Chicama Fever

Although there was not much surf in Huanchaco, we were a little sad to leave. It was a great little Perivian town, where everything was cheap and still kind of old fashion.
Everyday, the local men would paddle out in their boat made of bamboo vines, using half a stick of bamboo for an oar, and pull in netload after netload of little purple crabs. They would pull in about 50kgs at a time and thier families would meet them on the beach to help sort out which ones to keep and sell.



The boats would only last 3-4 months before they were water logged but they still used them to keep the Perivian tradition alive. Huanchaco is the only town in Peru where these boats are stil used and you can see why.. It's a lot of work to paddle those things out to sea and back with a load of crabs! We had the crabs in a dish for dinner one night at a restaraunt. It was call Cebiche, which is seafood cooked in lime juice and is a very traditional dish in Peru. There is no actual cooking involved which is a little scary, but the seafood is actually cooked by the acid in the lime juice. Sounds like a recipe for food poisoning to me but was actually pretty nice.
The next chapter of our trip was Puerto Chicama which boasts the longest left-hand wave in the world. We left Huanchaco with a new addition to the team, Chris - a surfer from Sydney, and headed North for 2 hours on a local bus. When we arrived in town, it was nothing like i expected. It was another tiny, run down Perivian town with tiny roads and not much else. Most of the buildings were falling down and there were stray dogs everywhere.


















We loaded up a couple of tuc-tucs with 4 backpacks and 4 surfboards and headed to the long wave hostel. The strap of Dazzmans backpack got caught in the wheel of the tuc-tuc on the way
and almost flipped it! So we arrived at the hostel with a broken bag and an angry Dazzman and settled into our rooms. The hostel was pretty nice as it was right on the edge of the cliff, overlooking the break. The staff were really friendly and showed us some surf videos of massive days at Chicama which got us pumped!!. Although the surf was small that arvo, we headed to bed, hoping for some huge surf in the morning..
Well morning came and the surf didn't.. A little disappointing but we were still hopeful for some swell the next day, as the report said it was going to build as the week went on. The beds were like concrete and we all woke up stiff so we spent the
day checking out some other hostels nearby. The one next door was heaps cheaper and had good meals, etc so, much to the dismay of the owners at long wave, we moved hostels.
Our new hostel was run by on elderly lady called Dorris, who was a pro in the kitchen. We didn't know her name at the start as she didn't speak much english and as she looked after us so well, she became known to us as mamma.















Happy with our new hostel and mamma, we turned our attention back to the surf, to find it had picked up a bit. The main bay of Chicama was huge and the way the swell comes in from the ocean and the swallowness of the bay, causes a super long wave that breaks perfectly for about 2kms on a good day. As the swell wasn't big enough for that, we paddled out at the bay next to Chicama as it was closer to the ocean and worked on a smaller swell. Even though it wasn't that big, it still broke perfectly the whole way through the bay..

















The first wave I got out here was only about 4 foot, but went for about 150m! I was amped and as the day went on, the rides got longer and longer. It was a left hand break which was my back hand, but we were in Peru afterall and everything is left over here! The waves were so long that after it finished, it was way too far to paddle back to the takeoff point, so you would get out and walk back along the shore to the get the next one.




Nicko was tearing it up too and Dazza was getting some great vids of us from the shore. The water was a little cold and the only place that hired wetsuits was the hostel that we stayed at the first night and shafted by moving to a new hostel the next morning!! That meant that wetsuits were out of the question but we still braved the cold in just boardies..
Although we were getting great waves, we were still hanging for the swell to pick up so we could get that illusive 2km ride in the main bay of Chicama. A wave so long, your legs get sore before the wave dies.. I had to feel it for myself.. So we waited, and waited, and waited... Then finally... we waited some more!! grr, after 6 days at Chicama, the big swell still hadn't come through.. A little disappointing as it would have been good to see it but it wasn't meant to be. We still surfed 2-3 times everyday and got some of the longest waves of our lives.
All up, Chicama was a great place to surf and we wer glad we came. Will def have to get back there again some time, but earlier in the year when the wave is really working..

As the sun set over chicama one last time, we headed into town to get a bus back to Trujillo, and then on to Lima.
It was time to fly to the warmer waters of Costa Rica!!!

Peru!!!!

Well we finally made it to the land of the left hand point break, PERU and I'm stoked!! Since my last blog post, we left Brazil and flew to the capital of Peru, Lima. We stayed at a very simple hostel right on the beach, however the beach wasn't the best as it was pretty dirty and the surf was small.. We wandered round the town for a bit and realised how cheap everything was here! It was clear we were going to live like kings for 2 months for about $10AUD a day. Great times ahead :)
We started to organise a trip to Cusco to see the Inca ruins at Machu Pichu and found it was going to be quite expensive and hard to get there and back in the time we had. We had chatted to a few people who had been to the Amazon and for most of them it was the highlight of their trip so far, so we decided to do that instead of Machu Pichu. But for now, it was time to chase some surf so we headed up north to Mancora which is known for its hot weather and great surf, yep you guessed it, a left hand point break:)

We caught an overnight bus for 18 hours and it was the craziest bus ride ever! After surviving the chaos on the freeway, we found ourselves winding our way up the coast with huge cliffs on either side. After seeing a ''Kenny'' upside down, halfway down the cliff, we were a little nervous to say the least! The bus company we travelled with took video of everyone who got on the bus, to make sure they knew who highjacked the bus if it happened, apparently not too uncommon around these parts!




We arrived in Mancora in one piece and settled into our hostel which was more like a beach resort. Was only meters from the sand and was made entirely of bamboo. It had a wicked upstairs bar that overlooked the beach and even had a pool table. The sunsets here were crazy and you could watch it from the bar with an icy cold brew in your hand, that's the life for me :)






We headed into the main town, which was pretty much a row of run down shacks and went board shopping. I bought a sweet 6'1'' Short board with flames on it for about $120AUD. Dundas brought a board too and we headed out into the surf.
I hit a rock on my first wave and snapped a fin! haha, unlucky but the broken board count was up to 2..
We had a great time surfing Mancora.. It was small but very clean and consistent. We met a couple of German guys at our hostel who were surfers and surfed with them for about 3 days.
It was good to have a bit of a crew out there so we were a bit stronger with the locals, who would drop in on any wave they could.. When we were surfing out there on the last day, a massive whale surfaced about 1 km further out and was launching it's entire body out of the water and crashing back down into the water, making a massive slash.. Was wicked to see!
After Mancora, we jumped in the back of a ute and headed down the coast to a tiny town called Lobitos. We had heard from some locals that this was the place the surf was at, and they weren't wrong! Lobitos was the most primitive, isolated town I have ever been to, with half of the deserted buildings in the main town pulled down by the locals to sell the building materials! It was in a Military zone, which meant you had to go
through a lot of military check points, etc.. There was a town right next to it where most people lived, which had a tiny market and prayers over a loud speaker at 6pm every day.


We stayed in a hostel up on the hill of Lobitos, overlooking the beach. There was no hot water, the toilet didn't flush and there was no toilet paper, a real 5 star place! Although the town was nothing special, the wave there was world class. It was easily the most perfect, consistent wave I have ever seen, with the 2m+ swell and howling offshore wind making some insanely hollow barrels. It was a little big for us but we paddled out every day and pushed our limits, resulting in some of the best rides ever! Big and crazy but great rides :) One of the highlights for me, apart from the best rides of my life, was when a pod of about 100 dolfins swam right by us, 3 of them were about 2m from me :) Nicko busted his second board for the trip when a windsurfer ran straight over him! Some local guy who thought that we prob shouldn't be there co it was windy so it wasn't time to surf!









In lobitos, we also went out on a tiny fishing boat for a few hours. The guy from the hostel, Raual, knew a local guy and hooked it up for us. The boat was about 5 meters long, and was powered by a 4 cylinder car engine, straight out of a gemeni! was king size swell and i dont know how it didn't tip over, as we were about 4kms out to sea! Was an experience thats for sure but after a little bit of sea sickness from me, we managed to catch a heap of fish for dinner that night. Raual was a great chief and like every other night we were there, cooked up a storm for us. Rice was his favourite dish and we ate it for breakfast, lunch and tea most days! hahaha..


From Lobitos, we caught a bus down south to a place called Huanchaco, which is where we are now. To get here, we had to wait for a while in Talara, near Lobitos and we felt like circus freaks! haha.. We were the main attraction of the town with a constant crowd around us. Women of all ages were were giving us the oo-la-las and the local blokes were hating it! haha.. They obviously don't many tourists through there, especially not with blonde hair or beards like the lads have got at the moment!
The boys are having a beard off at the moment, no shaving for 2 months to see who has the biggest beard by the end of it. They're def getting pretty wooly, thats for sure!
We arrived in Huanchaco and the surf here has been pretty good. Dazzman has been tearing it up on a hire board here and although the surf here is not as good as Lobitos, its still a lot of fun :)
Tomorrow we are heading up to Puerto Chicama, which boasts the longest left hand point break in the world, where you can ride a wave for over 2kms!! Gonna be some more great times ahead, thats for sure. Hope everyone at home is doing well, will write again soon :) Adious.

Rio Continued..

Its our last day in Rio today and we dont real want to leave.. The surf has picked up and we´re having a great time here. Although today is raining, it´s been 35deg most days and great for the beach. We fly to Lima, Peru tomorrow, where our first stop is Machu Pichu to check out the Inca ruins and then its up to the central and North coasts for hopefully some of the best surf in our lives!

Since my last post, we have seen a lot more of Rio and the surrounding areas. We partied a little too hard with the locals that were taking us down the coast so everyone slept in and decided to leave it for another day! Turns out the surf was no good anway so we decided to head up to see the Jesus thing instead.. Now as I already said, this was one of the main reasons for me to come to Rio. The weather was not too bad so we got a train up the mountain and climbed upto the statue, only to find that it was completely cloud covered and all we could see was white!! hahaha.. Very disappointing but what can you do, we only had 2 bad days of weather here and we decided to climb the mountain on one of them.. I took a photo of a postcard with the view we were suposed to see and a pic of the view we actually saw!

We went surfing down the coast the next day which was a lot better. We caught a special surf bus with board racks inside it and a DVD player that constantly played surfing DVD´s to get you pumped up for the surf. We ended up surfing at a beach called Macumba which had some wicked waves with some pretty hollow and crazy take-offs! Nicko and I both busted up our hire boards but I´m sure it won´t be the last time one of us busts a board on this trip!!

We also surfed at a beach called Arpoador which had some equally crazy take-offs but we braved it and got some wicked rides :)

In the afternoon we heard there were som really hollow barrels breaking at Copacabana so we raced down there, and they weren´t wrong.. The guys surfing them were either really good or really crazy (prob a bit of both) cos they were 2m+ barrels, breaking in about a foot of water, 5m from the beach. We decided to leave our boards on the beach and body surf them instead which was wicked :)

Great times in Rio and tonight we´re heading to a restaraunt called Porcao Rio´s, an all you call eat place here, recommended by Arthur from work, that boasts the best meat in South America! We need a good feed so looking forward to it. By for now, will write again in Peru if they´ve invented computers there yet!!

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Howdy crew :)

Well after our European adventures came to an end, a whole new adventure has started, South America!

We flew into Rio De Janeiro from Athens, with a quick stop over in Madrid, Spain. We were a little worried about the hurricane situation over Cuba and America but it was all good. We had some pretty crazy turbulence towards the end of our 14 hour flight, but over all it was reletively smooth and a good flight.

We arrived in Rio and jumped in a cab to our hostel. It was a very enlightening cab ride, thats for sure.. It wasn´t the fact that the cabby drove like Schumacher cos we are used to that from Greece now, (I never new a 1.6Lt Nissan Pulsar could do 150km/h but apparrently it can!) but it was more the fact that there are no road rules at all, except that you must change lanes at least 3 times every 10 seconds! There were guys in the middle of the freeway trying to open your cab door and sell you just about anything while you were crawling through traffic.. Def a crazy place.. The boys looked at me and were thinking ´what have we got ourselves into!..

So we drove through a very dodgy area where our hostel was and went to bed, sort of dreading the next week in Rio.

We woke up the next day, went to the beach and realised that our first impressions of Rio couldn´t be more wrong. The beaches here are great, the people are friendly and the weather is great.

We went up to a mountain called sugarloaf via a cable car and from the top we could see just how nice Rio was. There are a pic here showing the view of the copacobana from the top of sugarloaf.

From here, we headed down to the copacobana and the next beach along which is called Ipanema. We got some advice from the locals that this was the place to go and they were spot on. There´s guys on the beach trying to sell you just about anything you can think of but its a lot nicer and less touristy than Copacobana and the water is so warm :)

Although the surf has been a little small, we´ve had some great body surfs and got some crazy pics with the waterproof camera, which I´ll load when I can.

Another great thing that you can get here is coconuts. The guys at the little stores on the beach climb up the trees in the streets and throw them down so they can sell them. They cut them open with a massive cleaver and you dring the juice straight from the coconut. Nicko gets about 20 of them per day and they taste great :)

The hostel we´re staying at is a little bit too far from the beach but they love their music so much here that we can´t leave. Every night the whole place has a massive jam with guitars, african drums and even coconuts! There´s just about every musical instrument here that you can think of and everyone seems to know how to play them so there´s been some massive jams..

We´re also going to check out Corvocardo mountain today, where the massive jesus statue is (Christ the Redeemer). I´m really looking forward to this as it was a photo of this with the rest of the city in the background that I saw at work on Timmy´s computer that made me first want to come to Rio.

All in all, Rio is easily one of my favourite place that we´ve been so far. The beaches are beautiful and the people are extremely friendly. Some locals are taking us to some good surfspots down south tomorrow and we´re also going to check out some rainforests and waterfalls down there too. It´ll be great to get out of Rio city and get a taste for the rest of Brazil, even though we only have a week here.

Well the beach is calling my name so thats all folks from me today. Adios!