Our next bus adventure was from Máncora to Trujillo, Peru, a coastal city just shy of our beach destination: Huanchaco. During the 20-minute taxi ride from Trujillo to Huanchaco, the fishing and surfing (and hostelling) hamlet was obviously much more our speed.

It’s cool in the morning and evening, with blazing sun solidly throughout the day. During high tide, the Pacific Ocean laps right up against the sidewalk, exposing a just-wide-enough beach when it recedes. The water is pretty cold, unless you’ve got on a wetsuit, say, for surfing lessons.

Our budget-friendly hostel was just okay enough with a beach-front location and easy walking access to everything else, including Otra Cosa, a vegetarian restaurant (and hostel) where we indulged in a massive post-bus breakfast before lolling on the beach all day. Across from the beach, the street is lined with Cevicherias which offer a pre-fixe lunch “menú” including a small ceviche, a main dish (usually fried fish with some rice and salad) plus a soda for 10 soles. That’s just under $4. We decided it was as good a time as any to brave the ceviche, and so far it seems to have been a-okay. After lunch we were back on the beach to watch the late afternoon surfers and catch an over-the-ocean sunset (a pleasure for any East-Coaster!).

For the second (and last) day in Huanchaco we thought we’d stroll over to a surf shop just to see how much a lesson might cost. Before we knew it we were squeezing into wetsuits and walking down the street with humongous training surfboards (well, the teacher carried Laura’s). He absolutely guaranteed we’d be able to stand on a board within 10 minutes in the water, and we both did! Some of the credit goes to the thicker, lighter surfboards meant for first-timers, but we both had a blast, even when falling like idiots in the waves. Even though we’d been planning a fancy dinner the next night in Lima, we couldn’t have thought of a better way to spend our first anniversary.

That night we boarded the Plaza Hotel of overnight busses (with Holiday Inn prices). The Cruz del Sur “Crucero Suite” nine hour service to Lima. The wide, leather seats lay almost all the way back to a bed position, there are built-in personal TVs, WiFi, a stewardess, and snack and drink service. With the help of a little Tylenol PM we both slept soundly, ready for our next destination, and the last of the overnight busses through Peru. Tomorrow, we fly to Cusco.

Here’s where we were:
(Huanchaco, Peru)