I am writing the current post from El Cuartel, a small hostel/restaurant/bar in Lobitos, Peru. The funny thing about this place is that Ted and I are the only paying guests. The rest of the 15 or so people are all volunteers staying here. Ironically, we are also the only ones sleeping in a tent.

Lobitos is a unique place. Ted described it as a post-apocalyptic surfer’s paradise. I would describe it as Mad Max meets Endless Summer. Lobitos is an active military base, though you would hardly know it. Most of the “town” is abandoned cement buildings which are covered with artsy graffiti and nature-inspired slogans. As one Peruvian put it, it is sort of a triumph of nature over war. Many have turned the more usable structures into hostels, like our own. Add brightly colored paint, a few beds, some volunteers to work for free, and you have a surf hostel. The location couldn’t be better; a stone’s throw from a long white sandy beach in what feels like the middle of nowhere. If only there were some decent waves, it would be hard to leave!

However… though there are some waves, the locals told us there isn’t enough sand covering the rocks yet, so the wave doesn’t hold a good shape, and closes out or becomes mushy and soft. So despite the adventurous feel of this place lost in time, we may just head back to the hustle bustle of Mancora, the beach town an hour north where we just came from. We have been making our way up the coast since Punta Hermosa (and after quick trip to Cusco and Machu Picchu).

Punta Hermosa was a longboarder’s paradise. It is a popular destination for locals escaping the city of Lima for the weekend and also, as we later found out, the place to retire for rich drug lords. I would never have guessed that by the chill beach vibe; but I guess they must have mellowed out a bit. One hopes, anyway. The water there was cold and it was a long paddle out to the waves, but the waves back in were just as long. We stayed with a lovely Argentinian couple and their kids and enjoyed a few days of decent surf.

Our next coastal destination was Huanchaco, near the town of Trujillo. Huanchaco was a little bigger (the town and the surf) and seemed to have a more lively feel to it. Peruvians say that they have been surfing as long as the Hawaiians, and they traditionally used reed canoes called tonopes. We met lots of foreigners who were also there to surf, including a girl from Ireland and a guy from Denmark. While Ted and I were shivering and lamenting the loss of feeling in our limbs, they were cheerfully remarking how warm it was! All a matter of perspective, I guess.

After Huanchaco, we took the night bus to Mancora, which we thought was a pretty sleepy little beach town. We only spent the one night there before heading to Lobitos. Once in Lobitos, however, we heard that Mancora was where people went to party, especially the hotel Loki. We read some of the reviews of this hostel/hotel and they were pretty hilarious…all of them mentioned partying and little to no sleep, one said she got drunk and “accidentally” slept with an english guy, and another complained that security flushed their drugs down the toilet. So we decided to book the place for a week. Just kidding!!! We decided to stick with our tranquil hill bungalow with views of the surf.

So for now we will remain in Lobitos and hope for waves; if it doesn’t happen, we’ll head back to Mancora where we know there’s good waves for sure. And that will be our last stop in Peru… Monday we will head off to Ecuador and continue our search for killer waves and the perfect ceviche.

We flew into busy Lima, Peru, early in the morning and quickly learned most of the city was under lock down for the ongoing APEC Leaders’ Summit. The planet’s diplomatic big wigs were in Lima for the week, including President Obama. As a result, many of the streets around our hotel were closed for diplomatic traffic, and many businesses decided to close as well.  We still made the most of it and strolled past Lima’s many old churches, The Palaiso de Justice, and enjoyed the distinct flavors of this culinary capital: fresh ceviche, fresh cacao, and fresh coca leaves.

Since much of Lima’s City Centre was closed for business, we caught a flight to the city of Cusco, and began making our way to Machu Picchu. The former capital of the Incan Empire, Cusco is high in the Andes Mountains (just over 11,000 feet), and we could definitely feel the elevation change when ascending the many steps around the city.  We hiked to some religious monuments and a fourteenth century walled fortress, Saksaywaman, overlooking Cusco.

Two days later we to took a bus to the last stronghold of the Incan Empire, the small town of Ollayantaytambo (or Ollayanta for short). We hiked around an Incan granary nestled into the cliffside above the city, cruised the narrow cobblestone streets for Alpaca burgers, and early the following morning took the Peru Rail train to Aguas Caliente, the town closest to Machu Picchu.

The final step was a 30 minute bus ride up to Machu Picchu from Aguas Caliente. As amazing as the ruins were, the views from this very remote location were just as impressive. It felt like we were on the top of the world, with towering mountain peaks on all sides of us. Machu Picchu was a massive complex, and almost all of it constructed on an incline. We spent 3 hours walking through it, and probably visited about half of the complex. The other half was either being restored, or was off limits due to erosion. Many structures were only partially completed, and so it seemed to us like the Incans were still building and expanding when they were invaded by the Spanish in the 16th century. It’s incredible to think Westerners have only visited Machu Picchu for the last 100 years (it was “discovered” by Hiram Bingham of England in 1911). Most of the landscaping here was done by hungry llamas, and despite all of the other visiting travelers, it was still incredibly peaceful and serene.