07/07/2019 – Mancora, Peru

We had our alarms set early with hopes of the waves being good enough to surf. We got up and strolled down to the beach point where all the surfing takes place, where we met our instructor Pilar. The waves looked good so we got warmed up, got into our shorties and into the water. The waves were just under 2 meters according to Pilar, which seem massive when you look at them from lying on a board! Josh was with Carlos, the same instructor as yesterday and I with Pilar again. When I was asking about her experience with surfing she told us she had been national champion a couple of times and had traveled the country with her sponsor, I think she has a fair bit of experience under her belt! She is an absolute unit, and all the surfers in the water seem to know who she is.

Jen, Pilar and some locals.

We spent an hour in the waves, which was absolutely exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. At one point I got caught in the wash of a set of waves in the shore and absolutely slam dunked around, crashing into the sandbanks and into the board, and ended up being rescued by Joshs instructor Carlos – who picked up my board and told me to run ashore whilst we waited for the sea to calm down again before we got back out there. There were a few jellyfish out this morning too, I think we all got a few stings here and there (Josh takes it back and says they can’t be the Portugese man of war jellys he originally identified them as!) Some of the surfers were so mesmerising to watch, dancing around on their boards, with little children sitting on the front of boards, surfing seems like a second nature to the locals. We got back ashore and walked back to Laguna for a shower and then a scrambled eggs breakfast. We relaxed in our room as it was slightly overcast and we were absolutely knackered! Then we packed up, paid up and got a mototaxi tuctuc to our Las Bugambillias homestay. We got settled into our room before heading to town for some lunch and coffee. The day was still overcast so we decided to go back to our room and relax whilst watching the Peru vs Brasil football match. We walked up to the lighthouse and watched the sunset before finding a pizza to share for dinner.