Well, I did something no one (including myself) ever expected me to do...
I surfed!
I woke up hot, sunburned and covered in sand, looked up at the bamboo ceiling and thought "This must be what it feels like to be a surfer. If I was in Hawaii, I´d try to surf............WAIT! I'M IN PERU!!!!" And thus started a very excited morning! Claudia and Thomas (the Germans I'm traveling with, for those of you not keeping up) agreed and by noon, we were at the surf shack on the beach asking about lessons. 40 soles each (about US$13) for an hour and a half. Upon realizing that in Canada or the states, that would run maybe $50/hour, we jumped on it and soon we were in the water. We spent maybe 10 minutes on the beach practicing how to stand up on the board, then paddled out (FYI: paddling is one of the most exhausting things I've done in my life). I rode 3 waves!! Successfully! It's actually really, really easy to stand up, too- my teacher shouted "Stand up!" and I shouted "Ah, I can't!" but then I did, somehow, and managed to keep my balance the whole time until I was almost at the beach. The only reason I would bail was because I was getting too shallow to continue, and I'd say that's a pretty good first try!
So basically I'm learning to surf now. I'm going to try to go out today and attempt to do it on my own. Now that I know how to stand, I think the rest is mainly just figuring it out as I go along; how to read the waves, how to do little tricks, whatever. When I get back to Canada I'm going to try to head over to Tofino on Vancouver Island and do it some more before winter hits...I actually wish I had come to Mancora in summer (November-April) because the surfing is supposed to be great. Ah well, next time!
And so with this I bid you a´deau, I believe my next stop is Huanchaco, about 8 hours South of here, which I´ll head off to tomorrow some time. Hasta luego, paz y amor :)
