Rocky Bottoms and Sandy Tops

Although these could be cool names for exotic dancers, this blog is not about exotic dancers.

My first couple days in Peru were spent alongside the desert in a surftown called Mancora. After lazing at the beach for a while I decided I would go surfing. The main surfspot in this town is a point break. The waves break at the end of a small point and wash along the rocky bottom.

(enter Mancora)

Since it was late in the afternoon I decided I would put off surfing until the next day. Cheche, the Peruvian, really wanted to surf with me. He told me he had been in surfing competitions. He also suggested that the best time to surf was at sunset. He said that I should come with him and that I could rent a board for 10 soles. I wasn´t really doing anything so I decided to go along.

At the beach, Cheches friend ´Marco´ appeared with a board. I only had a 20 soles bill on me so I gave it to him. He told me I could surf as long as I wanted. I got out on the surf with Cheche and a few other remaining people. Not long after, the sun stepped off the horizon handing over the reigns to the moon. It was dark and I couldn´t see the waves very well. Cheche seemed to be having a good time. I was just struggling to catch a wave. It was then that my mind began wander. I remembered that sharks often feed at dusk and dawn. Its not likely I would encounter one but I started to get the heeby jeebies. I imagined a gigantic shark emerging from the depths coming up to chew on me. I fell off my board a couple times and quickly scrambled back on to avoid the phantom shark below. I decided to pack it in. I had only been surfing for just over half an hour but I couldnt see much so I couldnt really do anything. I paddled to the beach and sat down. Cheche and the others surfed for about 45 minutes more. ´Marco´ came over and I told him that I should be able to use the board again since I paid him 20 soles. He agreed and told me to come by and see him the next day.

(Phantom Shark in question: Watch this informative video for more details)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nzd0R_OeOc

The next morning I set out to retrieve my board from ´Marco´. I went to the hut that he told me he worked at. I went there and told them what ´Marco´ had told me.

¨Who is Marco?¨ they asked.

I half expected this as Peru had all ready begun with shenanigans. I described what he looked like and told them that he said he would let me use a board. They pòinted me over to another surf hut across the way and said that he might work there. As I began to walk over, one of the workers said ¨good luck¨ in Spanish probably thinking that i would not understand.



At the other hut, they seemed to know a ´Marco´ but he did not work for them. I was not going to leave until they gave me a board. There must be justice! Eventually I talked them into giving me board for free for a couple hours. When I was leaving I was hoping to run into ´Marco´ or Cheche because I was going to exchange some fun words with them.

(small swell during the morning)

Down south...

We arrived in Huacachina. Huacachina is in the land of sandy tops. It is a small town on an oasis in the middle of a sand desert. Spend a couple days there and you will brushing sand out of your clothes and hair for weeks.

We were here to sandboard and we would do this via a large dune buggy that frequently shot flames out of its exhaust. The dune buggy held about 10 people or so and I think our driver may have been bipolar. After launching off roller coaster-esque dunes it was time to sandboard.

The driver gave us peices of wax and told us to wax up the board or we will break our necks and go to the hospital. This was his thing. He got joy from trying to strike fear into his passengers. He would keep saying such things with a smile. I wasn´t buying it.

(driver in the center: okay, he was an all right guy)

Sandboarding is nothing like snowboarding or surfing. The skills dont really carry over. After securing my feet into the flimsy velcro straps I was off! I fell flat on my ass. People were bailing all over the side of the dune. My feet kept falling out of the straps but I eventually made it to the bottom of the dune. I blame the straps.



The other method was to go on your stomach (face first) and launch down the hill. I did this for the rest of the day.

Apparently another fun thing to do in Huacachina is to take a couple hours to push your bike to the top of a dune in the sweltering heat to realise that it wont work in the sand.

¨This is going to be way awesome¨

¨I wonder if bikes work in the sand...¨