Birthday bash and beachtime with Eva

  San Bartolo, Peru
Tuesday, January 16, 2007

I wake up very excited about Eva's imminent arrival, I need to kill time in Santiago somehow. I wander around Miraflores buying a few new clothes in the cheap as chips department stores. At one point a large chunk of what looks like fog passes the main street which I am walking towards. As I enter the tall patch of fog, its feels fantastically cool and wet...I realise its actually mist from the sea and am very surprised. I stand on the corner and enjoy the refreshing feeling, it would take me at least 20 minutes to walk to the cliff overlooking the sea and yet here is a big chunk of sea mist floating down the main dual carriageway of Miraflores trapped between the skyscrapers either side.

On my way to a large department store called Ripleys I am passed by a very noisy procession of demonstrators, I cant quite tell what they are making a fuss about but they urge me to join in. I am walking in the opposite direction and cant identify their cause, so I leave them be. After getting bored of the shops I grab a bite to eat and decide to head to the offices of LAN airways to discuss flight schedules for the remainder of my RTW ticket. I hear the demonstrators again before I see them, and when I get closer to the LAN offices I realise they are LAN employees making a stand for better wages. They are not blocking the entrance completely, only making there feelings known in loud fashion. When I get through the doors of LAN there is a huge queue and only a few staff, obviously the majority are outside shouting themselves hoarse. I decide its not a good time and as I remember some of the hassles LAN have caused me and jb by canceling us off flights and changing dates for no reason, I decide to lend a little support against the organisation. As I exit the front doors and walk away, I face the protesting crowd and punch the air to show them my support. I instantly feel stupid and self conscious in front of all these people, but they cheer my air punch and a group of people close to me grab me and urge me to join them. I have had a few flights with LAN and always found the flight staff very nice, so I think - why not! I spend the next ten minutes shouting, cheering the guy with the loudspeaker and being told why LAN are being unfair with wages, holidays etc.. As much fun as it is to give the capitalist machine some stick, instead of working for it...I soon get bored and leave..saying goodbye to my new friends and hoping they remember me when I get my next flight with them to Auckland.

After relaxing back at my hostel and reading my book for a bit I have successfully killed the time I needed to, its time to go get my girl! The taxi that picks me up breaks down after 15 minutes, after helping him push it off the busy road I have to flag down another. It doesn't take too long and I arrive at the airport with a bit of time. Eva´s flight has arrived but the passengers haven't appeared as yet. I start chatting to a couple of authorised, honest looking taxi drivers to arrange our journey to San Bartolo. They are a couple of jokers and we very quickly have a good rapport going. They see I have three bottles of red wine with me (its hard to get good wine in San Bartolo), I tell them its to help celebrate my birthday, which is the next day, with my girlfriend who is arriving from England on this flight. When they find out its been over 3 months since I have seen her, they joke using crude jestures that I wont have time to drink wine tonight... whilst laughing, I agree....after all I will have so many presents to open! I tell them its no joke and they had better be strong guys because her bags are going to be very heavy....loaded with xmas and birthday gifts.

Eva finally arrives and I shout her over the crowd of other people waiting, she looks as stunning as ever, despite having just done a 21 hour journey with no sleep! After big hugs and kisses in front of the crowds, like something out of a Meg Ryan film, we are ready to get going. The driver is relieved to find that Eva's bag has wheels and a handle as I wasnt wrong about its weight! Although at the time I suspected it was more than likely due to hair straighteners and lip-gloss than my presents! After agreeing a fair fee with the driver, we hop in the back of the taxi and begin to catch up. Eva is understandably tired and is soon lay across the back seats trying to snooze on my lap whilst I continue my banter and Spanish practice with the driver. We arrive at the hotel in San Bartolo and Eva is very happy with the room, not as excited as me though. Its by far the best room I have had on the trip, with a large comfortable bed, power shower, private balcony and beautiful view of the sea and surf break.

Its about 11.30pm by the time we have settled in our room, half an hour until I am 27. Eva has some kind of birthday surprise organised for me and she needs me out of the way. I open a bottle of red, sit on the balcony and get reacquainted with my Ipod and sound proof headphones (I had got my Dad to buy one and put all my music on, I had finally replaced the one I had stolen three months back in Costa Rica..thanks Dad). Its a real pleasure to listen again to some carefully selected classics from Hendrix, The Clash, James Brown, The Beatles and all sorts of other stuff... I have my eyes closed and the only other thing I can sense is the sea breeze. It is already my best birthday ever and it hasn't started yet!!

Gingerbread surfboard - gone in 60 seconds!

plonker!

When Eva brings me out of my sonic world with a tap on the head its really difficult to take those headphones out. When I do, she wishes me Happy Birthday with a big kiss, its 12.15am and I am a year older. She leads me back to the bedroom to see a dozen balloons (explaining her slightly reddened face!), a handful of beautifully wrapped presents on the bed and a finely decorated gingerbread surfboard with a candle in lighting the room. I was stunned...she had obviously gone to a great effort to make my day special. The homebaked gingerbread surfboard was the first casualty, I make the traditional wish before blowing out the candle and take a good bite out of the tasty treat. I am urged to open the card and presents but first I match them with the gifts I have picked up for Eva whilst in Ecuador and Peru. The presents are for Christmas and Eva's nameday, for those who dont know..its tradition in Czech for each name to have a day of the year allocated to it for celebrating. Apparantly when people get to an age when they dont want to celebrate birthdays anymore, they only celebrate their nameday. Nice idea... anything that gives you excuses to party gets the thumbs up from me!

Rocking to a musical card from Evas parents

We take it in turns to open a present each and luckily we are both very happy with them. I get a cool t-shirt, the new Aim CD which gets whacked straight on, a couple of good books as I have run out, copies of a bulky Mighty Boosh box set waiting back in Manchester and by far the best gift of all.......three cans of my beloved Guinness!! Contrary to my earlier joke about Eva's hair straighteners, she has sacrificed a lot of baggage weight allowance to bring my heavy presents and some warmer clothes which I needed from home..thats true love! Eva receives some beautiful Alpaca wool and silk clothes from the mountains of Peru (a pashmina, scarf and poncho - perfect for the English winter) and a range of handmade jewellery to match - from artists I have met on the beaches of Ecuador and Peru.

The next morning we wake to beautiful weather, me and jb had been a bit worried as we had experienced nothing but fog and clouds for the last week! We spend the day on the beach relaxing and catching up, tasty seafood and beers are served to us right on the beach without having to move an inch. That night we get dressed up, start the night in style with guinness and red wine at our hotel and jump in a taxi with jb and Emma a bit north up the coast. We have a meal on the Pan-am, and then head to a recommended night club nearby. Its packed full on the dancefloor in front of a live band playing some good music, we seem to be the only westerners in the place! Eva is slowly getting used to being stared at wherever we go, something me and jb got accustomed to long ago. After milling in with the crowd for a while, I splash out on VIP wristbands to allow us access to private bars and seatings areas above the stage and main dancefloor. After plenty of birthday drinks and securing some comfy seats upstairs, we are ready to get stuck into the dancefloor. Noticing jb's distinctively English dance moves (similiar to morris dancing but with less style and coordination), the live band strikes up a song by the english band Keane...I am not a fan and am glad when they return to the latin american stuff which is much better for shaking your hips to. Its been a fantastic night and we make it home very late and very drunk as planned...

Alien abduction!

Shaking our bootys

jb at his prettiest!! pouting for the camera!

hungry!

We spend the next few days recovering and enjoying the continued good weather. I take Eva to Santa Rosa, a much quieter, longer and nicer beach 20 minutes walk north, we have it to ourselves. It is notable for its consistently heavy shore dump which provides a pleasant crashing sound and refreshingly cool spray. In between sets I brave it for a bit of a swim, I get out ok but almost get slammed back onto the beach when trying to get out. Whilst having a paddle, Eva misjudges the strength of one broken wave and gets knocked off her feet, I cant help but laugh. She punishes me by burying me up to the neck in sand and giving me a confusing set of organs! nice...

Buried alive!

Beach babe and the rug

We spent our good mates Scottys birthday on the same beach with jb and Emma, drinking beers, playing games and tackling the aforementioned shoredump with vigour. After a few beers we had no fear of the overhead waves crashing onto dry sand, and took great pleasure in getting washed up the beach on our arses for about half an hour. Eva and Emma watched on with bemusement and slight apprehension of an impending accident. Luckily no one was hurt, although at one point I thought I was going to be castrated by my own boardshorts!

Cute kid who stole her mums flip flops