Huanchaco, Peru

A bus ride from Lima to Trujillio, which lasted about 10 hours, brought us here. In Trujillio, the bus stopped quite far out, so we walked with a group of women towards the city on the side of the road.

At a roundabout, the oldest lady unexpectedly flagged down a taxi and made the driver understand that he should take us to the bus that goes to Huanchaco. Full of trust, Iris and I got in and the wild ride began. The taxi driver shouted at another minibus driver to stop while driving. 'Quickly' we jumped out of the taxi and hopped into the minibus that took us directly to Huanchaco. We quickly found TatosHouse where we will stay for the next few days or week to help out in the hostel.

The first night was very pleasant. We have our own room with a very wobbly bunk bed and a bathroom right next door. Our door is where laundry is dried, and there are a few sacks of building materials and a sink in the nice little courtyard. From here, you can also go up to the rooftop, which is not yet nicely prepared, but it has the potential.

It's very cold in South America, around 18 degrees every day. Here in Huanchaco, at least we can see the sun and it's much warmer during the day (26°) than in Lima.

The first day at TatosHouse started with yoga on the rooftop and a lukewarm shower. Coffee and cigarettes, a typical European breakfast followed.

Iris and I checked the cleaning supplies and cleaned up our new bathroom. Now it shines like new.

Bread, butter, and bananas - they taste delicious, we enjoyed them for breakfast. Fully strengthened, we went to the beach. Wow, the water is full of surfers and the beach is full of people. It feels good here, we can stay!

A walk through the city to get an impression is a good way to start the day. The hunger lured us back to our accommodation - on the way, we stopped by the mega small supermarket across the street where we bought quinoa, vegetables, and juice.

After eating, we took a short nap because there is a party in the hostel tonight - yea, TatosHouse is celebrating its one-year anniversary - we definitely came at the right time!

Iris and I get along very well, most people think we are sisters. It's pretty funny when we talk about our plans, our motto is 'vamos avere que vamos hacer'.

Huanchaco is great! We enjoy every day and start the morning with coffee! Before that, we clean the whole hostel until we have time to relax again. More or less, it already feels like home here. The people here are very nice and also really funny. The guys who own the hostel also love to chill and take life very easy.

Last week, we took two trips. Once we went to Chan Chan, an ancient Inca city, Jacki shared this beautiful experience with us.

A few days ago, we went sandboarding with the guys from the hostel. That was really fun. Four boards and seven people, first we climbed up the dunes - phew, it's exhausting..it got pretty hot during the hike, it's unusual to stand on a board in these temperatures! Yes, once we reached the top, the boards were properly waxed and we started riding down! After about 100 times up and down, the fun was over, the guys took a ride on the boat across the small lake while we rested in the shade.

On the way back to Trujillio, a car was pulled off the road and all seven of us squeezed inside, hehe it worked! The nice young man played extremely loud reggaeton music (yes, you hear this music everywhere here, will we ever get this beat out of our ears again??? Mpadupa mpadupa)

After another meal and a small city tour in Trujillio, we took a microtaxi back to paradise!

The evening was marked by party reggaeton, lots of young people, and a lot of alcohol! Yes, everything turned out fine, but maybe we are already too old for such parties? Or maybe not? At least we're not giving up on trying.

The next day - yes, you can probably imagine - classic 'hangover day'

Mmm delicious street food, which is quite cheap - grilled meat skewers, giant croquettes shaped like a potato filled with meat, egg, and olives - for dessert, 'arroz con leche' (rice pudding with a delicious sweet layer of corn something).

After that, we fell into bed exhausted.

This morning, cleaning went quickly - we already have a routine! Then we started a trip to the city. A shaky bus ride of about 20 minutes and we were already in Trujillio. We walked through the streets and ended up at a large market where you can buy almost anything you can imagine, fruits in all imaginable colors and shapes, meat, clothes, watches, food, fruit juices, and of course, you can also have your shoes cleaned - just like almost everywhere here.

We passed a flea market, hundreds of street vendors, and finally we had something delicious to eat - milanese menu, which was Schnitzel with fries and rice!

After more fun parties at the only outdoor club (Janpix), we have settled in here really well! The guys from the hostel are very nice and have become something like our friends! One of them is going to Cusco in the next few days, so we will probably stay here for another ten days.

Yesterday we had our first surfing lesson, we do it every day now, so Huanchaco gets better every day! After cleaning everything today, doing some yoga on the rooftop, enjoying delicious porridge, we are now getting ready for our second surfing lesson! Yes, in a week, we will surely be quite good, we have talent! Both of us have already surfed on a wave for at least 5 seconds (at least on white water). Now it's time to build up muscles and paddle as hard as we can.

Progress is being made here at the hostel too, we paint new paintings on the walls every day and create a dream hostel in our minds.

Our motto is 'I have never tried that before, so I'm sure I can do it and it will be great,' as a wise woman before us said - Pippi Longstocking!

August 12, 2016

We are still in Huanchaco - yes, you read that right! Juan, one of the guys, is going to Cusco for a week, and so that Tato is not alone, we will stay a while longer. We have also made progress, from next week, there will be no more cleaning, we will only paint here at the hostel - they see us as real artists, which is really good for our self-esteem.

In our free time, we go surfing every day, we're getting a little bit better! It's a dream come true for me, since I can remember, I wanted to learn to surf, and now it's finally happening. We lie on surfboards that are still about twice as big as us, well actually much bigger than Iris, and the giant pelicans fly over our heads.

We also juggle on the beach every day, yes we can do that together too, we try acro yoga and sing along with the great guitalele (which my soul sister gave me as a travel gift).

Of course, funny people also come by regularly. For example, there's a man who wears a blonde wig, has balloons stuffed in his breasts and buttocks, and screams 'chicas' with a very high voice. There's a very spiritual-looking young man who likes to join us and sing songs with us, countless surfers who walk past us, and not to forget a middle-aged man who became our 'ball boy' and proved to be a funny companion - with beer, singing, and making faces!

Today, we go to bed early because tomorrow we already have a surf lesson at 8 am - we're gonna rock the early waves!

We feel very comfortable here and our plan to make a travel plan on the beach is working out - since then, we have 1000 new ideas and plans every day of how to move forward! But as I said, we let ourselves drift and see what adventures await us!

The last days in Huanchaco were marked by sh*tting. I got really sick and Iris took very good care of me. That's why our departure was delayed for a few days, which was good - now it's all sh*tty 😉 When I recovered, we took a long walk on the beach, we saw flying fish, a half-decomposed dead sea cow, and a dolphin that had been dead for some time. One last time, we drank some beers with our guys, Juan, Pedrito, and Tato, and Tato accompanied us to the bus the next morning.