Surfing and Salsa
Now that my body has (hopefully) become immunized to the Huanchaco bacteria and the weather is warming up, I’ve decided to give surfing another try. The first time was really frustrating. I was shivering under my wetsuit and sick. I didn’t understand the enjoyment when 90% of my time was spent paddling back to the ocean, fighting the current and the waves. It’s a lot of work just to (maybe) catch a wave for 10 seconds. But, Matt’s been going pretty often and we get a discount on lessons and rentals from Un Lugar…so I thought I’d give it another go.
So now I’ve had 3 lessons and it’s much more fun.
Juan Carlos is the teacher, he runs Un Lugar Surf School and has a LOT of energy. Sometimes it’s overwhelming because I spend all my energy paddling back to the ocean and as soon as I reach him, it’s “This wave’s beautiful, start paddling and catch it!” I can’t complain, I’m getting my money’s worth. But it is exhausting! When Matt and I go alone, we take lots of time to relax on the surfboards (mainly because we’re learning how to read the waves). It’s fun to try to catch the waves on my own, but I don’t really catch as many as when I’m with Juan Carlos (sometimes he pushes me into the wave to give me speed). Right now my little cheat when I’m alone is to place myself right in the crash zone so I don’t have to rely on my wimpy paddling skills. Then the wave crashes and I either catch the wave or the wave catches me and I’m thrown off the board. I’m still on the big soft longboard, so it floats very nicely. I’m standing up no problem; I just need to learn how to paddle into the wave. I’m already feeling my ex-circus muscles waking up. Our discount with the school is great (because we’re volunteering with Otra Cosa). For a set price (about $80) we get 6 2-hour lessons and unlimited use of the boards and wetsuits, forever. So if we come back to Huanchaco in a month, it’s cool. If we come back in a few years, it’s cool. Impressive since to have ONE lesson in Hawaii, it’s $155 for 2 hours. I refused to pay that.
Another plus is that Juan Carlos provides free surf lessons, board rentals and wetsuits to the children in Huanchaco who can’t afford it. He’s training some of them to compete in surfing competitions to show them a different route in life. And he has a green parrot named Maria, who laughs and says Hola; we’re becoming friends.
We’ve also had our introduction to dancing. We’ve been to La Barra in Trujillo twice now. It’s one of those all night discotecas. I have a hard time staying up past 11pm and this weekend we were there until 5am! I think if I have an activity to do, like dance, I can stay up past my bedtime. Salsa seems to be the most popular dance style here (good thing Matt and I took some classes! Now we need to just relearn all the steps). David, the head of Espaanglish (where Matt teaches English), LOVES to salsa. I’ve danced with him a few times, and it’s lots of fun. He’s teaching Matt some funky new turns. I learned Cumbia, which doesn’t sound like salsa Or merengue. Cumbia has more horns and I can’t do it very well. I really enjoy dancing salsa so far. I forget how much fun dancing is until I’m in the environment. I’m lucky that Matt likes to dance and that we’ve taken so many classes together.
So…that’s where most of our free time has been besides sleeping. We move on to a new project in less than a week!