Perfection in desolation. Where sea and sand, cliff and clime combine sublime. Where the lithe and lissome come out to play. Bodies most tanned and toned, taut of torso, beach boys, babes, bums, combers and drifters. Some grizzled, with parched shoulders and bleached locks, the old-timers. Chicama, north Peru, surfing nirvana. The longest 'left' wave on the planet. Up to 2.2km, on the rare occasions when the gods oblige and stars absolutely align. Set just beyond the southern fringe of scrubby little dust town Puerto Malabrigo (pop. 5,000), at the edge of what seems a never-ending ugly, stony desert. A fleet of big, ocean-going fishing trawlers anchors off a long, spindly trestle-dock. Smoke belches 24/7 from 10 processing plants set at the northern, rough end of town. Fish-meal factories. But it is outside the large headland
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