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.