The last of Peru

Wow, that's a long time to go without writing. It's been driving me a bit nuts, Nate and I have been cracking jokes that my brain is going to explode. One morning he's going to wake up and my head will have exploded only instead of brains and blood splattered everywhere there will be words splattered all over the wall and bedsheets.

We loved our time in Huanchaco, the cozy, laid back fishing and surf village.

Nate bought a surprisingly nice guitar for $30 in Bolivia, and it's been really nice for him to have a guitar along. We were browsing a lot of beautiful instruments in a store on a quiet street in La Paz and realized they had a few inexpensive entry level guitars.  It has quite a nice tone, and it was a happy impulse buy when we realized how inexpensive it was.  He's been playing it a lot, and our time in Huanchaco turned out to be quite musically dynamic. We met a really nice guy in his forties named Yannic, from Germany. Yannic drives a taxi in Munich and saves enough money living lean to take six months a year in a warm place, and he was living in Huanchaco for the whole six months. He's an incredible classical violinst with the most hauntingly beautiful improvisational style, and Nate and Yannic jammed really well together. It was so organic, with no discussion or cue it would evolve and build, trading off back and forth who would lead the improv. They discovered each other when our friends Austin and Whitney were in town. Austin is a classically trained guitarist who also spent a few months in Cuba studying Cuban jazz guitar.  Austin was positively giddy when he learned that since last seeing us at Inti Warra Yassi in Bolivia Nate had acquired a guitar. He was playing Nate's guitar when Yannic came along and pulled out his violin. They took turns jamming together. Austin and Whitney continued on their way to Colombia that night, and Nate and Yannic met up a few more times to play together. It attracted a lot of attention. The hostel backyard opened onto an alley, and the gate was open. Shy, quiet fishermen and kids would accumulate in the alley to listen, and at one point a very excited Argentinean tango guitarist joined us to take a turn on Nate's guitar. It was so cool...that guy didn't speak a word of English but it didn't matter at all.

Our surfing is now at the level that we can practice without  instruction, but we spend most of our time paddling and falling off the board. It's a discouraging stage in the learning curve, but it's still fun.

We actually stayed a couple days longer than planned in Huanchaco because I was suddenly much too ill to travel. What started as some classic traveler's belly escalated into a pretty miserable intestinal infection (now that's some serious fun, ugh). It was likely food borne, we were eating a ton of uncooked seafood in the form of delicious ceviche, although we speculate it was some barbecued chicken. The little local hospital put me on some powerful antibiotics, three days of injections and a week of cipro, and within a couple days I was well enough to travel and a few days later back to normal. We have certainly had more than our share of health issues on this trip.We caught a bus up to Mancora and spent a few days there.

Huanchaco is a fishing town first, and a destination for serious surfers, and it's really mellow. Mancora is Peru's number one beach destination, and it's a resort town with a real party vibe and  raucous night life.  The atmosphere was like night and day between the two towns, and Huanchaco was more to our liking, however the beach itself was far superior. Huanchaco's beaches are actually pretty rocky and there's lots of sharp things and urchins to watch out for in the water, it's mediocre for swimming. The water temperature is kind of cold too, most people wear wet suits while they surf.  Mancora had a much warmer water temperature and silky soft sand and it was an absolutely incredible swimming beach, with delightful waves to play in.  I was still not feeling totally back to myself and the antibiotics made me feel really weird so I was really low key.

More happy reunions occurred in Mancora. I was sitting on the beach under a rented umbrella reading, and Nate was out frolicking in the waves and I looked up just in time to see him dash through the water and high five someone.  Then moments later he did it again, high fiving someone else. Within five minutes he reunited with a guy named Christoph from Austria that was on our bike trip in Bolivia and also at our hostel in Cusco, and with Josh and Becca from the same bike trip and our hostel in Lima. Aah, the well traveled gringo trail. It's fun to see familiar faces, but at the moment in little-visited El Salvador we see very few tourists and it's a cool getting an experience undiluted by the tourist-commerce that dominates any well travelled place.

We said goodbye to Peru and took two long buses for nearly twenty four hours to get us up to Quito, Ecuador.