(4) Escape the Jungle; to Ocean Desert

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That afternoon I got on a train up outta the jungle. I had used my laptop computer to take photos so there was at least some evidence of my journey. (My only camera the iPhone 5 had had been taken from my board shorts on a bus in Peru. The beginning of my unattachment to materialism.)

I went back to Cuzco and saw the world in a different light. An artist student sold me a painting of Machu Pichu with a condor, snake & puma. The puma symbolizes ferocity. The condor is Power. The snake -my chinese astrological sign- signifies mystery.

MYSTERY... Its about the mystery of ourselves and the world(s) seen & unseen around us. Its about the unknown. The random chances we take in life, who me meet and fate. We roll the die. This was my year -2013 the year of the snake. It has an inner strength.

FEROCITY is important because it recognizes our inner power and what we come forth with when we need to. Its the savage within. The word in Hawaiian is "Makaha". The outward strength.

POWER from the condor relates to an all knowing knowledge. Its a wisdom gained from vast experiences and relationships. The condor has this because he sees all from above. He flies the world.

It was with wiser mellower eyes that I went back to Lima. I took a bus north from there in search of epic waves.

Off the bus ride I linked up with a few others who were traveling. There were 3 girls and two guys from Europe who were on exchange in Lima. We went north and found desert and ocean. Hot land. cold ocean. A blazing juxtaposition to the senses: Desert and Pacific.

A Peruvian friend had told me of a wave about an hour by tuktuk out of Pacasmayo to dodge the crowds and get a heavier wave. I was in paradise again. As we rocked down a dirt road through desert we reached a point with no more than 8 houses. There was a left point that reeled in front of some rocks and blazed down the line.

I put my wetsuit on and scurried out like a kamikaze crab. It was just the three of us. It was epic.

The next day I caught the longest ride of my life. I took off far out in the lineup and kept hitting the lip the line and cutting back. There was a bird flying with me and I was zoning out. After a couple minutes my legs started to burn! The wave had lost power but was still going. So I rode it into the beach and walked almost 20 minutes back to paddle out again.

The next day I visited the jewel wave of my journey: Chicama.

The pace was different; the air was cool. The town is called Malabrigo : the port of bad cover.

The wave itself is the longest lefthander in the world. I had already surfed a long wave, now I was getting more plus a third less people out and an alien land that looked like Mars.

SURFTRAVEL TIP #4 when you find a nice place: Stay a while if you can.

I had a room with a hot shower and ocean view for 7 bucks a night. Breakfast of tamales orange juice and cakes cost $2. I was reading & writing in the peace and quiet while I wasn't surfing. Thus begins the finale of a mystical journey that I had always wanted to discover. I was beginning to feel the global mind and community were behind me.

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