Heaven in Huanchaco

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Huanchaco is this beatiful little beach town filled with surfer dudes and great restaurants that serve up amazing ceviche (spelling?....raw fish, a peruvian speciality).

I spent two and a half days in this blissful littl town and really enjoyed it! The first evening I met a very scatty irish girl who was volunteering in Trujillo and had come for the night life. We got some beers and sat on the terrace of our great hostal before making it out to the evenings entertainment at a bar on the beach with a live band, to which we boogied the night away.

The next day we firstly made our way to the beach for some sun worshiping, then met up with two other volunteers for brunch (also very nice girls). I tasted cerviche for the first time, and it was sooo good! Then we went back to the beach to enjoy the sun, sea and sand. While we were there one of the girls students (Andy) appeared. Andy is a local from Huanchaco and turned out to be the sweetest guy. The girls all made they´re way back to trujillo for work the next day so Andy and I hung around. As we chatted I discovered he made sandals and his cousin sold them in a local store. Naturally very keen to buy some peruvian sandals, we went to see what they were like, as you can imagine they were pretty nice sandals as I ended up buying 2 pairs for 60 solice, wich is rounghly 17 pounds....AMAZING! I then made plans to meet Andy later so he could teach me to make a bracelet, and that he did. We sat with beers on the beach making this bracelet and chatting away, Andy also played a few tunes on his peruvian flute, very romantic, just a shame I didnt fancy him haha. We then got quite drunk, and headed to the store where I bought the sandals from, and Andy dissapeared for 2 mins only to reappear with guitar in hand. We sat and played (badly), I even broke out in song for a bit haha. I stumbled home about 1 in the morning agreeing to meet Andy again the next day....it was such a lovely evening!

The next day Carlos (the hostal receptionist) had offered to teach me how to surf, so slightly hung over, we went to hire me some gear and off we trotted to the beach. Carlos spent a good hour, firstly warming up, explaining how to surf, then showing me how to stand and commensing to tell me off because I was doing it wrong. After this we FINALLY made it into the water where Carlos said (repeatedly) you need to be ready, always ready! He also said something like, "we´re not going to rest until you stand up". So, the wave came, I was ready, I paddled hard with my hand, and to my supprise stood up on my first wave! Woo HOo haha, and very smug, swam back to Carlos to rub it in...good times. I managed to catch about 12 waves in total, apparently thats really good for a first timer (im not so sure) but it was great fun. The only down side was when falling in, the waters were shallow and full of rock, which resulted in bruised hips, ancles, wrists etc....but worth it!

I then went and meet Andy again (and was late as usual) and we just chilled on the beach, chatting, we went swimming and the waves were huge at this point! I then made my way back to the hostel as Id made plans with Scott and Steve (2 guys from America) to make our way to Cajamarca that night.

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