Time with Timbo
Trip Start
Nov 24, 2005
1
23
25
Trip End
Nov 24, 2006
Mancora,
Peru
Thursday, June 29, 2006
One of my priorities in Lima was to get my hands on a surfboard. This wasn´t too difficult. Our friendly hostel owner sent me down the road to see Senor Magoo (Yep...his name is actually Mr. Magoo). Magoo sorted me out with a new kit and also told me how he was about to take a young Peruvian to the Gold Coast for the Grommet surf comp and how he´d coached Sofia Melanovich (Womens world Champ) for five years when she was younger. Cool Magoo!
Not much else to report from Lima other than having had a nice meal with Ryan and his friend Vic, from home, one night
01. Ryan, Christ....random Pacasmayo.
. Next we hopped on a bus north to a town called Pacasmayo on Peru´s coast, to catch up with one of our best mate´s (Moggy) boyfriend, Tim. Katie had met Tim in Indonesia and spent some time with him in the UK and I met him briefly in London, so it was excellent being able to catch up with him again. Pacasmayo was a funny little town with little to offer unless you surf. Surf we did (Tim and I anyway while Katie and Ryan spent time in hammocks and watching random television shows!). Peru is famous for it´s long left hand points. Unfortunately, while we had fun surfing Pacasmayo, it was a bit of a slow and full wave while we were there, so we moved on. We headed right up to the North of Peru to a town called Mancora. Mancora is a nice little resort town with good restaurants and nightlife but sadly not much surf.
Tim had heard about a place just to the south of Mancora called Lobitos with supposedly great surf. Lobitos didn´t disappoint.
Tim and I headed off as soon as we arrived in Mancora, leaving Katie and Ryan to enjoy Mancora´s sun and beach life. The trip to Lobitos involved an hour bus ride followed by a forty minute bounce along a dirt road in a ´collectivo´(mini van). Lobitos is a classic town with even less to offer than Pacasmayo. If you aren´t a surfer, fisherman, oil worker, missionary or in the military, you probably would find yourself quite bored in Lobitos
02. Myself and the Lucho´s
. It´s a real desert fishing town with a huge oil refinery and military base. The town in divided into ´New´ and ´Old` Lobitos. ´Old´ Lobitos is scattered with old vacant American style houses. The whole place is basically deserted, aside from the fishermen etc. Tim and I decided to stay at `Don Luchos Restaurant´ in ´New´ Lobitos. Don Lucho and his classic wife took us in and treated us like their own kids. Mrs. Lucho (not her real name but what we called her) took to calling me Pablo and Tim was called Tito, because it was easier. She was a chatty lady who enjoyed having a bit of a boogey around the restaurant and with Tito on occasions. Good value. Anyway the surf in Lobitos was amazing. There were five left hand point breaks within walking distance of ´The Luchos´ place, which we took advantage of. One of the more notable breaks was actually in the Army Base where you needed to leave your passport or I.D. to be allowed to enter. Once you were granted permission, you had to either paddle around the headland or climb up and over a cliff to access the beach as the guards wouldn´t allow you to cruise through the camp. The last time Tim and I surfed this break it was too big to paddle around the headland and too dangerous to climb down the cliff so we just walked through the camp back to the guard post to collect our driver licences and were effectively banned from surfing the break again. Whoops. A good time was had in Lobitos!
03. Tim, The Don and I
We headed back to Mancora to be reunited with Katie and Ryan. We had a big night out at our favourite beach bar, ´Point Place´, to belatedly celebrate Tim´s birthday which was a lot of fun. We spent the next few days hanging with Tim and relaxing at the beach. Mancora had a great Mexican restaurant and probably lots of other good restaurants too, but we wouldn´t know about them as we couldn´t tear ourselves away from the Mexican, which we frequented nightly. Yum!!
Anyway Mancora was a lovely spot with great sunsets and good weather. Finally back at the beach!!! So good! It was awesome to spend time with Tim and we look forward to more shinanigans with Tito back in Oz.
Next stop Ecuador.
