Patagonia

Ben: “We left Lima and travelled through small coastal towns. We found some not-so-beautiful-looking restaurants but with beautiful people and beautiful food. A large two-course meal plus a jug of juice would cost only three dollars. We took a bus north, and after 10 or 12 hours we arrived in Huanchaco. The scenery through Peru is amazing. The outer suburbs of Lima look like square sandcastles, block-like buildings all stacked on top of each other. They are called ‘pueblos jovenes’.”

Laura: "We travelled alongside an undulating desert-scape for many hours. At moments you could see glimpses of this bright blue ocean, amongst the towering sandy-coloured mountains.”

Ben: “And pumping left points with nobody in sight. It didn't feel like it was real. Of course, there was also the typical chaos along the roads, with tuk-tuks, buses and people on bikes.”

Laura: “Everything was so dry and dusty, but as we approached the towns, we were surprised to see thriving gardens and fields of vegetables, owing to the irrigation systems that were created thousands of years ago by the ancient Chimor civilisation.”

Ben: “Huanchaco is a super welcoming and charming little town with a lot of local tourism. It's a very consistent surf spot, with a succession of roughly five reefs – five lefts – that form a long point (although they don’t connect) and finish with a beach break of rights and lefts. It rarely is all-time, but it's fun to be there and enjoy the Peruvian way of life. Nearby are the ruins of Chan Chan, a pre-Columbian city built by the Chimu People. The Chimu people were skilled engineers and craftsmen, and their civilisation was known for its architecture, innovative irrigation techniques and pottery, metalwork and textiles. They worshipped the moon and the ocean and were also highly skilled fishermen who used unique watercraft.”

Laura: “The ancient ways of fishing using the ‘caballitos de totora’ are still practiced today in Huanchaco. The caballito de totora is a one-person watercraft constructed with reeds. The fishermen either kneel or sit with their legs hanging either side, the front scooping up to a long point, forming a huge rocker. Sometimes they stand on them too and use a long piece of bamboo as a paddle. To have kept these ancient traditions alive for all this time is amazing. Paddling out early in the morning, the fishermen would drop their nets, return for a few hours and head back out again to collect them, hopefully full of fish for their community.”

Ben: "It's been said that caballitos de totora are the origin of surfing, but not from a recreational point of view, more from a functional wave-riding point of view. Ceramics have been discovered in the ruins that show the Chimu people using the caballitos de totora almost like standup paddleboards, some surfing, some sitting and riding waves. It is believed that the concept of wave riding comes from Peru, almost 5,000 years ago."

Ben: “In fact, we were lucky to attend a small local festival that was celebrating 5,000 years of surfing in Peru, put on by a group of old surfers who celebrate and share the history of Peruvian surfing in the community. This year they had Felipe Pomar who was the first ever surfing World Champion in 1965. He is also a big advocate for surfing until the age of 100, and still charges 15-foot surf.

“They held the festival in Pacasmayo. It's a really cool town. There's a good pointbreak that's probably two-and-a-half kilometres l​​ong and it handles really solid swell. It's not necessarily lining up super well every day, but you get some mega rides with big walls. They held a surf comp as part of the festival. I gave it a go and got to the second round, which was good enough for me. The real highlight was being surrounded by the local surf community, both young and old, all having a whale of a time.”

Laura: “We moved on after the festival and ended up in Chicama. Wow, what a cool place. No big swells came through; it was shoulder-to-waist-high the whole time, but it was so much fun. Some mornings we had the whole of Chicama to ourselves. It was incredible, but my gosh, it was also very windy. I don’t know how the longboarders did it, but we were pushed and pulled by crazy gusts of wind even with our shorter boards. With our eyes squeezed shut to avoid the harsh blasts of sand we would walk barefoot to the furthest point, which is called The Cape. It’s a very rocky shoreline so it's a great way to toughen the feet and then strengthen the shoulders with all the paddling. I got the longest waves I've ever had in my life.”

Ben: “It can be a really fast wave, and you can pass the day just doing laps. The first day we were so excited, we walked 32,000 steps chasing wave after wave, lap after ​​lap. We had to pause for lunch at one point, so we kept our wetsuits on, slapped on some more sunscreen, shoved down some food, and then went back out again. We were so excited to be there. It’s a real eat, surf, and sleep place. There’s nothing else to do.

“We met a small bunch of really fun surfers, including a salty sea dog named Wayne from Ocean Grove who’s been going there for many years. We also met another ​​lovely Aussie guy named Will who makes beautiful wooden chairs. We did a beach cleanup together, which was pretty hectic in the strong wind.”

Laura: “Then it looked like there was no swell for a while, so we decided to mix things up by leaving the coast. We went to the Peruvian Amazon jungle in the Tambopata National Reserve. It was everything, from intensely beautiful to way too hot and sticky, like someone had wrapped a winter's blanket around us in the middle of summer with no escape.

“To avoid being eaten by crocodiles, we went with a little tour group and had a wonderful guide named Pepe. We explored the area on foot and in small canoes across three lakes. We saw giant river otters. They grow up to two metres and can weigh between 20 and 30 kilos. They are actually on the endangered species list, mainly because of river contamination due to mining in the area and over-harvesting of fish.”

Laura: “The Tambopata National Reserve has some of the largest levels of biodiversity in the whole world. It’s all bright blue skies and then you head into the jungle and it’s dark, steamy, dense and musty. We saw many black caimans. They would drift past silently as we sat in low-lying canoes, the only parts protruding above the water were their eyes and tips of their bony armour.

“One of my distinct memories is the sound of the red howler monkeys. One male can mark his territory with a howl that reverberates all around you. It can be heard up to five kilometres away. We saw massive tarantulas on a night walk, that looked even hairier and more frightening in the lights of our head torch. We were surprised to learn that they can live up to 25 years.

“We didn't see any snakes hanging from trees, like I imagined we would. Instead, we saw an anaconda, whilst drifting along on a very low-lying canoe on Lake Condenado. It would have been six metres long. We’d been quietly moving into a swampy area of the lake, when Ben yells out, ‘Anaconda!’ and there were gasps and shouts from us all. Pepe thinks that he must've been underneath us, and we had disturbed him. He was just starting to slither away. If you can call it slither for such a big thing. But he – or she – was seriously massive.”

Ben: “The anaconda’s body was much bigger than the thigh of a rugby player. We were just in awe. We had a lot of time to take it all in because it was so long. You could only see part of it as it was moving over a log protruding out of the water. Our guide was so excited, he kept trying to edge the canoe further into the reeds in the direction of the anaconda. We were just thinking, ’Um, what are you doing?’ He hadn’t seen one in three years.”

Laura: “Obviously when you hear about the Amazon jungle, you think about logging, you think about how hectares and hectares are being destroyed every day. I thought it was mainly logging and deforestation in Peru, but that tends to happen more in Brazil. In Peru, yes there is logging and it used to be a big thing, but then gold mining exploded in the last 20 years. They log trees to be able to access the area, but gold mining seems worse because of the mercury that's used as part of the mining process. Mercury can be absorbed into your skin, and it goes into waterways and is absorbed by the fish and river animals. Everything and everyone are being poisoned at the same time. It's destroying the forest flora and fauna. A lot of it is illegal.”

Ben: “So that was Peru for us. It was one last stop in Lima with our friend Jano, where we took it to the next level with food before leaving for France. We’d visit the markets in the morning, cook in the afternoons and enjoy the delicious dishes with Jano and his friends in the evenings. It was an absolutely beautiful way to bring our Peruvian trip to a close.”