Day 53

Day 53 12/18/2021

Odometer  29,535 – 29,600 —– 65  Miles (6895 Miles Total)

Antigua, Guatemala – El Paredon, Guatemala

I got up today expecting to be heading to El Salvador but I woke up this morning to texts from a few friends saying come to El Paredon. I didn’t hear great things about the place other than it was a black sand beach and the water wasn’t very clear. I sat on it for a few minutes and said fuck it im going! Loren was there, a couple I met on the hike to the volcano was there and Michelle was going as well that I met last night. I loaded up the bike at about 10am after I got breakfast at the hostel and started the ride over. It was about 1:45 away. Not bad at all. I got there and mostly everything was sold out so I ended up getting a private room for a whopping $60. God damn that’s more than I spent on hostels in the last 4 nights. It’s getting close to Christmas and as expected everything will be booked up if I’m traveling on a whim and don’t plan anything. 

This place was gorgeous. It was an up and coming Tulum. There was a small town on the beach. All sand roads, nothing even paved yet. My hostel had a huge swimming pool, gym on the beach, a huge bar and restaurant. This was all literally on the beach if I didn’t mention it already. I wish I found this place sooner and was paying $10 a night for a bed in a shared room like mostly everyone else. I got there and put my bike in the parking lot of the hostel. I saw Loren while walking around and the couple from the hike I met. One of them got bit by a dog and they were heading over to a doctor to have it looked at and to get a rabies shot. I couldn’t find anything else that was cheaper In the whole town. I checked probably 15 places and had no luck. I gave up. I went to the hostel and booked the room for $60. I went out to the sand and for the first time in my life I couldn’t walk on it. The black sand was so hot it would probably start to cook your feet if you tried to walk on it. 

I got a few smoothies at the bar and Michelle showed up. We hung out for a bit and she told me her friends own a huge lot of land next door to where I was staying with a bunch of Airbnb houses and a few restaurants. They were having a Christmas party there with a huge pig roast. We hung out on the beach for about 25 minutes and then decided to go to the Christmas party because the sun was just incredibly strong on the black sand. I met her friends that owned the place. I’m usually the one getting told that people are jealous of my life. I think for the first time I said it and it was to her friends. Her buddy bought this lot of land ten years ago for dirt cheap. He literally owned an  entire block and started to build the Airbnb houses on it with the restaurants. He was pretty much on the beach as well. So jealous. They were living the dream. We hung out and ate some freshly cooked pork tacos and had some fancy drink with beer.( I already forgot the name) One of the bars on their land made this drink. It was beer mixed with a mango smoothie, some other things and some spicy stuff on the rim of the cup. Omg so delicious. 

We hung out there listening to live music for a few hours trying to stay out of the heat. As the sun was setting her buddy threw me a surfboard and said lets catch some waves. Oh this should be interesting, he thinks I surf! So we headed out to the water and I didnt have a shirt on. I didn’t want my chest to be all scraped up from the wax on the board so I was just going to go out for a bit. I did really well getting out past the huge waves with the 6’ board which I was impressed with especially after yesterday’s workout. Once I got out there I rested up a bit, caught a wave, actually stood up on the board until the speed bled off and I laid back down. I was proud of that! I hung out with the girls on the beach and took some pictures of them while he surfed until it was nearly dark. It was a full moon and it was their anniversary! 

We went out for some food afterwards, went back to their property to hang out with them for a bit and shortly after we all called it a night. We were exhausted from the heat and the sun from the day. I took a dip in the pool for 15 minutes after getting back to my hostel and couldn’t believe it was December 18th and I was swimming in a pool at night time and I was not even the slightest bit cold. I’m definitely doing this right.