lunch brake at the hostel. You might wonder why the hell I was spending 10 hours under the mexican scorching sun using up half a bottle of sunscreen. The short answer is dineros!
A group of swedish tourists saw one of my "Coop" plastic bags when I was kitesurfing yesterday and asked me of the location to the kite school on this island, since one of the guys obviously was interesting in taking a course. I told them that the kitesurfing school on Isla Holbox is banned from operating their school at the moment (which is another story), but that I could offer him a half day course for 3000 pesos. The guy took the bait which of course is the reason to why I went to the beach so damn early today, to teach this guy to kitesurf =)

The guy did very well in the water and I don't think I ever seen someone learn so quickly to handle the kite and the board. He had already tried wakeboarding and windsurfing which helps a lot! Anyway, I was back home again at 13:30 only to eat and then go back to the beach to have a session on my own. I was just about to pack my gear together at 4 pm when a french guy walked up to me and asked if it was possible to rent kite gear somewhere on this island. I told him that I didn't knew and that the kite schools normally don't rent out kite equipment to random people. Though he seemed to know what he was talking about so I offered him to rent/borrow my kite and board for 2 hours for 1000 pesos... So yeah, it took another 2 hours before I finally packed down my gear, just at the sunset. For those that never have been near mangroves after sunset I can tell you that it´s one of the last places on earth where you wanna be at that time. I havn't seen it with my own eyes, but I´ve been told that you sometimes can see big black clouds over the mangroves at sunset, that´s how many mosquitos that go out hunting for prey in the evenings! Luckily a golf car (there are no cars on Isla Holbox, only golf cars) with three mexicans just came to watch the sunset and I asked for a ride home, all they wanted was a few beers and one of the girls asked me if I could teach her kitesurfing. So I might have another customer when I come back to Holbox in a week, except for another guy I met here who also wants me to give him a lesson =)

So to summarize things, the day was pretty awesome and I got enough cash to live like a king here for more than a week =)

I´m off to bed now, to tired to even check for typos... I´m going to Belize tomorrow at noon, it can hopefully be exciting!

Ciao!

Punta Coco

February 12, 2013

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Punta Coco is the name of one of the three kitespots on Isla Holbox. A spot with flat and shallow water as well as deeper water if you head out about 100 meters from land, in other words quite perfect! The bottom consists mostly of pure sand and mudd which is nice of course! The only things to be aware of are shells from the horse shoe crab which can be a bit painful to step on, though they are not even close to as painful to step on as sea urchins!

Me and Ralph went for a ride this morning and we had the whole spot to ourself which was a good thing since Ralph still is learning to get up on the board. A crowded spot doesn't exactly make learning easier... Here are some photos that you can dribble over =)

Cenotes and maya ruins

February 9, 2013

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The original plan was to spend four nights in Playa Del Carmen, but we found it way to touristic and nor me o Ralph is interested in getting wasted on clubs every night, so there wasn't to much for us to do there. Therefore after just a day and a half in Playa we took a bus to Valladolid which turned out to be an awesome decision!

We arrived here yesterday and got up early in the morning to be able to visit some cenots before the crowd. We took to bikes and rid to the first cenote which was completely empty except for the guard that unlocked the gates to it. It was pretty nice to start the day with a bath in a cool cenote which you also could enter by swinging yourself out in the cenoth with a liana =)

The second cenote was located in the middle of the town in Valladolid and it was not as nice as the first one, but still nice too see and you could jump into it from 10 meters high.

Next thing to do on our schedule for the day was to go and visit some maya ruins. The option was either the famous and crowded Chichen Itza or another uncrowded ruin located in Ek Balam where you unlike Chichen Itza are allowed to climb up on the pyramides. We chose the later option which probably was a very good decision! We arrived at one o´clock and it was boiling hot, but barely without any other tourists that could ruin the nice scene of the ruins, only the iguanas were there of course, but that's ok =)

Just about 2 kilometer from these ruins is another cenote which also was empty when we arrived. So we has another nice swim that day and we made some great under water movies that I´ll put online another day when I have time.

Anyway, to sum it all up. This day was awesome! Here are some more random photos from Valladolid and Ek Balam.

Some prefered to sleep throughout the whole day...

Snorkling in Akumal

February 6, 2013

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The snorkling in Tulum turned out to be a nothing more than a big disappointment. Some dude on the beach convinced us to go on his awesome boat trip which included a sea view of Maya ruins from the water and snorkling at two spots were you could see turtles and lobsters and all kind of fishes. However it turned out that these spots mostly consisted of dead corals and a few poor fishes that stayed there for some inscrutable reason, but I guess that there are slums in the 0cean as well. But a few cold beers, subways and some cookies for dinner weighed the bad experience from the boat trip =)

Besides we went to a place called Akumal over the day today, a place that offered excellent snokling! We swam around in the water for nearly 4 hours, playing with turtles, stingrays and some huge fishes!

We are currently chilling at "Grand Hostel Playa", a nice hostel in Playa del Carmen. For once a hostel that is clean and unlike the kitchen from the hostel in Tulum this hostel has a very nice kitchen with lots of utensils and equipment for cooking, so we'll probably cook the food ourselves the next three days that we spend here. PS. Click on the follow button in the right lower corner if you want updates in your email.

From Cancun to Tulum

February 4, 2013

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I picked up my friend Ralph at Cancun the other day and we had to stay one night in Cancun. We stayed at one of the shitiest hostels I´ve ever been to so far, but what can you expect when the price is $6 for a night?

So it was nice to leave Cancun the day after and go to Tulum. My first impression of Tulum was that this place is a bit to exploited with resorts everywhere, but it wasn't to many tourists and the beach here is very nice with white soft sand and clear and blue water, a place perfect for snorkling and for kitesurfing too! Today was a windy day so Ralph and me decided to dedicate the day for kitesurfing of course =)

They have a bunch of mexican restaurants in Tulum where they serve tacos, tortillas etc. Yesterday I had three Panuchos and three tacos and they were delicious! I left the the place with a full stomach and 42 pesos (approx $3,5) poorer. Tonight we went to place which was even better!

Here are some pictures of the hostel in Cancun.

Isla Holbox – a paradise island!

January 31, 2013

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another iguana =)

Isla Holbox turned out to be a really awesome island, much better than Progreso in all ways! Food are a bit more expensive here, but that´s it.
I began my day by doing some grosery so I could eat something else than just oats and water. Since day 1 in Mexico I hadn't had one single cup of decent coffee, just watery and weak shit coffee that is included in the breakfasts on the hostels. So I bought some real mexican brew coffee today which took my breakfast to a whole new level!
After a steady breakfast I went to one of the kitesurfing spots on the island and the spot was above my expectations! Flat water and shallow near the mangroves and no garbage on the beach, like it was in Progreso. The bottom was soft and muddy with absence of sharp stones or other crap. On top of that a strong wind and we were only 4-5 kiters. Besides the water and the wind was warm, so no need for my wetsuit. Overall a great spot! Tomorrow the wind direction will change so I´ll go to another beach on this island, the beach that you see in the slideshow.

I took a little walk in the town this evening, mainly to find something to eat for dinner. I found a fisherman from which I bought a big fish for 50 pesos. The fish was so large that it didn't even fit in the largest frying pan they have in the hostel's kitchen (head and tail cut off). To fry it wasn't the easiest thing and the fish looked like a big mess when it finally was fried, but it was fully eatable, in fact quite tasty together with some lime juice and fried vegetables. I´ll definitely eat a lot of fish during my trip here in Mexico!

Progreso – Chiquila – Isla Holbox

January 30, 2013

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So today was the day when I were suppose to travel about 300 km through various unknown crappy roads in Mexico. Not the easiest task if your mexican vocabulary contains of a few words, such as 'no espanol'. But I managed to reach my destination without to much hazzle, it just required four different bus rides, one hitch hike and one boat trip. I reached Chiquila, the place from which you take the fairy to Holbox, in the afternoon and since there was an hour and a half to the fairy to leave I decided to treat me my first meal ever at a restaurant in Mexico, accompanied by a cold beer, a Sol beer of course! Took some photos in Chiquila before I embarked the boat. Arrived at Isla Holbox around 6 p.m. and I currently stay at a nice hostel called Tribu, I might take some photos of it in daylight tomorrow. Until then you will have to make do with these photos. Hasta la vista!

Last day in Progreso

January 29, 2013

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Today was my last day in Progreso and it pretty much offered the same things as the previous day here, i.e. sun, wind and kitesurfing. I´ll spend half of the day tomorrow by travelling to an island called Isla Holbox. Instead of taking the normal route on the highway across the country with the major bus company here I´ll go by local buses on smaller roads along the coast and through small villages which I think will be more fun and cheaper too =)

I found some more fun animals at the hostel which I took the opportunity to photograph and film today. One big lizard and a bat family that lives on the second floor in the hostel. Here are some photos of the lizard and a short video with the bats =)

bats from kite2013 on Vimeo.

Kitesurfing in Progreso

January 25, 2013

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Yesterday was the first day with good wind and sun, so I spent most thw whole afternoon at the one and only kiteschool in this area. I felt a bit rusty since I havn't been kitesurfing in about 4 months, but luckily my muscle memory remember how all the moves should be performed, so the session turned out to be quite good without to many crashes in the water =)

I brought my GoPro and did some recordings, but it is far from enough to make a decent video out of it, so you´ll have to stick with various bird films and some other random stuff for another while.

Someone asked about the accomodation here and I can tell you that it is affordable. I pay 150 pesos (approx $12) per night for the room I have now, breakfast included. In fact this is quite expensive considering that you can rent a small house in this area for 4000 pesos per month. Here are some photos of the hostel where I stay and two photos from the beach.

Progreso, Mexico

January 22, 2013

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This is not just my first blog post on kite 2013, but for some probably also a long awaited sign of life from me 😉

To summarize things up. I arrived to Cancun in the evening saturday the 19th of January. During a period of 2 months I´ll visit some places in Mexico to explore the country and particularly to practice kitesurfing! Anyway, my first night in Cancun is not much to tell about. I went straight to a hostel together with another swedish girl I met on the plane. I got to bed early local time (probably 4 o'clock in the night or something like that if you look at my own time from back home). I assumed that I would fell asleep immediately, but the mosquitos and the cold kept me awake the major part of the night. One mosquito thought that it was a good idea to bite me on my right eyelid, so I looked like a freak and could barely open my right eye when I woke up, a nice start on the whole trip... Luckiliy the swelling passed away quickly and I realized that my mosquito repellent will come out handy during my stay in Mexico 🙂

The same day (sunday) I went by bus to a small town called Merida, a four hour long drive from Cancun. I checked in at a great hostel in Merida where I met some friendly people who gave me some tips on cool places to check out. Other than that I went to bed early again and of course I woke up in the middle of the night, still jet lagged.

After a breakfast I continued my trip to Progreso, my first "real" destination on this trip. Progreso turned out to be a something that can be described as a ghost town. It is very quite here and not much to do, unless you are looking to kitesurf, then you more or less have the whole beach and ocean to yourself! Another guy that stays at the same hostel as me is also here for the same reason. So we are currently waiting for the wind to pick up, which it hopefully will do soon!

I don't have so many cool pictures to show you yet, but bare with me, I´m working on it!

Laters!

My little blog

A long but good day!

Punta Coco

Cenotes and maya ruins

Snorkling in Akumal

From Cancun to Tulum

Isla Holbox – a paradise island!

Progreso – Chiquila – Isla Holbox

Last day in Progreso

Kitesurfing in Progreso

Progreso, Mexico

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