Peru
Instructor
Country
A new day, a new country (number 8 now) and yet again more border drama. All was going well until we had a few issues with people who had manual Ecuadorian stamps, rather than electronic ones. Even though it was a computer input error it was, according to the officials, completely our problem and not theirs. The logic they attempted to dazzle us with beggared belief. Luckily Pete was on hand to sort the officials out and smooth everything over - hopefully Rogs and Kirsten are up to the challenge for dealing with the remaining countries. Once all the palaver was dealt with, we headed for a beautiful beach camp in Punta Sal. The sand was soft and silky, while more importantly the ocean was extremely swimmable - happy days!
A few of us popped into the next town, Mancura, in order to try our hand at surfing. The motto of all the surf schools over here is "If you do not stand, you do not pay". The lesson was unlike anything back home that I've come across. You get your own personal instructor who wears fins and together you paddle far out into the ocean. The instructor then chooses a favourable wave, makes you turn and while you paddle like crazy, he kicks his fins and propels you onto a massive wave. He then securely steadies the board so that you can safely get to your feet without it flying off to one side or flipping up in the air. You easily get to your feet and then whoosh he lets go and you are on your own. It is totally cheating but an amazingly good giggle as you get a wee sample of how much fun surfing could be (if you are good enough). I definitely didn't manage to ride an entire wave to shore, as my balance and equilibrium is atrocious. However I did get up quite a few times and stayed teetering for long enough to impress myself and feel totally exhilarated by the whole thing. If I had any notion of continuing the sport though I would need to do a major workout on my upper body strength, my arms were slightly fubared the next day from all the paddling - could not raise them above my head, and even waving proved difficult. Plus, don't get me started on the bruising on my hip bones and the tenderness on my ribs - the latter discovered the next day when I tried sunbathing in the sand, ouch!!
We had a lovely BBQ on the beach, an early leaving do for Pete. Seeing as we are chilling out here for a few days, it gives him ample time to recover (if necessary). Steve, who for the past week had been gathering pics of Pete off everyone, displayed a fabulous farewell slideshow - had us a little bit teary-eyed. Rogan then decided that much merriment was called for so we tried our hands at beach limbo and a game called 'Pick Up the Box' which involved picking up a cardboard box on the sand with just your teeth, and it got progressively smaller and closer to the sand after every round. We discovered that Pete is more flexible than he lets on, and that Francois and Sue are the most flexible overlanders on the trip.
I'm sad to leave this beach heaven, could happily stay here and do naught for another week. I know however that there is much more to see so let's bring on Huanchaca and see what it has to offer.
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