Hey hey,
peru part 2 is now served!
Huanchaco,
Peru: so we headed to the beach! Finally! The beach in Peru! Nothing
could be better. Javier, Anton and I arrived early in the morning to
Trujillo and from there took a short bus ride to Huanchaco, found our
new home and took a long nap. Overnight busses never really allow for a
good nights rest so we deserved the nap! After that we suited up aka put
on our bathing suits and hit da waves. We were all so happy to be at
the beach with sunshine and waves and fresh fish and mangos that not one
of us thought to put sunscreen on. WOOPS! No sunscreen on the beach in
Peru? Yikes! Well, I got burned. Burned. Burned. It hurt for about 5
days to change my clothes, to sit down, to sleep, to pee. But it's ok.
We spent Christmas and my birthday in huanchaco and it was so lovely.
For Christmas we cooked quinoa, a nice fresh salad, fresh fish with
garlic and olive oil and some shrimp in special sauce that Anton made.
Then for my birthday I had mango, banana, pineapple fruit salad with
fresh fried eggs and this taaaasty bread we found ( whole wheat with
flax seeds and raisins)! For lunch we had some fish and for dinner some
fish again! I love fish! Fish in Peru is just incredible. In total we
spent about 3 days in huanchaco, resting on the beach, wandering around,
eating a lot and soaking in the sun. It was so delicious in every
possible way. The actual beach though, very dirty. None of us went into
the water. Huanchaco was an excellent first taste of the beach in Peru.
The day after my birthday Javier and I set out for lobitos, a surf spot
about 6 hours north of huanchaco. We left early and quickly found a ride
on a huuuuge truck carrying onions from the mountains of Peru to the
border with Ecuador. Off we went! The driver dropped us off in the
middle of nowhere on the side of the highway telling us we had arrived
at the place to catch a taxi to lobitos. Turns out it wasnt the jumping
off point and it was also 1030 at night. We found (the only) restaurant
open on the side of the highway, ate some dinner and asked if we could
set up camp there. The owner was nice enough to let us! Although the
location on the side of the panamerican highway was definitely ideal,
Javier and I had each other so everything was ok! In the morning we left
for Lobitos...
Lobitos, Peru: There is this website called workaway.info and basically it's people or places or organizations posting about volunteer opportunities. Whether it be working at a hostal, a farm, teaching English, nannying, etc. In lobitos it turns out that there is a hostal that accepts volunteers. We went there! You work for a few hours in the morning, in reality we had to sweep or mop and then a few hours at night ( we washed dishes and worked the bar) and they gave us dinner and a bed and bath! The night we had to work the bar the power went out so we just hung out by candle light chatting with customers and listening to some argentines play music. It was awesome! We stayed for about 3 days and basically spent everyday asleep on the beach or watching surfers or laughing together or making new friends or enjoying each others company and digging deep to learn more about ourselves through each other. Javier and I got even closer in Lobitos, I think we will be friends for life. La casona, the hostal we volunteered at was right in the beach! The sunsets were magical! The water crystalline, warm, perfect. I could have stayed there forever I think. Maybe one day i will open a hostal there and stay forever. Who knows?
Mancora, Peru: from lobitos we headed to mancora to find some argentine friends we were planning on spending new years with. I did NOT want to leave lobitos but I also didn't want to spend new years without Javier, so off we went again! When we got to mancora I think we were both in shock a little bit. It was fuuuuulllll of people. I mean packed! You could barely walk! We were expecting a lot of people, but nothing like this. Turns out our argentine friend Ema had already left for Ecuador and had emailed Javier several times but we didn't have Internet in lobitos. We found a house, with a very kind elderly woman and set up camp in her backyard.She charged us 4 dollars, we had a nice shower, she let us use the kitchen and was just so kind. I hated mancora though, it was crowded, touristy, a party town and full of tourists. New years was fun, we found ceviche for 1.25 in the market and became best friends with the woman who made it. I think we ate there everyday for about 3 days! After 2 days in mancora we were more than ready to leave and headed to a beach town further north called Punta Sal.
Punta Sal, Peru: so, here we are two rugged looking backpackers, sweaty and dirty arriving at a very posh, expensive beach town where wealthy people from Lima have heir summer houses. We had no idea punta sal would be like this! The beach was beautiful but the environment was very uncomfortable, everyone looked at us like we were aliens and they clearly didn't want us there. We stayed anyway because the beach is public and everyone should be able to enjoy it. That night we waited until it got dark to set up our tent on the beach and met some other Peruvians who were doing the same thing! They invited us to some of their food and we made a bonfire and played games all night. It was nice to not feel so alone and like outsiders or intruders for a little while. The next morning we woke up early, jumped into the ocean, broke down the tent, made our oatmeal and found a spot to park it for the day. The whole day was spent on the beach, snoozing, chatting, soul searching and enjoying each others company and the beautiful beach in front of us. Then lunch time came around....we tried to find cheap food and it just didn't exist or if it did it was a piece of chicken with white rice for 6 dollars. If any of you don't know, when I am very hungry it also usually means that I am in a bad mood. I tried to hold it together but lost it a little. We wound up eating some carrots, soda crackers, a tomato and an onion. Oh, and a banana! In other words, we remained more or less hungry. The rest of the day we spent sprawled on the beach, splashing around in the waves and enjoying the fact that we were basically a pair of hoodlums huddluming around a ritzy beach town. What an awesome feeling! That night I witnessed probably the most spectacular sunset of my life. The sun was the size of I don't even know how to describe it. It was tremendously large and huge and bright and huge and just WOW! Everyone was running to snap a picture of it...we were totally blown away. The we decided, or our stomachs decided, that we needed to splurge and split a plate at a restaurant because we were starving! On our way to find the cheapest place we ran into two nannies with the three children they take care of. They started chatting with us and we explained our situation, not knowing that punta sal was so expensive, etc. These women! Ceci and her niece! What incredibly kind women! They told us that after putting the kids to bed the would come meet us on the beach and bring us some food! Have you ever heard of kinder people? So they came and gave us mangos, crackers, a can of tuna fish, yogurt, bread, some apples and some cookies. We all sat around sharing life stories and chatting until they had to return back to the house. I will never forget their kindness and generosity. The next morning we woke up super early, broke down the tent like pros and headed out back to mancora. We were lucky enough to catch a ride in the back of a pick up truck! Back to mancora, only to use it as a base for visiting other local beaches!
Lobitos, Peru: There is this website called workaway.info and basically it's people or places or organizations posting about volunteer opportunities. Whether it be working at a hostal, a farm, teaching English, nannying, etc. In lobitos it turns out that there is a hostal that accepts volunteers. We went there! You work for a few hours in the morning, in reality we had to sweep or mop and then a few hours at night ( we washed dishes and worked the bar) and they gave us dinner and a bed and bath! The night we had to work the bar the power went out so we just hung out by candle light chatting with customers and listening to some argentines play music. It was awesome! We stayed for about 3 days and basically spent everyday asleep on the beach or watching surfers or laughing together or making new friends or enjoying each others company and digging deep to learn more about ourselves through each other. Javier and I got even closer in Lobitos, I think we will be friends for life. La casona, the hostal we volunteered at was right in the beach! The sunsets were magical! The water crystalline, warm, perfect. I could have stayed there forever I think. Maybe one day i will open a hostal there and stay forever. Who knows?
Mancora, Peru: from lobitos we headed to mancora to find some argentine friends we were planning on spending new years with. I did NOT want to leave lobitos but I also didn't want to spend new years without Javier, so off we went again! When we got to mancora I think we were both in shock a little bit. It was fuuuuulllll of people. I mean packed! You could barely walk! We were expecting a lot of people, but nothing like this. Turns out our argentine friend Ema had already left for Ecuador and had emailed Javier several times but we didn't have Internet in lobitos. We found a house, with a very kind elderly woman and set up camp in her backyard.She charged us 4 dollars, we had a nice shower, she let us use the kitchen and was just so kind. I hated mancora though, it was crowded, touristy, a party town and full of tourists. New years was fun, we found ceviche for 1.25 in the market and became best friends with the woman who made it. I think we ate there everyday for about 3 days! After 2 days in mancora we were more than ready to leave and headed to a beach town further north called Punta Sal.
Punta Sal, Peru: so, here we are two rugged looking backpackers, sweaty and dirty arriving at a very posh, expensive beach town where wealthy people from Lima have heir summer houses. We had no idea punta sal would be like this! The beach was beautiful but the environment was very uncomfortable, everyone looked at us like we were aliens and they clearly didn't want us there. We stayed anyway because the beach is public and everyone should be able to enjoy it. That night we waited until it got dark to set up our tent on the beach and met some other Peruvians who were doing the same thing! They invited us to some of their food and we made a bonfire and played games all night. It was nice to not feel so alone and like outsiders or intruders for a little while. The next morning we woke up early, jumped into the ocean, broke down the tent, made our oatmeal and found a spot to park it for the day. The whole day was spent on the beach, snoozing, chatting, soul searching and enjoying each others company and the beautiful beach in front of us. Then lunch time came around....we tried to find cheap food and it just didn't exist or if it did it was a piece of chicken with white rice for 6 dollars. If any of you don't know, when I am very hungry it also usually means that I am in a bad mood. I tried to hold it together but lost it a little. We wound up eating some carrots, soda crackers, a tomato and an onion. Oh, and a banana! In other words, we remained more or less hungry. The rest of the day we spent sprawled on the beach, splashing around in the waves and enjoying the fact that we were basically a pair of hoodlums huddluming around a ritzy beach town. What an awesome feeling! That night I witnessed probably the most spectacular sunset of my life. The sun was the size of I don't even know how to describe it. It was tremendously large and huge and bright and huge and just WOW! Everyone was running to snap a picture of it...we were totally blown away. The we decided, or our stomachs decided, that we needed to splurge and split a plate at a restaurant because we were starving! On our way to find the cheapest place we ran into two nannies with the three children they take care of. They started chatting with us and we explained our situation, not knowing that punta sal was so expensive, etc. These women! Ceci and her niece! What incredibly kind women! They told us that after putting the kids to bed the would come meet us on the beach and bring us some food! Have you ever heard of kinder people? So they came and gave us mangos, crackers, a can of tuna fish, yogurt, bread, some apples and some cookies. We all sat around sharing life stories and chatting until they had to return back to the house. I will never forget their kindness and generosity. The next morning we woke up super early, broke down the tent like pros and headed out back to mancora. We were lucky enough to catch a ride in the back of a pick up truck! Back to mancora, only to use it as a base for visiting other local beaches!
Vichayito,
Peru: Our last day together was spent in vichayito beach which is about
a 5-6km walk south of mancora along the beach. It's beautiful! Very
deserted, very quiet, very peaceful. So we walked there, taking breaks
and rests along the way to admire the ocean and soak in our last day
together. We got to vichayitos and took a little snooze, waking up just
in time for the sunset and then walked back along the beach in the dark
listening to the waves crash beside us and enjoying every breath of
seaside peruvian air.
Traveling
with Javier has been like a dream come true. He is so kind and sweet
and caring and adventurous and I truly cannot imagine my journey without
him. Honestly, I probably would have come home already if I hadn't met
him. For now our paths are going in different directions, the hard part
of the journey is now beginning and we are both going to have to get
Used to traveling alone, no partner to do and share everything with. But
that's ok, we met for a reason, we have parted ways for a reason and if
our paths are meant to cross again, they will.
For
now, I'm in Ecuador! In the outskirts of the jungle. It's nice, I like
it. I don't love it yet, I might never, but Its just the beginning of
country #5 so i am remaining open. Until the next email,I hope you all
aren't freezing to death. Come on Angelinos! Its 30 degrees! Get a
g-r-i-p! Just kidding, I would probably be frozen by now.
Besos!
ARB
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