Christmas gifts from Huey!!

  Huanchaco, Peru
Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Due to half of Peru traveling around for the Christmas holidays I am forced to take a night bus to get to Huanchaco, my first one. I have heard mixed things about night buses, but I know that personally I struggle to sleep on transport so I am not looking forward to it. I decide to have a few beers and glasses of wine before boarding to help me sleep.

My seat is in the corner on the back row, not a great start! The guy jammed in next to me has a long beard, fills the seat a bit too comfortably and smells faintly of fish. When he quickly falls asleep he reveals an added bonus to his appealing character, he grinds his teeth! I open the window full, keep my head close to it and settle in for 8 hours of hell on wheels...

Before long, everyone around me seems to be happily snoozing, the gits! As we get lower in altitude and closer to the desert coastline, the bus gets hotter and more uncomfortable for me. I give up trying to sleep and fantasize of riding long warm waves followed by cold showers, my stolen Ipod and any kind of bed, in fact any kind of horizontal surface.

When I finally arrive, bleary eyed and dazed, in Trujillo I jump in a taxi for the half hour drive to Huanchaco. I direct the driver to the hostel jb is staying at and knock on its big doors at 5.30am, the owner answers and takes me to our room. He opens the door and I see a comfortable looking bed with jb crashed out on, I am ready to drop dead into mine and sleep for hours. I angle my boardbag to get in through the door and as I round the corner I see how small the room is and realise that the small double bed jb is spreadeagled on is the only bed we have! I am too tired to give jb any decent level of abuse for his incompetence so decide to leave it for later that day. I dump my stuff and crash on one side of what I soon realise is one of the most uncomfortable beds I have ever slept on, and that is saying something! After a few hours of dozing and chatting with jb we get up and go in hunt of a more suitable hostel, closer to the beach.

Despite feeling knackered, I know that the surf I have been craving will sort my head out. Once we dump our stuff at our new hostel 'El Malecon', we hook up with Simon who is doing some volunteer work at a surf shop/school. After catching up and having breakfast we suit up and get stuck into some small but fun lefthanders right in front of our hostel. Its good to be back in the sea and my shoulder becomes stiff and tired pretty quickly, but no problems so the weeks rest has done the trick. We share the water with the famous Tortilla Riders, they are local fisherman who for 1000's of years have been using these small crafts to catch their prey. They claim to be the worlds first surfers, pre-polynesian, thay may have a case. However, as they were riding waves simply to get back to shore after work and the Polynesians were doing it purely for the pleasure and devoted huge amounts of time to practicing, the Polynesians get my vote!

Sunset Silhoutte

View from a bar

Our stay in Huanchaco was pretty uneventful, theres not much to do other than surf in the day and then play pool in the evenings. Christmas day was by far the best day.....after a quiet Christmas Eve we wake to find Huey (The God of Waves) has gifted us with some sizeable righthanders peeling into the bay where we hadnt surfed as yet. Fantastic!! After surfing them pretty much alone for an hour or so just in our boardies, it becomes too cold and we are forced to leave the water. We feel gutted we hadnt put our suits on as we didnt expect such good waves, but as we continue to watch the waves begin to deteriorate and close out a lot. It seems Huey was just smiling on us that day!

After drying out, having some lunch and xmas beers we introduce Simon to the board game Risk. We play for a few hours whilst steadily devouring more xmas beers. That evening we join a beach fire with locals and other volunteers that Simon has introduced us to. By midnight we are all suitably merry and ready for our beds.

Xmas Day - post surf beer

Sun crisped but stoked

One day, me and jb make a visit to a Pre-Incan Mud City called Chan Chan, 20 minutes into the desert from the coast. This has been uncovered from the sand that had buried it for many hundreds of years. The precise building of the cities walls and the designs within are very impressive, but the chamber that most amazes is the bath house. It is huge, about the size of a football pitch, no one is bathing in it any more (I was very tempted) but it is still filled with water and has created a small oasis in the desert. Huge banks of reeds and other plantlife provide sustenance for fish and birds, the sight is quite alien and beautiful in such a dry, desolate environment.

Chan Chan Oasis

Chan Chan 3

Jb's foot is very sore still and needs some time out of the water, so after only a week back at the coast I am to head back to the mountains for New Year. I am happy to do so, as Huanchaco gets very busy and more expensive for New Years. Plus, we had enough attention and families asking for photos with the lanky gringos when it was quiet! We are bound for Huaraz in the Cordillera Blanca, it is the main spot for tourists to begin mountain expeditions in high season and is close to some of the biggest mountains in South America. I am really keen to climb some decent mountains and the hostel we have booked has suitable gear to rent. The anticipation is great....