Wouldn't it be great if your season of riding were rewarded with even more than just memories of good times? Those chasing the You Look Good Rider's Cup aim for just that. This year's grand prize was once again a surf trip for both the men's and women's winners, but the compass landed on El Salvador instead of Portugal this year – the Eldorado Surf Resort to be exact.

You may remember Andrew Sayer's ‘recon trip' (uh huh, sure...) back in July. Make sure you read his interview with Eldorado's co-owner and host, Olivier Dubois (Oli, to anyone who's been there for five minutes) to learn about the resort. My story is that of getting there and back; I'm new to the whole ‘traveling to a remote area of a developing country' thing, and this is an account for those who are curious, and may have never taken the leap.

Destination: Eldorado Surf Resort (at very low tide).

This year's crew consisted of the 2010/11 You Look Good winners, Jon Versteeg and Gillian Andrewshenko, the Eventsing team (the crew behind the event, there for quality control, of course), and a collection of other ne'r-do-wells, like Simple Snowboarding's Sam Marcotte, riders Andrew Skelhorn, Steve Cartwright, Andrew Rusk, filmer Nate Laverty and for good measure, last year's You Look Good winners, Elliot Catton and Diane Rudge (among others).

Being a notorious over-packer, I wrestled with how much to bring. Going to a climate you've never been to before is tough; does it ever get cold? Does it rain a lot? What things can kill me in my sleep? Talking to Andrew Skelhorn, it was clear there were options, he having chosen the "only a backpack" route. I had been made wary by rumours of it being the ‘rainy season' and that ear infections were all but guaranteed. And of course, after a trip to Mexico (all-inclusive...real adventurous), I was aware of what foreign food was capable of. Eardrops and Imodium, check.

This is of little concern in El Salvador.

Riding in from the San Salvador airport at night, here's what I took in: stray dogs, stray horses, a dog sleeping in the middle of the road, pickup trucks full of people, fences and walls everywhere. I was a long way from home. But when the sun came up on day one, all apprehensions disappeared.

Oli, your host.

Turns out I was at a small surf resort in El Salvador, surrounded by great people and gracious hosts, all ready to take care of as much (or as little) as we needed. Breakfasts of our choosing, authentic El Salvadorian for lunch, North American flair for dinner, all interspersed with easy-access surfing (with rentals right at the resort) and whatever else we could find to occupy ourselves as our minds slowed into vacation mode. Thanks to little-to-no Internet access, trivial questions couldn't be answered by something in your pocket and instead were dismissed, moving on to anything more tangible and immediate, like ping-pong, the beachside mini-ramp, or more surfing.

The ping-ping can get pretty intense. This was the final match of a week-long tournament, coming down to Nate Laverty and Oli. The best-of-three-games final went the distance, and Nate to the win for the visiting team.

(keep following for more on the surfing, the food and the good times)