Heading south down the coast
After a few days in Mancora, we returned to Huanchaco to pick up some things we left there (tent, sleeping bag) and visit with friends. It was really nice to return to a familiar place after all our travelling and run into people we knew just walking down the beach. Huanchaco may be dusty and give you diarrhea, but there is definitely a supportive community vibe of international travellers that makes you feel welcome. We only stayed one night and were able to fit in a few hours of surfing (or I should say trying to remember how to surf…but the waves were much gentler than in Mancora and we had bigger boards, so we were catching the waves until sunset) and spending time with David and some other locals we know. All of the volunteers from our “era” have gone back home or moved on, as we have just done.
We are now in Lima, getting our bearings and preparing for heading further south. We lost our only Nalgene a long time ago and need to find another one for our water purification needs. Buying bottled water gets expensive and it’s such a waste, especially here where litter is such a problem and plastic recycling is almost unheard of. Best to just not be a consumer of plastic and stick with one bottle. The only place we didn’t drink the tap water was Huanchaco, but that’s because it tasted horrible. I need to find another shirt and we plan to leave a bag of some things we can live without for the next few months and lighten our load as we plan to do some camping. I can’t get a hold of Effie’s cousin (I think she’s in labor probably) so we’re probably going to join South American Explorers, who will store our luggage for free and are an amazing source of information.
Matt’s feeling much better and we’re recovering from our sunburns. I’m already overwhelmed by Lima’s people density and noise and am ready to head south to see some mountains and canyons.