Final Day to Ourselves

Because I again was not successful finishing my part of the project, I had to finish it Tuesday morning. After the boring breakfast, I sat poolside and finished the last part of the paper. I was under a time constraint as well; we were headed back to the beaches of Huanchaco on our last free day in Peru.

We were supposed to leave about noon, and that was about the exact time I finished. Everybody else was a little behind schedule as well, so I finished with perfect timing. There were ten of us going. We crammed into two taxis (they charged one sol extra for the extra passenger) and had them take us to lovely Huanchaco.

I may have already mentioned this, but Huanchaco is regarded as the best surfing beach in Peru. The current is strong and the waves are tall. When we went the other day, the sun was displayed on a beautiful azul background, giving more surfers courage to surf the chilly winter waters. Today was not as idyllic. The common ocean mist filled the sky, creating a gray haze that only allowed the sun to peer through a translucent curtain. The temperature was still fairly warm, but the ocean water was not as inviting as it was when the sun shone.

Our first goal when we arrived was to find some place for lunch. During our wanderings, we found nooks with stores like the ones in Cuzco, so we did a little window-shopping. I found shirts that made for my final purchase of souvenirs; because of my business, the business owner gave me a simple bracelet, which may be my favorite purchase of the trip. We decided on a place and were seated up stairs with a view of the ocean. The place was nothing fancy, although the prices were a little exaggerated because of the touristic location. I ordered chicarron de pollo, which may be my favorite dish of the trip. We all shared a jar of limonada, which has become a beverage staple, along with Inca Cola and wonderfully sweet Coke Cola.

The rest of us sat on the beach and played in the water. Brennon and I were jumping waves and skipping rocks (but the rocks were too flipping small to skip!). The beach was not as fun as I thought it would be. As I said before, the push and pull of the water is very strong, so the waves easily pushed us over. The beach had good sand, but when tide pulled the sand away, the ground was covered with rocks that grew larger the deeper you waded. My baby feet got used to it eventually, but I could feel the rocks picked up by the waves crash into my legs and ankles; if I bruised, I would have a large one on the right side of my left ankle. It was fun just messing around. The farthest we waded out was accompanied by the biggest wave we went over, which scared the crap out of me. I felt useless against the force of the wave, and I was afraid of getting carried away by a rip current. I don’t know if Brennon felt the same way, but we both had the same idea to swim back towards the beach.

Another time, I had bad timing when going through a wave, and it threw me against the ground, rolling me on the rocks and scratching my back. It drug me a significant distance back on-shore, and that was when I decided to just stay in water up to my knees. Shannon and Erin were also on the beach with us (Alex was ill, so he volunteered to watch our stuff), but they didn’t get in the water as much as Brennon and I did. We stood on the shore, letting the water splash our feet and feeling the sand sucked out by the water from under our feet. With the next waves, the water would pull more sand from under us then fill in the hole on top. The tide buried our feet, and we competed to see who could stand longest against the strongest waves.

Once the ocean got the best of us, we meandered back to find the others. They were just about finished, except for the Kodak moment, so some of us found a taxi to take us back to the hotel. I was finished with the paper, but I wanted Nate and Shannon to read through it, so we met to help me fix the errors I had made. They showed me the PowerPoint- their part of the project- and assigned me my part of the oral report.

The girls all went out for dinner again, so we stayed behind with the initial plan of ordering a pizza and watching the NBA Finals game from our room (it was on the Spanish ESPN channel, but it was in English!). After some reconsideration, Nate, Brennon, Tyler, Cooper, and I taxied to Chili’s at the mall to take advantage of the S./15 dinner special and the large TVs.

We chatted and watched the game; I don’t like Lebron or Miami, so I am cheering for the Spurs, who I normally do not like. The Heat had started a comeback while we were watching, but by the time we got back to the hotel to finish the game, the Spurs were back on top. The girls came back to finish the game (well, only Aniko, Shannon, and Erin came to the room), and they were cheering for the Heat. Sadly, after Ray Allen forced overtime with his crazy corner three, the Heat won game six, making all the Miami fans turn on me. My life is unaffected either way, so I don’t really care, but I think its funny.

This last day with everybody was really enjoyable. I love our crew, and I hope we won’t just fizzle out, even though that’s what usually happens. I packed my bag for the last time on the trip, reflecting on the good times and wishing I had just one more set of clean clothes (I did have one last pair of G’s, so it was ok).