I remember talking about my trip to Peru this year and mentioning I would be volunteering at an NGO in Lobitos after my time in Lima, and I remember no one having any idea about where Lobitos is. Now I know why. It’s in the middle of nowhere. No restaurants, markets, bars, stores, traffic lights, and they there’s a population of about 1200 people. They have a beach with world class surfing. This doesn’t mean much to me yet because I only get to surf the baby waves, and even those are rough here.
I arrived on June 6th to an empty volunteer house, besides the two guys working here at the moment.Sidetrack for a second. My adventure getting here went as follows. 6 am flight from Lima, so its my first time flying in a counnty on my own where I don't speak the language. So naturally, I want things to go as smoothly as possible so I get up at 2:45am, in the cab at 3 on the way to the airport. For those of you who know about the traffic situation in Lima, it doesn't exist this early in the morning. I arrive at the airport at 3:25am for my 6am flight. They aren't even letting us check in this early only 15 minutes before the alloted check in. Once they do I get through fine and arrive at the gate, which is still unknown, its gate 1-7. The plane ends up leaving about a half an hour late, with no announcement of course. AND it makes a stop halfway without even telling us until we are leaving the gate. Only in Peru... So ya. Went from the capital city of Peru living in a house with 9 friends and some local friends, to a town with only cold showers and corner stores. My days here are not so “9-4” anymore. Instead I get up around 7 everyday, Tuesday Wednesday, Thursday I help teach English at the school across the street and afterwards I work on random projects (if there are any) and if not I just “chill.” We eat lunch each day at the house of one of the local people, this way, families can earn a little extra money, we get fed, and we get some interaction with the locals that we otherwise would not have.
Last Wednesday another volunteer, Casey, arrived. She’s from California, and she’s come to teach a couple surf classes. So Wednesday and Thursday of this week we’ve got all girls surf classes, and on Friday there’s a boys class. Lobitos is a town dominated by guys. All the guys we see around town are surfer guys, and the girls are mostly pregnant, or with children at home. So this surf class is awesome because it’s going to get the girls in the community excited, hopefully stoked on surfing, and it’ll give them something to do after school in their own backyard. The organization I’m working with WAVES for Development, uses surfing to get kids out and about utilizing the waves in their own backyards to surf. Without it they wouldn’t have the resources to do so. Volunteers also set up their own personal projects that help benefit the community in some way.
Next Monday (June 20th) is international surfing day! Its based out of the states of course, but they are promoting surfing and also keeping the ocean clean. So they’ve sent us a bunch of surfing swag and we’re doing a beach clean up at a nearby beach that is filthy because of the pollution to the ocean from the surrounding town.
I’ve had my first real food poisoning/ traveler’s sickness experience here. It was horrible, not getting into details.
So to make up for it Casey and I went to the town of Mancora for a night. It was awesome. This lovely surf town is situated about one hour north of Lobitos. It’s such a happening place, known for its partying and beaches. We arrived there Saturday afternoon, first thing we did was eat at the most gringo restaurant we could find which happened to be called “Green Eggs and Ham.” Oh the comforts of home. Afterwards we strolled around the markets, and of course went to the beach. The next day we were up at 7, after a visit from some friends of ours getting home at 6 in the morning, and we went surfing. Well we tried, but we had been told they opened at 7 or 7:30. We were there at 7:45 and literally nothing was open… no surf huts, not restaurants, no stores. We wandered the town a bit and realized on a Sunday of a party town such as this people generally had a late start. We didn’t have to wait too long and found something open at 8 for breakfast. So by 9:15 we were in the water catching our first waves in Mancora. We got lucky and caught a ride home with some friends, who then had us over at their hostel in Lobitos where we had some disgusting sandwiches they insisted we eat and afterwards we watched some surf videos.
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