Passion et Liberté: Surfing the coast from Peru up to Ecuador

In life you have to be what you actually are. Also for me this doesn't work out always and people start to live lives they are not. This couple of weeks when I made these pics where awesome, living the surfer lifestyle with a fellow surfer from California, Tom. Well, I met Tom in Cusco, Peru, in the mountains. He was surfing the coast from Chile up to Ecuador and hitting the Galapagos Islands. So, after I had enough snow and hail in the Andes I joined him. I had weeks of some surf, many wipeouts, I almost drowned once (seriously, no joke), we made loads of partying, had beers with the mates, respect for the Ocean, and more party, party, and met lifetime friends. :)

The first stop I had going north of Lima, Peru was Puerto Chicama, also called Puerto Malabrigo. It has the worlds largest left hand wave and I came when the swell was building up, meeting Tom, Paden, Clement, Zach and loads of other great folks. The distance from 'the point' to 'the pier' at Chicama is about 2.2 km, which locals confirm has been ridden on a single wave, although the whole cape upon which the waves break, to their most westernmost end, is 4 km long. So, on a good day it's fun time! :)

There's nothing really going on in Chicama, but we made party wherever we went. Hehe.

The wave. When you get out, you have to walk at least 20 minutes or more to get back to the point.

The water is cold, and I learned a lesson to always bring your own wetsuit and leash. My leash got entangled on some rocks, the waves where pounding me and I started drowning. The leash was warn-out and I couldn't find the tag to open it up (it was gone). So I started drowning. Tom and the local surf guru came to help, but in the end the leash broke and I lived another day. :) It scared the shit out of me.

We stayed at El Hombre, a true surf hostel with the view at the wave. Actually, El Hombre exists in person, and he is the real Kahuna of the place. He is a Peruan surf legend and is always sitting in his chair, greeting surfers and watching the waves.

El Hombre and we.

We.

Clement from France and Tom from California, eating the big green bean-like fruit. Well, at that point we didn't know how to eat it.

There are plenty of surf spots around like Huanchaco and Lobitos. We made our way up to Mancora, the surf and beach party spot on the northern coast of Peru and then entered Ecuador and settled in Montanita.

Huanchaco

The main street in Mancora

Mancora at low tide, the waves were gone but breaking on a small part more right. Don't get me wrong, there where some huge swells arriving and Puerto Chicama was perfect. Tom had some nasty waves down in Chile, and then again, Galapagos was huge up to 4 meters. But when they are gone, you walk around, have some smokes..

..and watch some dogs getting stuck while having sex.. :)

Well, if you want some hippie lifestyle and if you want to be around thousands of Argentinian hippies, go to Montanita, Ecuador. It's full with artesania folks and it has some waves at certain times of year. At the time we were there there where some waves, but chaotic and small.

Montanita, Ecuador

Need to wait for bigger days..

The main street in Montanita, full with artesania and some street food and street cocktails.

Montanita, Ecuador. It's nice to stroll around. Literally everybody does some artesania, handicrafts and they are really goooood.

Montanita has a jungle beside it too. Tom and I went for a hike, and a goat was following us for two hours trying to have sex with us (I'm not joking, it was fuckin' weird). The rest is up to your imagination. :)

The local market in Montanita.

Here's some corn..

..and some streetfood. This is Montanita ceviche. Everything is raw so it has to be fresh. They add some black mussels to the fish and calamari. It's for the strength of the special part of each man, they say. :) They cut it open like this and pure in the flesh and the black juice.