Huanchaco, Peru
So, after our time in Central Lima, we decided to head northwest, and up the coast into the desolate, dry, sandy, empty coast lands of Peru. Instead of heading southeast into the Andes Mountains to Cusco and Machu Pichu, we decided to chase a south swell traveling fast in the Pacific, heading for the west coast of south america. Ryan had been studying the surf forecast for a week and had made a call to try and catch an incoming big south swell that was rare for this time of year. Since the south swell season should have been over, Ryan knew he may not have this chance again to surf the spots he had dreamed of here in Peru with good waves again. It was like a sign sent from the heavens Ryan kept saying. He couldn't believe what the forecast charts were showing. We would just have to wait and see. Nancy was a good sport and agreed to the plan. Besides, on top of it all, getting out of the crazy city and heading west to the sleepy sea and farm villages of Peru sounded amazing. We couldn't wait to get our feet sandy and also start exploring the fresh seafood cuisine coastal Peru had to offer.
Our first stop would be in Trujillo after getting off the 9 hour bus ride from Trujillo. We stayed the night there and it was a long one. Nancy finally broke her fever and finally got some rest from her food poisoning during the night. We woke up the next day and decided to try and get rid of half of our belongings. It only took us a week and a half before we realized we brought too many things. We tried shipping a package home, but the post office ended up being closed. There was a nice lady out front sitting on the steps with her two small children that explained to us when it might open up next. We really wanted to get rid of a lot of the stuff we had we knew we ould do without. So before we thought too much about it and want to change our minds, we turned to the lady and in our broken spanish explained to her that it was her lucky day. We opened up our luggage and started tossing extra shoes, shirts, socks, swim suits, bathroom stuff, all kinds of extra things. The lady and her two children started laughing and couldn't really believe what we were doing. We emptied 1 entire luggage on them and tried to tell them we did not need it. They kept saying "muuuchas gracias!" and couldn't stop grinning. I think we felt just as good as they did losing a 35lb bag.
As we walked away they kept staring at us and waving, the mom looked like she was about to cry. It stoked us out to be able to make someone so happy with such little sacrifice. We got about a block and a random guy came running up to us and in better english told us that the lady wanted him to tell us thank you very much. We looked back down the street saw the family getting in a taxi and waving at us. In the part of town we were in, chances we very good they could really use all the gear we gave them. We won't forget this little family.
Later that day we grabbed lunch and a taxi and headed the rest of the way to the coast and to our first coastal destination, called Huanchaco, about a 30 minute taxi ride. Cost us about 10 soles, or about 3.50 USD. We posted up at Hostal Casa Suiza. It's a humble little place that is family run. It reminded us of a cabin in the woods. Bricks, and wooden linkin' log type construction. We were warmly welcomed and enjoyed our stay here. At night they turned on there tiny little pizza oven and made us delicious thin crispy pizza's. For breakfast they baked fresh bread and served one egg, with fresh blended juice, and jam. Our daily routine consisted of exploring the dirty beaches and dodging the stray dogs that sometimes got a little too friendly. We loved watching the sunsets here, and Ryan finally got to surf to beginning of the in coming swell. This little sleepy town came alive during the weekends. We found this was a hotspot for many "hippy" backpackers/drifters. We must have looked like one of them, because we got asked to buy weed about a dozen times. We were high enough on just being able to explore, see, taste, smell, experience new surroundings.
Our favorite highlights of Haunchaco are, waking up every morning to the "fruit man". He would scream into his broken loud speaker as he rode by our window every morning, advertising the mornings fresh harvest of fruits pilled high on his sketchy tricycle wagon. He had the funniest voice. We would wake up cracking up. Also memorable was our first go at Peruvian ceviche. It is a dish that can go terribly wrong the first time you try it if not done right. So, we waited to try this dish until we found out where all the locals would go in town. It's raw fish cooked without heat, in citrus juices. In this case it was lime. The acid in the lime juice cooks the fish just past raw. It's often mixed with Ryan's favorite, paper thin sliced onion slightly cooked in boiling water, then removed and chilled. Nancy fell in love with the sweet potato they serve next to the ceviche. Peruvians call it "comote". The dish was fresh and wonderful. Also served with this dish is a type of roasted and salted corn nut. Called "cancha". We got addicted to this warm fresh roasted salty snack.
Here are a few pictures from our time in Haunchaco, Peru:
Leaving Lima on the Luxury bus!
Oh yaaa. 2nd floor on the bus. Top level VIP recliners baby.
A few houses on the hill side.
A few sands on the hill side...
Oh what a beautiful site. The pacific. And a streak of bird terd on the window.
One wrong move by the bus driver and we would have rolled alll the way to the water.
Nancy went right to sleep on the ride. Ryan couldn't stop starring out the window. He said he "mind surfed" every wave he saw on the 9 hour trip to Trujillo.
Cool hut.
Cool farm/village.
Ok so first off sorry for the poor quality. We tried snapping these pictures with the point and shoot out a crazy bus flying down a two lane highway at 70 mph. The nice camera with zoom lens was packed away. If you look closely, you can see a left hand wave breaking off this mystical looking point. There were tons of these mystical looking waves we past on the coast line. Ryan was "freaking out" because most of these waves looked perfect. He wanted to jump off the bus so bad and find out if these waves could be surfed, have they been surfed, what were they called? There was nothing out here and noone around. Ryan swore he would return someday to explore this vast coast line of mystical breaks.
Dunes
This was at our Hostal Suiza. They had chirping, pooping birds in the lobby.
Cancha. A roasted type of corn nut. Addicting
Ceviche
Fried shrimp. Haunchaco had delicious fresh seafood
Stickin with coke. Our friend Austin told us to always drink your coke and you won't get sick.
Looking North over Haunchaco
Checking out the local cemetery
Look close and you'll see why Ryan enjoyed his stay here
The town's fishing peir. They charged a toll that was .50 soles to walk the planks. US 0.15. cents. What a rip off! ha...
Back in our room at the hostal
This was after our down sizing in Trujillo. All of our gear
Peru has terrible plumbing in almost all accommodations. Nice or not. We had to get used to throwing the used toilet paper in the trash can.
Not the biggest rooms but it was worth the price. Doors had locks on them, showers were hot, beds were firm, what else can you ask for.
So to be safe, most of the time we slept in these things called cocoons we brought with us. Most of the beds we slept in, were somewhat questionable. So we tucked into these micro fleece liners to keep a layer between us and, well, we'd rather not think about it. But we can say these were one of our best purchases we made before leaving, hands down. This is Nancy trying to get out of her cocoon like a butterfly or something.
The homed garlic bread at the hostal
Fresh blended passion fruit or "maracuya" juice
We ate the hostel's home made crispy thin crust pizza's literally , 4 or 5 nights in a row! It was tasty and cheap!
This dude was crazy. As we were cruising the sand one day, this guy came running out of no where, yelling down the board walk from the houses, and sprinted right into a shore pound wave. In swim trunks too. The water was ice cold. It looked like he got the wind knocked out of him...He did this about 3 different times. Some kind of local ritual we guess.
The beaches weren't the cleanest we have encountered. Too bad because it has potential to be so pretty here. This is the trend we found across most of Peru we visited. Great potential to be such a beautiful place. But trashed and beat up. Majority of Peru needs a serious clean up.
If you look close you'll see the ancient reed boats they still make and take out to fish and ride the waves on.
The local LDS branch building we attended
Point of no return. The end of town.
Looking south over Huanchaco
Haunchaco peir & surf break
The streets were empty and quiet here...almost too quiet....
We got some good sunset action here almost every night.
Ryan's surf notes of Haunchaco break
We hope to get caught up this week with all the pictures and what not. We need show you all our pictures from Puerto Chicama, Cuzco, and Machu Picchu!
We are currently now in Brazil and loving it as Ryan works for two weeks in Macae. We plan to visit Iguazu Falls and a city called Recife, where Nancy's great uncle lives. Then we prepare for our next destination. New Zealand!!
We miss you all. We hope everyone is enjoying their christmas season. We miss all the festivities at home but are loving being overseas as well. Stay tuned!
