I had this dream or nightmare or whatever you want to call it. It was early in the morning. I was walking with a small cup of coffee in my left hand, and my surfboard under my right arm. I was headed for a surf. The plan was to do some light stretching on the shore, and enjoy a cup of joe. I walked upon a riff between a big wave Gringo Guy from Texas, and a notorious, bad news, Gringo Guy that has been around these parts for the better part of the last 20 years. The Gringo Surfer Guy is real cool and calm. The Gringo Asshole Good For Nothing Drug Guy probably has more dirty tricks up his sleeve than you could even imagine. I just put my head down and walked past it. I thought it might get ugly. And if it got ugly today, it would get uglier tomorrow. And if for whatever reason it didn’t get uglier tomorrow, there would be a day, down this short road of life, where it would get Mother Fucking Ugly. Eye for an eye kind of ugly. Like I said, I didn’t want to even be remotely associated with any of it.
Here’s where I totally blew it though. Moments later, while stretching etc., I see Cheeto walking towards me. Well not towards me, but in my direction. This guy is a bad ass. Normally I wouldn’t look at him either. You almost can’t. This guy has a tropical glare to his eye that will work you into submission. But since this was a dream or a nightmare, I decided to engage Cheeto. “Hey what’s up Cheeto? Hey look man, I’m a writer. I am in the process of doing a book of sorts about the surf culture here in Puerto Escondido. You’re obviously a big part of that. I know you’ve seen some shit go down out here. I was hoping maybe we could sit down and talk. Maybe I could take a few pictures. Stuff like that.” I do have recall of being popped in the face with a right elbow. My cat like reflexes prevented my already crooked nose from catching the blow. He still caught me good on the lower part of my forehead. He then walked away with my surfboard, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.
