The MOST BEAUTIFUL DAY!

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I woke up around 9am from a car alarm going off and opened my window to see a bright blue sky, a blue-green ocean, and white sands. WOW, I´m already psyched we decided to head here a week early!

I walked into town to trade my american dollars for Peruvian Sols at the local bank since I was tired of running a tab with Braden. I found la Banco Nacional and got a 2.84 exchange rate. I was headed back to the hostal when I saw Braden on the deck of a neighboring one...he said it was only 20 sols a night and had the same stuff minus the pool as the place we were currently at. So we headed back to our hostal, packed up shop, and moved into the new one. The room I was put in irst had 2 bunk beds...I asked for a room with a "cama grande" and was moved to another with a full sized bed, private bath, and only 15 sols a night!

We threw our suits on and headed to the beach for breakfast. After breakfast they went and traded in money while I updated everyone on facebook. Afterwards we all headed to the beach. I was down for getting some sun, Braden went for a run, and Raya went shopping for a sarong. It was SUPER windy today and you couldn´t just lay on the sand without getting sand on, in, and around you the whole time. After perusing the beach for kitesurfing lessons (I actually found a 10 hour course for 450 sols...super cheap!) I eventually found a reclining chair near a bar and used that...although I ordered had to order a 6 sol beer! Eventually Braden and Raya turned up around 3pm and we grabbed lunch at a pretty pricey Tex-Mex place. The food was really good.

After lunch we ran into some Danish guys we met in Montañita last week who had taken kite surfing lessons already who said they paid around $40 US/hr for lessons...hmm, that didn´t sound right. I headed back to the place that I saw the 10 hour lesson for 450 and asked if it was dollars or sols, they said dollars! CRAP! I guess I´m not doing my 10 hour course after all...that is way too pricey. Braden and I grabbed surfboards for a 2 hour rental (it was already super low tide, but the break still looked surfable)...needless to say there was no good surfing, and what there was - the locals were stealing. I called it quits after about an hour.

While Braden was still in the water I found a kitesurfing place that offered daily rentals of kitesurfing gear for 180 sols - not a bad deal. I wonder if I can just rent the gear and teach myself. Nobody was there yet, so I went back to join Raya on the beach until Braden was done "surfing."....he was having about as much luck as I was at catching waves the locals were stealing. He called it quits about 10 minutes after me.

While we were hanging out on the beach, I popped back into the kite place I was at earlier and talked to the guy there. He said he couldn´t rent me the stuff because I hadn´t learned the safety stuff yet...BUT if I was quick and picking up board sports, I could probably be ready in a 2 hour lesson where I will learn the safety aspects of riding as well as water time and launching/relaunching. It´ll be 270 sols, so about $45 US per hour. He said I have a jump start since I know how to fly the kite already (from my trip to NC multiple years ago), so I could possibly be good to go after the 2 hour lesson.

We ended up going out around 8pm to the strip to olook for a place to eat. We ran into the Danish guys and they suggested the steak house, so we thought what the hell. For drinks we ordered the house special which was Baracuya Pisco (kinda like a kiwi/passionfruit with pisco, whipped egg white, and amaretto) which was pretty tasty. Braden and I ordered the surf and turf with a sirloin steak and shrimp while Raya just ordered mashed potatoes. The steaks were a little tough to cut but were cooked perfectly and the shrimp were amazing. Raya said her potatoes were the best meal she´s had in south america! To total cost for everything was about 40 bucks...not bad for 2 surf and turfs and a round of drinks!

After dinner we headed to Wahoo Bar for a their specialty drink, the PainKiller! It was pretty good, VERY strong and tasted very tropically with coconut. After our drink there, we headed back to the hostel and popped into Rudy´s place for dessert...he said he was making in fresh that morning. We got there and tables were already stacked on chairs and they were already closing up. He saw us and had a table prepared for us for dessert. We all had warm apple pie and ice cream...afterwards Rudy bought us another round of pisco...looks like I´ll be drinking a lot of this stuff while I´m in Peru.

After dessert we headed back and called it a night.

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