It has been a month since the road trip ended and today, I still keep every moment in my memory as if it were yesterday. Now I draw on my journal that I wrote during the trip to create this article, remembering and reliving each of those magical moments along the Pacific coast.
The border
After going to the workshop to check that the van was ready to cross into the United States, David picked me up at the Ensenada cafe at 6:00 in the afternoon to go to the Tijuana border.
Crossing the border was an experience that I will never forget.
It was like a party, all the locals passed between the cars selling thousands of things, food and soft drinks and the funniest thing is that they could even sing a serenade in the middle of the traffic in the line to cross.
We had completely forgotten that we had fruits and vegetables in the van and that, of course, we couldn't cross them.
We decided that the best solution was to eat as much as we could, we were hungry anyway and it was time for dinner.
We ate all the fruit we could before arriving at the immigration booth and we also gave some to the vendors, we couldn't stop laughing, after all, eating papaya while driving is not something you do every day.
After being there an hour, we crossed and drove for about an hour until we reached La Joya, one of the most famous beaches in San Diego where we spent the night.
We stayed in a parking lot next to the beach, where vans and RV's were allowed.
La Jolla & The Blacks, San Diego
When we woke up, we went to buy a wetsuit for me because the water was already freezing. I was happy to continue learning and improving in surfing, it had always been a dream for me.
We spent the first half of the day surfing and then we went to another beach called The Blacks, where literally the sand was black and the waves were huge.'
We spent the afternoon here until it got dark, the sunset was beautiful and I spent it taking photos of the surfers and the waves of the sea.
At the end of the day, we went to the REI outdoors store to buy some things we needed and then we headed to our next destination: Joshua Tree National Park.
They waited for us three hours driving on the highway.
Joshua Tree National Park
We arrived at 1:00 in the morning, very tired from the long day we had had, but super excited to know that we were going to dawn in one of the most beautiful national parks in California, famous for its gigantic rocks and its thousands of yuccas known as the "Joshua Tree" (Joshua Tree).
We had a quiet morning, we were back in the desert and right outside the park entrance.
We drove less than 10 minutes to the South entrance, through Cottonwood Spring.
The sun was intense and the wind was very strong, the desert and rocky landscape felt like I was on another planet.
Once we entered, we traveled from south to north throughout the park, passing through several of the most iconic and characteristic points of the place.
Before evening fell, we stopped at the White Tank campground, one of the most famous camping sites in the park.
A five-minute walk away, was The Arch, a unique and characteristic rock formation that I was dying to see.
We stayed to see how the red sky in the afternoon painted the rocks with colors, a mixture of pinks, reds, and oranges was drawn while the sun hid on the horizon.
When it began to get dark, we left through the north access, we had crossed the entire park during the day, taking 100% the opportunity to be there.
Now, another three hours of road awaited us, we headed back to the coast, towards Sta. Barbara.
We spent the night again by the sea, at a highway exit.
At 6:00 am next day we started driving, we reached Hazards Canyon, we knew it was an incredible place to surf, it is located in the Montaña de Oro state park.
It was a beautiful place, we crossed a road that went between thousands of trees, pine trees, and many trails to walk.
Here, many people come to practice different sports such as cycling, hiking, trail running, and surfing.
Then we realized that the conditions to surf that day, in this place, were not the best.
So we decided to keep driving further north, we would have to leave Hazards Canyons to find some other area where the conditions were better.
This day I learned something very important about surfing. I understood that "the search is part of".
The best waves are not always found and surfers can spend a whole day just searching, without finding anything “surfable” at the end.
Therefore, when the moment really comes to be able to surf even a good wave, the emotion, the ecstasy, and the adrenaline that this gives you, in the end, makes you realize that the effort, the search, the patience, and perseverance for Finding what you longed for is worth it.
I think that's how life itself works ... Each sport has its own, its way of teaching you that every effort you make to achieve what you want in life will take you far.
At nightfall, we went back to sleep in Hazards Canyon to see, once again, if the next day there would be good conditions for surfing.
