Superstars y Surfear

Though Ryan's band has been on the up-and-up in the past years, it wasn't until 2013 that they really blew up. On the top charts in many countries around the world, it wasn't too much of a surprise to hear their single "Safe & Sound" on many stops of my travels this year. With the recent success I thought it would be a miss not to join him on tour somewhere, and when he let me know about his booking at Corona Capital – the Cochella of Mexico – it was easy to convince Maher to join for the trip.

We popped down for the long weekend to stay with his good buddy, Fez, and his amazing, accommodating lady, Michelle. The two of them showed us all around Mexico City in Polanco and their neighboring barrio of Roma – fantastic architecture, wonderful food, nightlife, and more tacos than I had ever eaten before. Mexico City was an unexpected highlight of a stop in this years' travel.

I was lucky enough to spend a night and a day with Ryan in De Effe and it was nice to just to hang with the guy. From the sounds of it, his '13 has been even more busy than mine, though not quite as fun and restful. Life on the road, though appealing, seems pretty tiring. On Sunday he and his band, Capital Cities played one of the main stages at the festival for something like 70,000 fans. Maher, Fez, Michelle and I got the full backstage treatment, watching not only his show from stage, but countless others through the day, including Vampire Weekend. Capital Cities absolutely blew MX out of the water – it was so fun to see. I'm not sure I will be able to do the festival thing again, though, when not the personal invitee of a famous rock band.

On Monday I parted ways with the folks in Mexico and headed further South to meet up with Jackman for a few days of surf in El Salvador. We stayed in the hopping beach town of El Tunco, but had a car to travel to the numerous surf breaks up and down the coast in the La Liberdad area. Our first session was pretty fantastic and we thought/hoped it was the tone setter for the week. Unfortunately a drop in swell, the arrival of wind and some gnarly late night storms changed that tone rather quickly. In the five days on the ground in El Sal, we had three memorable surf sessions but saw some challenging conditions, including some of the dirtiest, most disgusting water that either of us has ever surfed. On our final session I couldn't even see the board I was sitting on, through the literal shit in the water. Regardless of conditions, we made the most of the short trip to the normally wave-rich area, and likely made new surf partners for the future.

On the ground in De Effe at a great lunch spot with Fez

Some interesting apps courtesy of the chef

Beautiful presentation, but that's a bug, right?

On our first night we caught one of Ry's shows

The band on stage getting people to dance

In the presence of a celebrity

Late night tacos and beers after partying with the folks from Phoenix & Imagine Dragons

Cruising the town with Ry

The best churro I've ever had

Moon rises over the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary

Another fantastic eatery in Polanco

Heading into the festival with all the youngsters – with Michelle, Fez & Maher

Maher and I take in a show or two from stage

Later in the afternoon the crowd fills in and awaits Capital Cities

Pre-show pump up with Ryan

The man, the myth doing his thing

Ryan & Sebu giving it their all

Maher & I enjoy the view from stage

The band playing their hit, Safe and Sound

Post show smiles after Ryan performs for maybe 70k people

The shows continue

Partying with all sorts of random hipster musicians

Hanging with the superstar back stage

You've had how many carnitas tacos, Maher?

Back on stage to check out Vampire Weekend

Amazing how many fans there are

Cruising for some local goods with Michelle & Fez on my final day

Some tasty looking stuff in the high end mercado

Yep, those are crickets mixed in with the peanuts

Made it to El Sal to find this fantastic view of Roca Sunzal from our balcony

Jackman with me in town stocking up on the essentials – beer & CD's

Great little lunch spot in town is hard to find since they changed it from yellow to blue in the years I've been gone

Found a few critters roaming around though

Had some nice little rides before things got dirty

Beautiful sky enjoyed with beers on the playa

We woke from a decent night's rain to find some brown streaking into the ocean

Fisherman throwing a net in front of Bocana

At our local pupusaria lunch cost $1

Fresh pupusas being made

A nice shot from our walk in the town of El Tunco

Brown mixes in and clouds up the blue

The man, the myth, the dude

Musicians play at our hotel bar at sunset

Stunning light at dusk in El Tunco

After a day of mezcal y cervesas Chris gets into the sports talk while we watch the Red Sox play their way into the WS

A meaty bruise after getting run over by a longboarder lady at Sunzal, the only 'clean' wave we could find

Chris mixing work and play

Local entrepreneurs 

A final and beautiful sunset from a beachside bar in El Tunco

Cruising the coast looking for waves

Things are not cleaning up for us

And the usual route to our favorite surfbreak is not navigable, even for this herd of cows

Locals enjoying Roca Sunzal as we enjoy our final beer at our hotel bar