The beach itself was a blast. Going alone has its own benefits. I was the only white person for fifty miles, which gave me plenty of opportunities to practice my Spanish. Sadly, many of the people in those parts don´t speak Spanish as a first language, and their accents and my accents combine to create chaos. Unfortunately, being the only white person around also exacerbated the catcall situation, so I didn´t want to ask any of the strangers to put sunscreen on my back. I did my best to apply it, octopus style, but I ended up with a circle of sunburn on my back. I´m not sure whether to find this funny, or sad.
I couldn´t help sticking out like a sore thumb on Saturday night when I went out looking for a nightlife. My search was to absolutely no avail. The best I could find was a little local cantina, a Guatemalan dive bar. I was the only white person, the only woman, the only one under forty, and the only one not slobbering drunk. I bought a beer and brought it, and my book, to read and drink in the park.
While I was sitting in the park, a group of teenage and twentysomthing boys stopped to talk to me. To my surprise, they invited me to their surfing competition on Sunday morning, sans catcalls or rude comments. While it required getting up at 6am, when the waves were biggest, going to the competition was well worth it. I got to help decide the winners and give the prizes! Judging such a surfing competion is particularly difficult when you consider that I don´t surf, and that they were surfing on a breaks that hit the beach and often on on wakeboards, without the benefit of fins for steering and balance.
Surfing in Monterrico in a few weeks is going to be superdivertido, as the kids here say.
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