Reed boats made and used by the locals for fishing in Huanchaco



Chan Chan ruins







Buildings in Trajillo around the Plaza de Armas



White Celebrities




Huanchaco, Peru
Well, luckily we stumbled upon the Brissard sisters eventually, just in time to sit on a patio overlooking the ocean, and drink some cervecas. We had a great time in Huanchaco, it was so relaxing, and such a cool little surf town. We made friends with lots of locals, so that was cool. We took some surfing lessons, from Carlos and Tito one day. I found it way easier than when I learned in Aussie land last year, I guess it is like riding a bike, you just pick up where you left off. So we surfed until we could paddle no more. The water was really shallow where the waves break, and the bottom is covered in rocks, so it hurt every time we wiped out, all of us were mopping up our wounds after. Our instructers were showing off their 360's, we weren't quite there yet. The next day we went out to some pre-Incan ruins, of the Chimo's, called Chan Chan. It was really neat, my first taste of ruins down here. They were built in the 15th century, a huge complex out of mud, and surprisingly, they still stand. We wandered around, baking in the desert for a while, then caught a collectivo to Trajillo, the city a few kms from Huanchaco. We went to some little cafe for lunch and ordered some hamburguesa deluxe, which turned out to be a hamburger bun with a fried egg, piece of lettus, and a quarter of a neon pink weiner, not quite what we wanted, but still good. There is a ton of colonial architecture and cool building to see in Trajillo, so we walked around a bit more after lunch. We then sat in the Plaza de Armas, the city centre square, and were celebrities. We were approached constantly by locals asking to have their photos taken with us, or just to sit and listen to us talk, or stare at us. We made a bunch of friends sitting there for hours, with a huge circle of people around us, it was so weird, I felt like a star. The next day we rented surf boards and tried to go by ourselves, without much luck, we got pummelled into the rocks many a time, then decided to just work on our tans. Our new local surf bum friends took us out for a night on the town in Trajillo that night. They turned out to be rather sleezy when they drink, confessing their true love for us. We escaped eventually after Danielle was groped my multiple men at once on the dance floor, and I put one in a head lock. So that was an interesting night. We did go to a Latin dance show, which was cool to watch. Our last day in Huanchaco there was a national surf competition on so we hung out on the beach and watched for a while. They were pulling out some pretty cool moves, it was a really neat atmosphere, with DJ's pumping music out all over, cheerleaders, anouncers. Each surfer gets 20 minutes in the water to try and show off their moves, then they are scored on 3 waves. I toured the second oldest church in Peru last evening, in Huanchaco. The curator even took me up into the bell tower, up this creepy, dark, steep stairway barely big enough for me to pass through. The view was amazing, as the church is perched on the top of a hill overlooking the town and the beach. I watched the sun set from the bell tower. There was a man up there, tied in, banging the bell for an hour during sunset. Then they shoot off fire works from the church each evening. We borded a very tight econo class bus last night, and just arrived back in Lima this morning.