Hola muchachos, time to catch up !!
After surfing some empty beachbreak waves at Wizard Beach on Bastimentos for our last days in Bocas del Toro, we left Bocas Town under a burning sun. 4 buses and a couple of taxis later, we arrived to Santa Catalina on the Pacific Coast. As a side note, this trip was also the occasion to test how many persons you can fit in 25-seat bus….the answer is about 50 but it is not super comfortable!!
Most surfers will know Santa Catalina at least by name, and we had mixed expectations from what we had read and heard (crowd etc..) but it is still mostly the jungle out there and it was pretty quiet. We stayed at a nice little place, right on the beach, overlooking “La Punta” which is the main spot of the area (thanks Shay for the recommendation!). The swell we tracked down on the forecast maps showed up progressively as expected…good introduction to the place with 2-3 ft the first day, 3-4 ft the next and 4-6 ft the third. The spot is a righthand reef break with nice wally sections and a great rhythm…plus the water is amazingly warm (almost doesn’t feel normal when you jump out). The wave is surfed mid to high tide only so the main task of our few days there was watching the tide fill in and pick the best time to go out.
The swell was supposed to peak the fourth day so I made sure to wake up early to check it out and maybe catch the end of the mid tide early morning….well here is a lesson: make sure you are actually awake when you get out of bed..while still half asleep I managed to miss a step and smash my knee on the corner of the terrace…Small consolation, it turned out the swell had peaked the day before and it was onshore and a bit too low already. One more high-tide evening session and we were off to Panama City again to take our plane.
Next stop California ! Can’t wait !!
simon
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