Out of the Chaos, Back on Track for Now...

Days have been passes haning barefeet off the end of wooden piers, dipping fishing line into the cool green water, as splintered, colorful boats bounce with the Peruvian tide. For the past couple of weeks finding steady internet access has been like looking for an In-N-Out Burger in Colombia, nearly impossible.At the moment I am in Pacasmayo Peru, waiting for surf. I am traveling with this French couple I met in the north of Peru. Currently we are at a surf hostel called Los Feroles. We are all staying in a room together. There is Ceceile, an aspiring student of medicine, who has the bed by the window. She likes poetry, romance novels, and bread. Paul, the other link in the french pair, is sleeping below me in bunk beds. I have the top bunk and he"s below me. Paul is a student of industrial design. He is only 23 years old, but he has traveled through India, all of south east Asia, Europe, and now South America. I just happened to meet these folks back at a town called Mancora. I happened to be heading in the same direction as they were and we thought we might join international communities and head south through Peru, as an American-French Triplet. When they first met me they asked where I was from and I told them California. When I asked them they said France, not Paris. They thought this was quite funny because I ddint respond saying the United States. They felt I should say the United States and not California. I tried to explain to them that California was a different culture from the rest of the united States and for this I feel as though I should tell people California and not the united states. They really get a crack out of this.

There is a small kitchen at the hostel. To relly save money I"ve been boiling my own water for coffee each morning and using the instant, stir in coffee. Then I might make a large bowl of rice and crack 2 eggs over the rice. this is breakfast. For lunch I might eat 3 or 4 tangerines, a can of tuna, and a huge bowl of pasta. For dinner, I "ll have a vegetable of some kind, bread, more rice or pasta, maybe some potatoes, and maybe some soup. everything is very cheap, very basic. People may laugh at such a simplistic diet, but each day I"m spending about 5 dollars on food, including maybe a beer or 2.

The hostel is one of the only ones in town. It has about 6 rooms. In this town the only tourists are surfers. So at this hostel the only occupants are surfers. The cost is 25 solas a night or about 8 dollars. So overall, one is able to maintain quite a cheap budget here. there are 2 dogs that run around the hostel frantically. 2 families live on the hostel. During the day the kids come out to play in the grass. I sit there with a book, or maybe I"ll be cooking or nappin. Currently, there are no waves. the first swell is bound to hit in 3 days. I dont feel motivated to wait it out, but the benefits would be mind-blowing. 100 yrds away is the beach. When you get to the beach you look out to your left. About a mile down the beach is the giant point that bends about a half mile out into the ocean. At the end of the point sits an old, archaic light-house. When the waves are good a set comes in and hits the reef on the outside of the point. The wave jacks up and breaks, and immediately turns into a mile long ride. The wave is a left. It is fast, chunky, and barelling. The bottom is perfectly flat. The sand dunes, from the cliffs near the beach continually blow sand into the ocean, filling in the holes on the bottom, making for a perfectly flat surface for the waves to form over.

At the moment, we are just killing the time until the swell gets here. With some books, guitars, ping-pong table, foose-ball table, and points of view from all over the world that make for some of the most incredible conversation, I think we are quite alright waiting here for the next swell to arrive..

written by

kipmaddog on August 31, 2009 from Pacasmayo, Peru

from the travel blog: adventures from down south

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I especially like this one. You are going to learn more from this trip than all the time you have been in school.............again, good for you for taking this venture. Isn't it great how much can be done with so little !

written by Rene'e Watson on September 21, 2009

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