Surf Therapy

Surf Therapy

Attempting to go out with people from work, Kären and I took the bus to Prado Mar. This is a beach about 20 minutes away from Barranquilla. We were instructed to take the yellow bus; that’s usually the way things are done here, by color rather than number, name, or route. Unfortunately, we found out on the way there that our colleague who lives there happened to be in Barranquilla for the day.

Little rows of huts walking from Puerto Colombia to Prado Mar
(all these pictures are from Kären's camera as mine is a little bit bulky)

Perro, palmas, y el mar

We actually got off the bus a little late. We arrived in a cute and small beach town. Kären and I were thinking about how we could move there. We walked down the beach a while and looked for the best place for the pescado corriente. We succeeded.

Pescado corriente con arroz, ensalada, y patacones...y una Aguila para tomar.

While eating lunch, I noticed a guy walk by with a surfboard and asked him where to rent them. He told me to ask for Jorge at Hotel Prado Mar. About 10 minutes later 3 guys walked up and asked if I wanted to have a surf lesson. One of them was, in fact, Jorge. Apparently word spreads fast when a gringa wants to surf in a small Colombian beach town. I was full from lunch, but said possibly later. Karen and I ended up hanging out with the guys for a while. When we’d finally digested our food we relaxed on the beach and in the water.

Kären relaxed


Me relaxed

Around 5:30 I called our friend again who said she’d be back by the evening (remember the sun sets here everyday around 6:30), to find that she was still in Barranquilla. Just as we were thinking of heading back to Barranquilla ourselves, the 3 guys appeared again and invited us back to their house. We went.

Jorge aka Yoyi had a bunch of surfing stuff posted on his walls and some pictures of him surfing, along with a bunch of trophies and articles that featured him. I found out he was sponsored by Quicksilver and thought, this guy must be pretty good. I found out that he is one of the best surfers in Colombia. He told me later that he used to be the best (as was confirmed by the articles), but now he’s in the top 5. Slacker. (heh heh). He told me the best time to surf there was around 6-7 in the morning.

This is the view going towards Prado Mar from Puerto Colombia. I surfed at Prado Mar.

Saturday night was not much fun and I did not sleep well, but early Sunday I headed out with Jorge to go surfing. He was a good instructor too. Might as well learn from the pros. Is there such a thing as surf therapy? If there isn’t, there should be. Being in the water, I forgot about everything except for being right there where I was. I loved it. It was a fantastic way to get back in touch with myself and life in general.

Afterwards, I walked from place to place in the midday sun and got a bit sunburned and completely overheated. I was actually glad to arrive back in my nice clean apartment. Believe in or not, I even had a small appreciation for Barranquilla. On reflection, I am glad that beach is 20 minutes away, but for now living in the city of Barranquilla as opposed to the small town on Prado Mar is OK with me.

Note the pile of garbage. I see people littering here all the time and this is where the garbage goes. Sad.