I just returned from my first weekend trip in Peru and boy, what an adventure (I figure I'll be saying this a lot so please bare with me)! I decided to fly solo this past weekend and I caught a cab to a nearby surf town called Mirflores. I arrived and immediately headed to the beach to check the surf. It seemed like the waves were firing so I rented a board for around $8 and surfed my heart out for 4 hours straight.
Feeling pretty hungry and tired, I asked a local surfer, named Ito, where I should eat. Instead of a simple answer, he offered to show me himself. So, I paid for his lunch and Ito gave me a grand tour of Miraflores. The tour ended at his apartment where I met all of his surf buddies: Peter, Juan Carlos and Gordito Fira (which translates to Little Fat Failure, seriously thats what they call this dude). We relaxed and talked about waves in Peru. It turns out that most of these guys live in a town called Trujillo, which is very close to the one of the longest wave in the world, Chicama, talk about networking.
Around 8 or 9pm I began to hint at returning back to Callao, but they insisted that I stay. They reminded me that Callao gets more dangerous as the sun goes down, so I stayed. After that we decided to take a stroll around town and we witnessed all types of strange in the streets. We watched fire dancers, drum lines and graffiti artist put on a free show.
¿Did I mention while we were watching the entertainers I was being followed by a man who was a blatant transvestite? He was relentless. He called me "el Rojo" because of my jacket and eventually we had to run a couple blocks to escape his unmistakable gaze. After having plenty of typical conversations with these surfers, I realized that all guys express themselves in the same way when it comes to girls, waves and beer, no matter the language.
Finally we returned to the apartment to prepare for bed and a early morning surf session. Once inside, I realized that there was only 3 beds and 4 people to sleep in them. So, there I was, sleeping back to back with my new friend Ito, sneezing my ass off because of all the dust in the room. It had to be one of the worst sleeping experiences of my life (dogs howling in the apartment next to us, club music blaring, nothing to drink, sleeping next to a stranger on a twin mattress, you know, that whole thing), but WOW, what hospitality! I sat up plenty of times during the night with the thought, what the hell am I doing here, but I made it out alive and had a great surf in the morning.
I returned to Callao later that day to grab some more money, but this is what I managed to buy with 100 Soles, which equals around $35:
- 20 Minute taxi into Mirflores
- Surfboard rental for the day
- 4 "Microbus" rides
- A bit of this and that
- Small pack of cigarettes
- Rolling papers
- A bag of cheesy poofs
- Ice cream cone
- 3 meals
- 2 bottles of Coca-Cola
- Lollipop
- 20 minute taxi ride back to Callao
On my way back to Callao I suddenly realized that I left my wetsuit, my one prized possession down here, in the back of Gordito's car (Gordito happened to be a Taxi driver), which made me pretty nervous. This triggered a brand new chain of events, but that's another story.
Bye for now,
Derek
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