So we went down and found the manager of service (Jose Luis Romero) for Sur Motors in person today. Since we had been trying for so long on the phone and it went no where. Anyhow, he let us know that the 2 people who ran the office/phones/desk for service had been fired. He didn't go into details about it. But it may have had something to do with them taking Friday off when the boss wasn't around and me making the front desk operator go back and check on them. It likely also was because these sorts of problems were common when they worked there and many other people were unhappy.
So he called Hildemeister in Lima on the spot. They said that they may be able to send it to Arequipa tomorrow. So we're supposed to call him again tomorrow to confirm that it was sent from Lima. They are hoping that everything will be fixed by Tuesday. Either way we've bought our tickets to leave Tuesday night. So if it is late, it will have to sit in the shop for a few more weeks. We told him about this today and he said no problem, they have lots of room and the place is safe. He also assured us that there would be no charge for that.
I'm still not letting him off the hook completely. Just because those other 2 people (Jose Peraltilla and a woman secretary) were idiots doesn't excuse him. He is still the boss and has the responsibility for hiring them.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
Problems With Sur Motors In Arequipa
So I took my car into the shop on June 23rd to have it looked at. I went to Sur Motors which is a well known shop in Arequipa and was supposedly professional. It also is affiliated with Mapfre Insurance. They tell me that they will call when the diagnostic is done and before doing any major repairs to get my approval.
After a few days, they still hasn't called me. So I had to call them. They asked that I come into the shop. They didn't want to tell me any information or what the problem was over the phone. Very confusing and strange. So I take a cab and go all the way across town to meet them. They explain that the pressure test on the cooling system went well (no problems) and that the brakes have been cleaned (no major work, just stop the squeaking). Then they explain that the reverse doesn't work and it is a transmission problem. But since I have an automatic transmission, they have to send it to Lima (Hildemeister) to have it repaired and then sent back to Arequipa where they can reinstall it. They quoted me $1000 for this work (shipping, fixing, returning, etc). They also said that it would take 10 days to have the car ready to go once we gave them the OK to do it. I asked about just buying a new transmission and they quoted me a price of $3000. So the choice was fairly simple.
10 days wouldn't be so bad. I had guests coming to visit, but we could do without the car for a bit. After those 10 days there still was one weekend when they would be in town, so we could take a road trip or something. We agreed to the 10 days and $1000 fix it in Lima solution on June 27th.
10 days later, July 7th, we called to see how things were going. But they told us that the transmission was still in Lima and they didn't know anything about it. They said they would call Lima and see what was going on, then call us back. July 8th passed and they never called us.
July 9th comes and we call them again. They tell us that the transmission will be shipped to Arequipa on Thursday July 10th and then installed in the car on July 11th. They say that we should be able to pick up the car on Monday July 14th. So there goes our weekend road trip plans.
We call on Thursday July 10th for an update, but they won't let us talk to any one in charge of service. They tell us that they will have someone give us a call in a few minutes. No one ever called.
Friday July 11th rolls around and we call them again to see if the transmission arrived and if it is in the process of being installed like they said. The reception lady answers and then transfers us to service. This happens 10 times, each time I sit on the phone for 3-5 minutes with no answer. I spent over 30 minutes calling them and not being able to speak to anyone in service. I finally call back and tell the lady that I keep getting hung up on and that I need to talk to someone in service but no one is answering the phone. It's Friday at 3-4pm so it's right in the middle of operating business hours. I ask to talk to the manager/boss of Sur Motors and she tells me that he's on vacation until Monday. Finally the reception lady leaves her desk and goes into the garage to talk to someone herself. She comes back and tells me that the transmission hasn't arrived yet and it should arrive on Monday July 14th and then be ready for me to pick up the car on Tuesday July 15th.
Tuesday July 15th rolls around and we call back again. We ask to talk to the manager of the service, but they tell us that he's out on medical leave. They tell us that the transmission hasn't arrived yet and it should get there on Thursday. I can pick up the car on Friday July 18th.
We call today Friday July 18th (3 weeks after agreeing to $1000 and 10 days to fix the transmission). We ask for the manager of service again (Jose Luis Romero) but we're told that he's in a meeting. So we ask for the manager of Sur Motors (Brian Chavez), but we are told that he has a different schedule and doesn't come in until 3pm. Finally we ask the guy at the service desk about an update on the car. He says that the transmission won't be shipped back to Arequipa until Thursday July 24th and that we might be able to pick the car up on Friday July 25th!!!
So our 10 day estimate is now at minimum a month wait. At no point in the process did they ever inform us of what was really happening. They just made up things hoping that Hildermeister in Lima would get done and ship back the transmission soon. They never called us at all, after promising to over 3 times. We always had to call them and then were often not allowed to talk to people and given bad information. They always had an excuse for not letting us talk to someone in charge.
------------------------------------------------
In 12 years of car ownership in various parts of the US and Peru, I have never seen a less professional mechanic shop than Sur Motors in Arequipa, Peru. I've never felt so jerked around, deceived, and lied to by a car dealership and service department. They make a bad name for Hyundai.
After a few days, they still hasn't called me. So I had to call them. They asked that I come into the shop. They didn't want to tell me any information or what the problem was over the phone. Very confusing and strange. So I take a cab and go all the way across town to meet them. They explain that the pressure test on the cooling system went well (no problems) and that the brakes have been cleaned (no major work, just stop the squeaking). Then they explain that the reverse doesn't work and it is a transmission problem. But since I have an automatic transmission, they have to send it to Lima (Hildemeister) to have it repaired and then sent back to Arequipa where they can reinstall it. They quoted me $1000 for this work (shipping, fixing, returning, etc). They also said that it would take 10 days to have the car ready to go once we gave them the OK to do it. I asked about just buying a new transmission and they quoted me a price of $3000. So the choice was fairly simple.
10 days wouldn't be so bad. I had guests coming to visit, but we could do without the car for a bit. After those 10 days there still was one weekend when they would be in town, so we could take a road trip or something. We agreed to the 10 days and $1000 fix it in Lima solution on June 27th.
10 days later, July 7th, we called to see how things were going. But they told us that the transmission was still in Lima and they didn't know anything about it. They said they would call Lima and see what was going on, then call us back. July 8th passed and they never called us.
July 9th comes and we call them again. They tell us that the transmission will be shipped to Arequipa on Thursday July 10th and then installed in the car on July 11th. They say that we should be able to pick up the car on Monday July 14th. So there goes our weekend road trip plans.
We call on Thursday July 10th for an update, but they won't let us talk to any one in charge of service. They tell us that they will have someone give us a call in a few minutes. No one ever called.
Friday July 11th rolls around and we call them again to see if the transmission arrived and if it is in the process of being installed like they said. The reception lady answers and then transfers us to service. This happens 10 times, each time I sit on the phone for 3-5 minutes with no answer. I spent over 30 minutes calling them and not being able to speak to anyone in service. I finally call back and tell the lady that I keep getting hung up on and that I need to talk to someone in service but no one is answering the phone. It's Friday at 3-4pm so it's right in the middle of operating business hours. I ask to talk to the manager/boss of Sur Motors and she tells me that he's on vacation until Monday. Finally the reception lady leaves her desk and goes into the garage to talk to someone herself. She comes back and tells me that the transmission hasn't arrived yet and it should arrive on Monday July 14th and then be ready for me to pick up the car on Tuesday July 15th.
Tuesday July 15th rolls around and we call back again. We ask to talk to the manager of the service, but they tell us that he's out on medical leave. They tell us that the transmission hasn't arrived yet and it should get there on Thursday. I can pick up the car on Friday July 18th.
We call today Friday July 18th (3 weeks after agreeing to $1000 and 10 days to fix the transmission). We ask for the manager of service again (Jose Luis Romero) but we're told that he's in a meeting. So we ask for the manager of Sur Motors (Brian Chavez), but we are told that he has a different schedule and doesn't come in until 3pm. Finally we ask the guy at the service desk about an update on the car. He says that the transmission won't be shipped back to Arequipa until Thursday July 24th and that we might be able to pick the car up on Friday July 25th!!!
So our 10 day estimate is now at minimum a month wait. At no point in the process did they ever inform us of what was really happening. They just made up things hoping that Hildermeister in Lima would get done and ship back the transmission soon. They never called us at all, after promising to over 3 times. We always had to call them and then were often not allowed to talk to people and given bad information. They always had an excuse for not letting us talk to someone in charge.
------------------------------------------------
In 12 years of car ownership in various parts of the US and Peru, I have never seen a less professional mechanic shop than Sur Motors in Arequipa, Peru. I've never felt so jerked around, deceived, and lied to by a car dealership and service department. They make a bad name for Hyundai.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Ordering A Dell Desktop In Peru, Beware!
I just went through yet another horrible experience here in Peru.
I've been shopping for a good new computer for a couple years now. I wasn't able to find a price I liked or a company that I was confident with. So I never made a purchase.
Recently Dell opened a Peruvian version of their website which allows many of their computers and monitors to be purchased in Peru (but not accessories). I was really excited by this as I had used Dell in the past (in the US) with good results. So I got my computer setup with their website and all the parts and options I wanted no problem. There weren't any warnings and everything looked good. The price ended up being around $2500 and $2700 after 'Shipping and Handling'. Great, so I sent off the order.
Everything in the US worked well and the machine was built, tested, and sent out on time. The estimated delivery date was June 6th after ordering on May 15th.
Problems started once the machine got to US customs. Dell used DHL as their carrier and that was a major mistake. Dell also did not provide me or DHL with the proper customs documents (In Spanish). And it took a week to get Dell to provide them.
But most of the real problems came from DHL. They stalled and bumbled almost every step. They asked for me to fill out 4 documents, then after days passed, I had to fill out more documents, then it just continued. They didn't seem to know anything about dealing with Peruvian customs. I had to fill out over 15 different documents, many of them multiple times because DHL did not provide any sort of instructions. In the most extreme case, DHL rejected my document because it had the word 'monitor' in it. They claimed that this was not in Spanish and told me to resubmit the document in all Spanish. Of course 'monitor' is a valid Spanish word and DHL just failed high school. This sort of thing happened repeatedly over more than a month. If I requested an update or information about how things were going, I often didn't receive a reply or only got it after a delay of 2-3 days.
I had worked with FedEx on various occasions in the past. I always had to fill out paperwork and such, but they always sent me the entire set of documents on the first try. Not like DHL sending a couple documents every few days for weeks on end. Also DHL often wasn't clear about what they wanted and when I asked if they were waiting for me to provide more info or more documents, I often didn't get a response as days passed.
Then came the money issue. I had already paid Dell $190 in 'shipping and handling'. Dell's documents and website indicated that I would have to pay 'customs duties' and nothing else. But then DHL demanded that I pay them over $1000 for customs. Only $600 of this was for the real Peruvian customs. $150 was a 'commission' paid to DHL. Another $250 was shipping, storage, paperwork fees, and 'general expenses'. I complained to DHL about it and they didn't have anything to say. I called Dell about the problem and they told me that their computer system was down 'all day' and that I would have to call back later.
I finally paid the outrageous and poorly explained fee. This could only be done in BCP and when I asked about paying by credit card they only replied to me with their bank account # and bank name. With FedEx I was able to just pay by credit card over the phone, simple.
It took another 2 weeks for them to finally get the machine through customs. Then one day DHL called me and said that I needed to pay an additional $800 in expenses beyond what I had paid before. I asked why and they just said that I could read the paperwork when they brought it to the house. They said they would deliver everything in the morning of that same day (call was at 8am). Their driver didn't show up until after 2pm.
Then the paperwork was just a huge mess of multiple documents with different charges and no where to really see it all in one place. So I had to sort through it all, standing outside my house for an hour. Finally after multiple calls to the Arequipa office for explanations and reviewing the documents, I figured everything out. They were charging me ANOTHER $150 'commission' without explanation. They were also charging me more shipping, storage, and 'general expenses'. When asked why, they just said 'more expenses beyond what we charged before' pretty much no explanation at all. I finally just paid the fee just to get things over with and get my damn computer that they had been holding hostage for over a month. The final delivery day was June 22nd, almost a month late.
I had to pay the driver for DHL in the street the last $800. He could barely do the basic math needed to make change (took over 20m). He also could not provide a proper receipt so I had to make due with him signing and dating a piece of paper with a pen.
I contacted Dell Support about these problems and they just said that they didn't know anything about it. They said they would 'take my comments into consideration in the future' but that was it. They didn't offer to help with the problem or remedy it in any way.
So anyhow, I unpack everything and get the computer setup. The monitor and desktop work great. But I'm careful to check the voltage requirements on all parts. This is when I find that the speakers only support 110 V. Why would they send me brand new 110 V speakers to Peru? They should know that Peru only uses 220 V.
So I contact Dell support again. This time they tell me to talk to tech support. So I contact tech support, after a few exchanges they tell me that they cannot do anything and I need to go back to Support. I contact support again (getting upset), and they tell me to just get a converter from 220 V to 110 V. I say that this is their mistake and that they should have to at least pay for my converter, but they reject that. They say that Dell does not carry any 220 V speakers at all, for any country. So I ask them to make a big warning on their website so that this doesn't happen to more people and suggest that they start to find some 220 V speakers as Peru is 220 V only. They say they will 'take my comments into consideration'.
So yet another problem with Dell that they cannot resolve. I know that they just entered into the Peruvian market, but I still expected them to do things correctly and not fuck everything up like a Peruvian company.
I will never again use DHL and certainly will never use Dell International sales again. The whole process was a massive frustration and was full of over $1800 in 'hidden charges'. If it isn't fraudulent, it's about as close as you can get. If anyone has a lawyer who is experienced in Peruvian customs and shipping laws, I am looking for one to investigate DHL's 'hidden charges'.
I've been shopping for a good new computer for a couple years now. I wasn't able to find a price I liked or a company that I was confident with. So I never made a purchase.
Recently Dell opened a Peruvian version of their website which allows many of their computers and monitors to be purchased in Peru (but not accessories). I was really excited by this as I had used Dell in the past (in the US) with good results. So I got my computer setup with their website and all the parts and options I wanted no problem. There weren't any warnings and everything looked good. The price ended up being around $2500 and $2700 after 'Shipping and Handling'. Great, so I sent off the order.
Everything in the US worked well and the machine was built, tested, and sent out on time. The estimated delivery date was June 6th after ordering on May 15th.
Problems started once the machine got to US customs. Dell used DHL as their carrier and that was a major mistake. Dell also did not provide me or DHL with the proper customs documents (In Spanish). And it took a week to get Dell to provide them.
But most of the real problems came from DHL. They stalled and bumbled almost every step. They asked for me to fill out 4 documents, then after days passed, I had to fill out more documents, then it just continued. They didn't seem to know anything about dealing with Peruvian customs. I had to fill out over 15 different documents, many of them multiple times because DHL did not provide any sort of instructions. In the most extreme case, DHL rejected my document because it had the word 'monitor' in it. They claimed that this was not in Spanish and told me to resubmit the document in all Spanish. Of course 'monitor' is a valid Spanish word and DHL just failed high school. This sort of thing happened repeatedly over more than a month. If I requested an update or information about how things were going, I often didn't receive a reply or only got it after a delay of 2-3 days.
I had worked with FedEx on various occasions in the past. I always had to fill out paperwork and such, but they always sent me the entire set of documents on the first try. Not like DHL sending a couple documents every few days for weeks on end. Also DHL often wasn't clear about what they wanted and when I asked if they were waiting for me to provide more info or more documents, I often didn't get a response as days passed.
Then came the money issue. I had already paid Dell $190 in 'shipping and handling'. Dell's documents and website indicated that I would have to pay 'customs duties' and nothing else. But then DHL demanded that I pay them over $1000 for customs. Only $600 of this was for the real Peruvian customs. $150 was a 'commission' paid to DHL. Another $250 was shipping, storage, paperwork fees, and 'general expenses'. I complained to DHL about it and they didn't have anything to say. I called Dell about the problem and they told me that their computer system was down 'all day' and that I would have to call back later.
I finally paid the outrageous and poorly explained fee. This could only be done in BCP and when I asked about paying by credit card they only replied to me with their bank account # and bank name. With FedEx I was able to just pay by credit card over the phone, simple.
It took another 2 weeks for them to finally get the machine through customs. Then one day DHL called me and said that I needed to pay an additional $800 in expenses beyond what I had paid before. I asked why and they just said that I could read the paperwork when they brought it to the house. They said they would deliver everything in the morning of that same day (call was at 8am). Their driver didn't show up until after 2pm.
Then the paperwork was just a huge mess of multiple documents with different charges and no where to really see it all in one place. So I had to sort through it all, standing outside my house for an hour. Finally after multiple calls to the Arequipa office for explanations and reviewing the documents, I figured everything out. They were charging me ANOTHER $150 'commission' without explanation. They were also charging me more shipping, storage, and 'general expenses'. When asked why, they just said 'more expenses beyond what we charged before' pretty much no explanation at all. I finally just paid the fee just to get things over with and get my damn computer that they had been holding hostage for over a month. The final delivery day was June 22nd, almost a month late.
I had to pay the driver for DHL in the street the last $800. He could barely do the basic math needed to make change (took over 20m). He also could not provide a proper receipt so I had to make due with him signing and dating a piece of paper with a pen.
I contacted Dell Support about these problems and they just said that they didn't know anything about it. They said they would 'take my comments into consideration in the future' but that was it. They didn't offer to help with the problem or remedy it in any way.
So anyhow, I unpack everything and get the computer setup. The monitor and desktop work great. But I'm careful to check the voltage requirements on all parts. This is when I find that the speakers only support 110 V. Why would they send me brand new 110 V speakers to Peru? They should know that Peru only uses 220 V.
So I contact Dell support again. This time they tell me to talk to tech support. So I contact tech support, after a few exchanges they tell me that they cannot do anything and I need to go back to Support. I contact support again (getting upset), and they tell me to just get a converter from 220 V to 110 V. I say that this is their mistake and that they should have to at least pay for my converter, but they reject that. They say that Dell does not carry any 220 V speakers at all, for any country. So I ask them to make a big warning on their website so that this doesn't happen to more people and suggest that they start to find some 220 V speakers as Peru is 220 V only. They say they will 'take my comments into consideration'.
So yet another problem with Dell that they cannot resolve. I know that they just entered into the Peruvian market, but I still expected them to do things correctly and not fuck everything up like a Peruvian company.
I will never again use DHL and certainly will never use Dell International sales again. The whole process was a massive frustration and was full of over $1800 in 'hidden charges'. If it isn't fraudulent, it's about as close as you can get. If anyone has a lawyer who is experienced in Peruvian customs and shipping laws, I am looking for one to investigate DHL's 'hidden charges'.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
DHL Lima, perhaps the most stupid group of people in the business?
Here's one portion of an exchange with DHL that has gone over the last 3 weeks. At every turn they demonstrate complete incompetence and ineptitude. I've never worked with a company that is less capable of doing their job. A process that should have taken no more than a week has taken 3 weeks and still shows no real signs of ever being completed if DHL has their way.
From DHL Lima:
"Estimado señor una traducción es para colocar los nombres comerciales en español, usted esta colocando los mismos nombres. Por favor enviar correcto. Muchas gracias"
Translation:
Sir a translation is to put the commercial names in Spanish, you put the same names (in English). Please sent the correct information. Thanks a lot.
From me to DHL:
Que nombres no esta en Español??? (What names are not in Spanish???)
Reply from DHL:
Estimado señor El item 1 es un ¿monitor ?
Translation:
Sir item 1 is a 'monitor'??
From me to DHL (after I almost went to DHL's office and started smashing their heads with a Spanish dictionary):
monitor
4 Aparato que transforma en imágenes las señales eléctricas codificadas generadas por una cámara o reproductor de video, un sintonizador de televisión, una computadora, etc.: me compré un monitor de 17 pulgadas para la computadora.
Esta es la definicion de 'monitor' en ESPAÑOL.
If you somehow missed the idea here... the word 'monitor' is the same in both Spanish and English. Anyone who does not know this word in 2008 must not have finished elementary school or is over 90 years old! This is just one exchange in three weeks of pure stupidity and incompetence.
Here are the details of this person and company which I certainly hope to never ever use again:
Martha Moreno
Import Assistant
Gateway
DHL EXPRESS PERU SAC
Calle Uno, Manzana "A", Lote 6 , Primera Etapa,
Habilitacion Industrial Fundo Bocanegra Alto
Callao - PERU
Teléfono +51(1) 517-2500
Fax +51(1) 574-9073
jose.mauricio@dhl.com
http://www.dhl.com"
From DHL Lima:
"Estimado señor una traducción es para colocar los nombres comerciales en español, usted esta colocando los mismos nombres. Por favor enviar correcto. Muchas gracias"
Translation:
Sir a translation is to put the commercial names in Spanish, you put the same names (in English). Please sent the correct information. Thanks a lot.
From me to DHL:
Que nombres no esta en Español??? (What names are not in Spanish???)
Reply from DHL:
Estimado señor El item 1 es un ¿monitor ?
Translation:
Sir item 1 is a 'monitor'??
From me to DHL (after I almost went to DHL's office and started smashing their heads with a Spanish dictionary):
monitor
4 Aparato que transforma en imágenes las señales eléctricas codificadas generadas por una cámara o reproductor de video, un sintonizador de televisión, una computadora, etc.: me compré un monitor de 17 pulgadas para la computadora.
Esta es la definicion de 'monitor' en ESPAÑOL.
If you somehow missed the idea here... the word 'monitor' is the same in both Spanish and English. Anyone who does not know this word in 2008 must not have finished elementary school or is over 90 years old! This is just one exchange in three weeks of pure stupidity and incompetence.
Here are the details of this person and company which I certainly hope to never ever use again:
Martha Moreno
Import Assistant
Gateway
DHL EXPRESS PERU SAC
Calle Uno, Manzana "A", Lote 6 , Primera Etapa,
Habilitacion Industrial Fundo Bocanegra Alto
Callao - PERU
Teléfono +51(1) 517-2500
Fax +51(1) 574-9073
jose.mauricio@dhl.com
http://www.dhl.com"
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Video of Peru's Beaches and waves.
I found this on YouTube today and thought I'd share it. I can't wait for summer to come again!
Thursday, May 8, 2008
O’Neill Launches Surf Peru Campaign
Peruvian surfing continues to be 'in style'. O'Neill has announced a new add campaign that promotes Peruvian surfing throughout Europe.More details in Spanish here. Click the photos above to zoom in.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Riding the Waves of Peru - New York Times
Original article, pictures, and slide show found here:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/travel/04peru.html
The New York Times
May 4, 2008
Riding the Waves of Peru
By JULIA CHAPLIN
IT was high tide on a scorching Tuesday, and the choppy beaches around Lima, Peru, were crawling with surfers. There were teenagers in ratty flip-flops carrying short boards patched with duct tape, and bronzed women in wet suits paddling out into the shimmering blue waves. There was even a businessman in his 30s, who climbed out of a black-tinted S.U.V. in nothing but shorts, as a muscular chauffeur handed him a freshly waxed board, a bottle of water and a dab of sunscreen.
The only thing missing, it seemed, were tourists. Despite having monster swells on par with those that hit Hawaii's legendary northern shores, Peru isn't known as a surfing destination, except perhaps by a small band of jet-setting surfers for whom no wave is beyond reach.
That is, unless you happen to be one of the approximately 28 million inhabitants of Peru, South America's third-largest country in area. Then you know very well that surfing has swept the nation recently in a pop cultural frenzy. On the wide boulevards of Lima, billboards are
covered with the fresh-faced ranks of Peruvian surfers endorsing cellphones, beer and soft drinks. Surfing contests are all the rage. And to the south, where the waves are even bigger, physical attributes like pumped-up lungs, buff shoulders and sun-bleached hair seem to be bred into the local DNA.
And now, as Peru rides a tourism wave propelled by a strong economy and favorable exchange rates for bargain-minded Americans, it is poised to become the new "it" spot on the international surfing circuit. After all, Peru has 1,500 miles of rugged coastline dotted with countless breakers, from pristine beaches tucked around Lima to unexplored pockets up north where some waves are said to last more than a mile. And unlike Malibu, Hawaii's northern shores and other well-known places, many of Peru's best surfing spots are often nearly empty.
With so much to explore, surfing has muscled in on soccer and the culinary arts to become an unlikely symbol of national hope. Much of the current craze can be traced back to 24-year-old Sofía Mulanovich, a Peruvian who won the World Surfing Championship title in Hawaii in 2004 — a contest dominated by Australians and Americans. And if the ranks of teenagers who frolic their spare hours away in the swell have any say, surfing in Peru will only get bigger.
That's true up and down Peru's coast, whether it's a small town like Chicama in the country's north, famous for its super-long waves, or around the busy capital of Lima, where the sometimes polluted breaks are teeming with surfers from dusk till dawn. But the epicenter of the neo-surf scene is undoubtedly in Punta Hermosa, a summer beach community about 30 miles south of Lima, where surfing is virtually a religion.
The hourlong drive to Punta Hermosa provides a sobering look at the arid and impoverished landscape in this part of the country: brown hills devoid of vegetation and pocked with sad clusters of wooden shanties. The town itself doesn't look like much — dusty concrete houses painted in bright greens, blues and reds in the hills below the four-lane Pan-American Highway. But the fuss is clear when you finally arrive at the beach: curling waves fan out in all directions like Neptune's block party.
Each break point presents a different challenge. There's Kon Tiki, which offers untamed waves so massive that it takes a strong arm even to paddle out to it; La Isla, where homegrown pros like Ms. Mulanovich and Gabriel Villarán can often be found; and Pico Alto, a brawny break with swells that can range up to 25 feet high.
ON a recent Saturday afternoon, the Copa Barena Professional Circuit surf competition was taking place in Punta Rocas, one of the most popular beaches in the area. The scene at the amateur competition resembled a South American version of Malibu, but wilder. Barena, a
Honduran beer being introduced in Peru, had erected giant inflatable bottles that were flapping like Michelin men in the wind. A stoner reggae band drowned out the announcers. And waiters in baseball hats weaved through an obstacle course of sun chairs with plates of calamari and cans of Inca Kola, a yellow soda spiked with caffeine-laden guaraná fruit.
The surf champ Ms. Mulanovich, who is known as "la gringa" because of her fair skin and blond streaked hair, sat with an entourage near the judge's perch as she watched her younger brother, Matias, whiz over the lip and down the face of a meaty charging barrel.
"Peru is the best preparation for a pro surfer because there are so many different varieties of breaks and conditions," said Ms. Mulanovich, who grew up in Punta Hermosa and recently bought a rock-star grade condo nearby with panoramic views of five surf breaks. "It's much less crowded than in Hawaii and California, and even on the smallest day of the year it's never flat."
When her brother paddled in, the group piled into a caravan of S.U.V.'s and drove five minutes down the highway to San Bartolo for a teenage girl competition. It was sponsored by the cellphone company Movistar. "It's like this all summer," Ms. Mulanovich said. "Everybody wants to be a surf star now."
But despite the surf fever, Punta Hermosa remains off the radar for most tourists, probably because there's little reason to come unless you're really into surfing. There are no surf shops — boards and gear must be rented or bought in Lima — and only a handful of hotels like Luisfer's, a no-frills hostel where surfers bunk up, five to a room. Between sessions, guests can be seen doing yoga atop their board bags in the courtyard.
Dining options are limited, too. The sidewalks are lined with cheerful stands that serve ceviche and seafood carpaccios that look amazing, but are far from stomach friendly. Ms. Mulanovich's boyfriend, a surfer named Scott from Los Angeles, had been holed up in her condo for weeks after getting salmonella poisoning from bad mayonnaise.
The enterprising and friendly locals, however, make up for the lack of infrastructure. The town's surf museum, for example, is actually the private home of an old-school surfer, José A. Schiaffino. I stumbled upon the 1950s surf shack one afternoon while walking back from the
beach. Mr. Schiaffino wasn't home, which was too bad because I had heard he mixes a mean pisco sour, but his caretaker let me look around.
The living room wall was plastered with archival photos of the Waikiki Surf Club and the ceiling was covered with colorful boards donated by big name riders like Nat Young, Mark Foo and Ms. Mulanovich — a makeshift hall of fame.
Peru's love affair with surfing actually dates back to the 1940s, when the playboy socialite Carlos Dogny returned from Hawaii with a shiny wooden board given to him by Duke Kahanamoku, considered the godfather of modern surfing. In 1942, Mr. Dogny founded the elite Waikiki Surf Club in Miraflores, a ritzy suburb on the southern outskirts of Lima, where Peru's ruling families rode the swells and got tipsy in the clubhouse on pisco sours. (The club still employs "board boys" who rush to the water's edge to carry and wax members' boards when they're done with a session.)
The club placed Peru firmly on the international surf map and played host to the World Surfing Championships, which was won by a local big-wave rider, Felipe Pomar, in the 1960s. But by the 1970s, the sport's reputation sagged as it became associated with dropouts and druggies, and surfing largely lost it cachet.
About the same time, the country became marred by economic woes, political repression and terrorism. Between 1980 and the early '90s, the Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path waged war against Peruvian society, killing tens of thousands of peasants and small-town leaders, and turning Lima into a fiery battleground.
"Back then there was a curfew at 1 a.m.," said José de Col, a pro surfer who quit the sport in the '80s to become an architect because there was little sponsorship money in Peru. "We couldn't have parties. Blackouts and bombs were part of daily life."
Things began turning around and, in the last few years, Peru seems to have planted a 180-degree aerial. The country has stabilized politically under the new president, Alan García, though soaring food prices have driven his popularity down. Despite high rates of poverty (almost half the nation lives below the poverty line), Peru's economy has grown steadily, providing a much-needed morale booster and, for surfers, an excuse to get back into the water.
After spending a day playing sand bunny in Punta Hermosa, and watching the competitions from the safety of my towel, I was itching for my own adrenaline rush. So the next morning, I hired a taxi and set out on an hourlong journey to Cerro Azul, a mellow break immortalized in a line from the Beach Boys' 1962 anthem, "Surfin' Safari."
After maneuvering through four police checkpoints (shakedowns are common along the Pan-American Highway), we pulled up on a dirt road to the port town. Cerro Azul felt abandoned, like a Western ghost town, except for a few shiny condos and the lazy sounds of salsa lulling through the hot dusty air. The shoreline, however, buzzed with anticipation. True to its reputation, the break had a mellow but perky wave that rippled around a jagged point as though made in a water-park wave pool. I paddled out, staked my spot among the teens, moms and old
timers, and caught a few rides before moving on to the next break down the coast.
As much as I liked paddling along southern Peru, the word on the shore was that any surf safari must also include a visit to Máncora, a small fishing village in northern Peru near Ecuador. It enjoys an almost mythic reputation among surfers for its balmy water, endless sunshine and crowd-free breaks. "Una paradiso!" my new friends would say between sets.
But it didn't seem that way at first. I flew on Aerocondor, onboard a clunky plane that still had ashtrays in the arm rests, and landed in Talara, an industrial port city whose airport is now temporarily closed. The region, with a brown dirt terrain as monotonous as a broken record, is the center of Peru's oil industry. Giant rigs scar the landscape like mechanical mosquitoes and perfume the air with the fetid scent of raw petroleum.
After an hourlong taxi ride, I arrived in Máncora, which looked like a blink-of-an-eye frontier town until I wandered out to the beach. Nubile surfers in string bikinis lounged under palm trees sipping coconuts, taking turns paddling out into the crystal blue ocean. It felt like that secret spot in "The Beach," the 2000 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, except it was not quite a secret.
Máncora has been transformed in recent years from a sleepy fishing village into a busy, international backpacker hub. After dark, the town's sole street turns into a total party, with flotillas of surfers, weekenders from Ecuador and girls in slinky tank tops getting tipsy at bars like Iguanas and Chill Out. There are also several amazing restaurants in town, serving the nouvelle Asian-Peruvian fusion known as novoandia. La Sirena, run by Juan Seminario Garay, a
28-year-old local surfer who studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Lima, serves dishes like causa maki, dollops of mashed potatoes filled with scallops mixed in a red and yellow pepper sauce.
In the morning, the action moved to the beach, especially at the main surf break in front of the Hotel del Wawa, a small hotel and restaurant owned by the hunky surf pro Fernando Paraud, who is known simply as Wawa. "Every day is like a weekend," said Wawa, who was holding court at his usual table. "Except weekends are more crowded."
STILL, the restaurant was packed wall-to-wall on a recent Thursday afternoon with surfers waiting out the high-noon sun and low tides. Over delicate plates of smoked carpaccio and seared tuna steaks, they traded gossip on the day's best swells and near collisions in the lineup. Then, when the tide finally broke around 4 p.m., everyone put down their forks, grabbed their surfboards and headed back to the water in choreographed unison.
It felt like a scene from a Broadway musical, especially when cheers of "Oy!" "Va!" "Ey!" would wash over the crowd like the chorus of a reggaetón song.
I followed them in. The waves were as gentle and as well-formed as the famously friendly breaks at San Onofre or Waikiki. And almost as jammed. Luckily there was a chain of hidden beaches just a hop away.
After bumming around Wawa for a couple of days, I hired a local surf guide nicknamed Pulpo to show me around. He drove me 10 miles in his teal-blue van to Los Organos, an abandoned oil town with a couple of new beachside hostels.
There were no more than a dozen other riders on the surf. I took my board into the water and waited for my wave. It didn't take long before I caught one that was head high with a defined peak that tapered off to the right into a long shoulder — perfect for cutting and carving long arcs.
Pulpo seemed impressed because he took me 45 minutes farther south to Lobitos, a hard-to-find break tucked at the end of a ragged dirt road. There were oil pumps, rusty pipelines and crumbling military barracks, some of which had been taken over by squatters and turned into surfing hostels decorated with bumper stickers. I poked my head inside one: several blond French girls were having lunch with their dreadlocked Chilean boyfriends.
Eating would have to wait. We pulled up over the dirt and parked alongside the deserted beach. I pulled out my chunky 7-foot-6-inch rental board with trepidation. The beach looked like a small swatch of an industrial wasteland: a couple of oil barrels with flames flickering on top, and a few giant rigs on the horizon. But the waves, it turned out, had a perky, fun shape. Really fun, in fact. And the water was a seductive clear blue. Pulpo smiled. He had promised me a crowd-free break that was off the grid, and here it was.
I rode the swells for several hours, forgetting about the ominous oil barrels and, apparently, the time. Pulpo called me in. There was another spot up the road that was even better.
ON A SOUTH AMERICAN SURFIN' SAFARI
GETTING THERE
Several airlines including Continental, American and LAN Airlines fly direct from New York area airports to Lima, starting at about $650 for travel next month, according to a recent online search. To get to Máncora in the north of Peru, fly from Lima to Piura on Aerocondor (www.aerocondor.com.pe; 51-1-614-6014; $244 round trip), and then take a two-and-a-half-hour taxi ride to Máncora (about $50).
Punta Hermosa
WHERE TO STAY
Casa Barco (Avenida Punta Hermosa, 340; 51-1-230-7081; www.casabarco.com/puntahermosa) is a modern but charming 25-room hotel with a swimming pool and views of the surf breaks. Doubles from $55.
Hard-core surf safarians bunk up at the no-frills hostel Luisfer Surf Camp (a block off the main beach, Calle 1 — look for the concrete wall with the giant wave mural; 51-1-230-7280), which offers Polynesian-style décor and meal times based on the tides. Bunk rates are $16 a night and include three meals a day.
WHERE TO EAT AND SHOP
A lively evening scene can be found at Donde Luis (Frente la Playa Punta Hermosa), an Argentine-run cafe filled with antique furniture and surfers dressed up in their best flip-flops. Dinner, including delicious pizzas, salads and wine, about 50 sols (about $18.20 at 2.75 sols to the dollar).
El Piloto (Panamerica Sur, Kilometer 138, San Luis; 51-1-284-4114) is a classic 1940s roadside restaurant with murals of bullfighters, bamboo ceilings and long tables of families and truck drivers sharing ceviche (55 sols) and the spicy river shrimp (also 55 sols.)
The Kon-Tiki Surfboards Museum on the main beach in Punta Hermosa doubles as the private home of the surfer José A. Schiaffino. There's an impressive collection of vintage surfboards, archival photos and other memorabilia.
There are no surf shops in Punta Hermosa, so if you need gear try Klimax in Miraflores (José Gonzales, 488; 51-1-447-1685; www.klimaxsurf.com). It offers a good selection of locally made Boz wet suits and surfboards, including short boards designed by the champion surfer Gabriel Villarán, starting at 542 sols.
Máncora
WHERE TO STAY
The epicenter of the local surf scene is Del Wawa (Avenida Piura, Frente al Point; www.delwawa.com), a small hotel with an excellent beachside fusion restaurant and lots of hammocks. Surf lessons are $15 an hour or board rentals $5 an hour. Doubles start at $25.
An upscale alternative is the Sunset Hotel (Avenida Antigua Panamericana Norte, 196; www.hotelsunset.com.pe), a boutique hotel with six suites, a secluded beach and a romantic restaurant perched on a cliff. Doubles start at $73.
WHERE TO EAT AND SHOP
La Sirena (Panamericana Norte, 316: 51-19-9811-5737) serves exquisite nouvelle Asian-Peruvian fusion, known as novoandia, in a little garden off the main drag. Dinner for two with wine, 108 sols.
El Tuno (Panamerica Norte, 233; 51-19-9408-2410) is a bright orange Peruvian-Italian restaurant that features an accordion player and specialties like tuna tartare with shaved avocado and mango salsa (50 sols).
Soledad Surf Shop (Avenida Piura, 316) sells a full range of gear for men and women such as rash guards, flip-flops and waterproof sun block.
SURF TOURS AND GUIDES
In the north of Peru, try booking Octopus Surf Tours based in Máncora (51-19-9400-5518; www.wavehunters.com/peru/Nperu.asp). Marco (Pulpo) Antonio Ravizza knows all the secret breaks and cevicherias: $895 for the week, including lodging, three meals a day and all gear.
For lessons and guides in the south, near Lima and Punta, call the former national surf champion Luis Miguel (Magoo) de la Rosa (www.magoosurfperu.com; 51-19-9810-1988), who has the insider tips and water smarts.
JULIA CHAPLIN is a frequent contributor to the Travel section.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/travel/04peru.html
The New York Times
May 4, 2008
Riding the Waves of Peru
By JULIA CHAPLIN
IT was high tide on a scorching Tuesday, and the choppy beaches around Lima, Peru, were crawling with surfers. There were teenagers in ratty flip-flops carrying short boards patched with duct tape, and bronzed women in wet suits paddling out into the shimmering blue waves. There was even a businessman in his 30s, who climbed out of a black-tinted S.U.V. in nothing but shorts, as a muscular chauffeur handed him a freshly waxed board, a bottle of water and a dab of sunscreen.
The only thing missing, it seemed, were tourists. Despite having monster swells on par with those that hit Hawaii's legendary northern shores, Peru isn't known as a surfing destination, except perhaps by a small band of jet-setting surfers for whom no wave is beyond reach.
That is, unless you happen to be one of the approximately 28 million inhabitants of Peru, South America's third-largest country in area. Then you know very well that surfing has swept the nation recently in a pop cultural frenzy. On the wide boulevards of Lima, billboards are
covered with the fresh-faced ranks of Peruvian surfers endorsing cellphones, beer and soft drinks. Surfing contests are all the rage. And to the south, where the waves are even bigger, physical attributes like pumped-up lungs, buff shoulders and sun-bleached hair seem to be bred into the local DNA.
And now, as Peru rides a tourism wave propelled by a strong economy and favorable exchange rates for bargain-minded Americans, it is poised to become the new "it" spot on the international surfing circuit. After all, Peru has 1,500 miles of rugged coastline dotted with countless breakers, from pristine beaches tucked around Lima to unexplored pockets up north where some waves are said to last more than a mile. And unlike Malibu, Hawaii's northern shores and other well-known places, many of Peru's best surfing spots are often nearly empty.
With so much to explore, surfing has muscled in on soccer and the culinary arts to become an unlikely symbol of national hope. Much of the current craze can be traced back to 24-year-old Sofía Mulanovich, a Peruvian who won the World Surfing Championship title in Hawaii in 2004 — a contest dominated by Australians and Americans. And if the ranks of teenagers who frolic their spare hours away in the swell have any say, surfing in Peru will only get bigger.
That's true up and down Peru's coast, whether it's a small town like Chicama in the country's north, famous for its super-long waves, or around the busy capital of Lima, where the sometimes polluted breaks are teeming with surfers from dusk till dawn. But the epicenter of the neo-surf scene is undoubtedly in Punta Hermosa, a summer beach community about 30 miles south of Lima, where surfing is virtually a religion.
The hourlong drive to Punta Hermosa provides a sobering look at the arid and impoverished landscape in this part of the country: brown hills devoid of vegetation and pocked with sad clusters of wooden shanties. The town itself doesn't look like much — dusty concrete houses painted in bright greens, blues and reds in the hills below the four-lane Pan-American Highway. But the fuss is clear when you finally arrive at the beach: curling waves fan out in all directions like Neptune's block party.
Each break point presents a different challenge. There's Kon Tiki, which offers untamed waves so massive that it takes a strong arm even to paddle out to it; La Isla, where homegrown pros like Ms. Mulanovich and Gabriel Villarán can often be found; and Pico Alto, a brawny break with swells that can range up to 25 feet high.
ON a recent Saturday afternoon, the Copa Barena Professional Circuit surf competition was taking place in Punta Rocas, one of the most popular beaches in the area. The scene at the amateur competition resembled a South American version of Malibu, but wilder. Barena, a
Honduran beer being introduced in Peru, had erected giant inflatable bottles that were flapping like Michelin men in the wind. A stoner reggae band drowned out the announcers. And waiters in baseball hats weaved through an obstacle course of sun chairs with plates of calamari and cans of Inca Kola, a yellow soda spiked with caffeine-laden guaraná fruit.
The surf champ Ms. Mulanovich, who is known as "la gringa" because of her fair skin and blond streaked hair, sat with an entourage near the judge's perch as she watched her younger brother, Matias, whiz over the lip and down the face of a meaty charging barrel.
"Peru is the best preparation for a pro surfer because there are so many different varieties of breaks and conditions," said Ms. Mulanovich, who grew up in Punta Hermosa and recently bought a rock-star grade condo nearby with panoramic views of five surf breaks. "It's much less crowded than in Hawaii and California, and even on the smallest day of the year it's never flat."
When her brother paddled in, the group piled into a caravan of S.U.V.'s and drove five minutes down the highway to San Bartolo for a teenage girl competition. It was sponsored by the cellphone company Movistar. "It's like this all summer," Ms. Mulanovich said. "Everybody wants to be a surf star now."
But despite the surf fever, Punta Hermosa remains off the radar for most tourists, probably because there's little reason to come unless you're really into surfing. There are no surf shops — boards and gear must be rented or bought in Lima — and only a handful of hotels like Luisfer's, a no-frills hostel where surfers bunk up, five to a room. Between sessions, guests can be seen doing yoga atop their board bags in the courtyard.
Dining options are limited, too. The sidewalks are lined with cheerful stands that serve ceviche and seafood carpaccios that look amazing, but are far from stomach friendly. Ms. Mulanovich's boyfriend, a surfer named Scott from Los Angeles, had been holed up in her condo for weeks after getting salmonella poisoning from bad mayonnaise.
The enterprising and friendly locals, however, make up for the lack of infrastructure. The town's surf museum, for example, is actually the private home of an old-school surfer, José A. Schiaffino. I stumbled upon the 1950s surf shack one afternoon while walking back from the
beach. Mr. Schiaffino wasn't home, which was too bad because I had heard he mixes a mean pisco sour, but his caretaker let me look around.
The living room wall was plastered with archival photos of the Waikiki Surf Club and the ceiling was covered with colorful boards donated by big name riders like Nat Young, Mark Foo and Ms. Mulanovich — a makeshift hall of fame.
Peru's love affair with surfing actually dates back to the 1940s, when the playboy socialite Carlos Dogny returned from Hawaii with a shiny wooden board given to him by Duke Kahanamoku, considered the godfather of modern surfing. In 1942, Mr. Dogny founded the elite Waikiki Surf Club in Miraflores, a ritzy suburb on the southern outskirts of Lima, where Peru's ruling families rode the swells and got tipsy in the clubhouse on pisco sours. (The club still employs "board boys" who rush to the water's edge to carry and wax members' boards when they're done with a session.)
The club placed Peru firmly on the international surf map and played host to the World Surfing Championships, which was won by a local big-wave rider, Felipe Pomar, in the 1960s. But by the 1970s, the sport's reputation sagged as it became associated with dropouts and druggies, and surfing largely lost it cachet.
About the same time, the country became marred by economic woes, political repression and terrorism. Between 1980 and the early '90s, the Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path waged war against Peruvian society, killing tens of thousands of peasants and small-town leaders, and turning Lima into a fiery battleground.
"Back then there was a curfew at 1 a.m.," said José de Col, a pro surfer who quit the sport in the '80s to become an architect because there was little sponsorship money in Peru. "We couldn't have parties. Blackouts and bombs were part of daily life."
Things began turning around and, in the last few years, Peru seems to have planted a 180-degree aerial. The country has stabilized politically under the new president, Alan García, though soaring food prices have driven his popularity down. Despite high rates of poverty (almost half the nation lives below the poverty line), Peru's economy has grown steadily, providing a much-needed morale booster and, for surfers, an excuse to get back into the water.
After spending a day playing sand bunny in Punta Hermosa, and watching the competitions from the safety of my towel, I was itching for my own adrenaline rush. So the next morning, I hired a taxi and set out on an hourlong journey to Cerro Azul, a mellow break immortalized in a line from the Beach Boys' 1962 anthem, "Surfin' Safari."
After maneuvering through four police checkpoints (shakedowns are common along the Pan-American Highway), we pulled up on a dirt road to the port town. Cerro Azul felt abandoned, like a Western ghost town, except for a few shiny condos and the lazy sounds of salsa lulling through the hot dusty air. The shoreline, however, buzzed with anticipation. True to its reputation, the break had a mellow but perky wave that rippled around a jagged point as though made in a water-park wave pool. I paddled out, staked my spot among the teens, moms and old
timers, and caught a few rides before moving on to the next break down the coast.
As much as I liked paddling along southern Peru, the word on the shore was that any surf safari must also include a visit to Máncora, a small fishing village in northern Peru near Ecuador. It enjoys an almost mythic reputation among surfers for its balmy water, endless sunshine and crowd-free breaks. "Una paradiso!" my new friends would say between sets.
But it didn't seem that way at first. I flew on Aerocondor, onboard a clunky plane that still had ashtrays in the arm rests, and landed in Talara, an industrial port city whose airport is now temporarily closed. The region, with a brown dirt terrain as monotonous as a broken record, is the center of Peru's oil industry. Giant rigs scar the landscape like mechanical mosquitoes and perfume the air with the fetid scent of raw petroleum.
After an hourlong taxi ride, I arrived in Máncora, which looked like a blink-of-an-eye frontier town until I wandered out to the beach. Nubile surfers in string bikinis lounged under palm trees sipping coconuts, taking turns paddling out into the crystal blue ocean. It felt like that secret spot in "The Beach," the 2000 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, except it was not quite a secret.
Máncora has been transformed in recent years from a sleepy fishing village into a busy, international backpacker hub. After dark, the town's sole street turns into a total party, with flotillas of surfers, weekenders from Ecuador and girls in slinky tank tops getting tipsy at bars like Iguanas and Chill Out. There are also several amazing restaurants in town, serving the nouvelle Asian-Peruvian fusion known as novoandia. La Sirena, run by Juan Seminario Garay, a
28-year-old local surfer who studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Lima, serves dishes like causa maki, dollops of mashed potatoes filled with scallops mixed in a red and yellow pepper sauce.
In the morning, the action moved to the beach, especially at the main surf break in front of the Hotel del Wawa, a small hotel and restaurant owned by the hunky surf pro Fernando Paraud, who is known simply as Wawa. "Every day is like a weekend," said Wawa, who was holding court at his usual table. "Except weekends are more crowded."
STILL, the restaurant was packed wall-to-wall on a recent Thursday afternoon with surfers waiting out the high-noon sun and low tides. Over delicate plates of smoked carpaccio and seared tuna steaks, they traded gossip on the day's best swells and near collisions in the lineup. Then, when the tide finally broke around 4 p.m., everyone put down their forks, grabbed their surfboards and headed back to the water in choreographed unison.
It felt like a scene from a Broadway musical, especially when cheers of "Oy!" "Va!" "Ey!" would wash over the crowd like the chorus of a reggaetón song.
I followed them in. The waves were as gentle and as well-formed as the famously friendly breaks at San Onofre or Waikiki. And almost as jammed. Luckily there was a chain of hidden beaches just a hop away.
After bumming around Wawa for a couple of days, I hired a local surf guide nicknamed Pulpo to show me around. He drove me 10 miles in his teal-blue van to Los Organos, an abandoned oil town with a couple of new beachside hostels.
There were no more than a dozen other riders on the surf. I took my board into the water and waited for my wave. It didn't take long before I caught one that was head high with a defined peak that tapered off to the right into a long shoulder — perfect for cutting and carving long arcs.
Pulpo seemed impressed because he took me 45 minutes farther south to Lobitos, a hard-to-find break tucked at the end of a ragged dirt road. There were oil pumps, rusty pipelines and crumbling military barracks, some of which had been taken over by squatters and turned into surfing hostels decorated with bumper stickers. I poked my head inside one: several blond French girls were having lunch with their dreadlocked Chilean boyfriends.
Eating would have to wait. We pulled up over the dirt and parked alongside the deserted beach. I pulled out my chunky 7-foot-6-inch rental board with trepidation. The beach looked like a small swatch of an industrial wasteland: a couple of oil barrels with flames flickering on top, and a few giant rigs on the horizon. But the waves, it turned out, had a perky, fun shape. Really fun, in fact. And the water was a seductive clear blue. Pulpo smiled. He had promised me a crowd-free break that was off the grid, and here it was.
I rode the swells for several hours, forgetting about the ominous oil barrels and, apparently, the time. Pulpo called me in. There was another spot up the road that was even better.
ON A SOUTH AMERICAN SURFIN' SAFARI
GETTING THERE
Several airlines including Continental, American and LAN Airlines fly direct from New York area airports to Lima, starting at about $650 for travel next month, according to a recent online search. To get to Máncora in the north of Peru, fly from Lima to Piura on Aerocondor (www.aerocondor.com.pe; 51-1-614-6014; $244 round trip), and then take a two-and-a-half-hour taxi ride to Máncora (about $50).
Punta Hermosa
WHERE TO STAY
Casa Barco (Avenida Punta Hermosa, 340; 51-1-230-7081; www.casabarco.com/puntahermosa) is a modern but charming 25-room hotel with a swimming pool and views of the surf breaks. Doubles from $55.
Hard-core surf safarians bunk up at the no-frills hostel Luisfer Surf Camp (a block off the main beach, Calle 1 — look for the concrete wall with the giant wave mural; 51-1-230-7280), which offers Polynesian-style décor and meal times based on the tides. Bunk rates are $16 a night and include three meals a day.
WHERE TO EAT AND SHOP
A lively evening scene can be found at Donde Luis (Frente la Playa Punta Hermosa), an Argentine-run cafe filled with antique furniture and surfers dressed up in their best flip-flops. Dinner, including delicious pizzas, salads and wine, about 50 sols (about $18.20 at 2.75 sols to the dollar).
El Piloto (Panamerica Sur, Kilometer 138, San Luis; 51-1-284-4114) is a classic 1940s roadside restaurant with murals of bullfighters, bamboo ceilings and long tables of families and truck drivers sharing ceviche (55 sols) and the spicy river shrimp (also 55 sols.)
The Kon-Tiki Surfboards Museum on the main beach in Punta Hermosa doubles as the private home of the surfer José A. Schiaffino. There's an impressive collection of vintage surfboards, archival photos and other memorabilia.
There are no surf shops in Punta Hermosa, so if you need gear try Klimax in Miraflores (José Gonzales, 488; 51-1-447-1685; www.klimaxsurf.com). It offers a good selection of locally made Boz wet suits and surfboards, including short boards designed by the champion surfer Gabriel Villarán, starting at 542 sols.
Máncora
WHERE TO STAY
The epicenter of the local surf scene is Del Wawa (Avenida Piura, Frente al Point; www.delwawa.com), a small hotel with an excellent beachside fusion restaurant and lots of hammocks. Surf lessons are $15 an hour or board rentals $5 an hour. Doubles start at $25.
An upscale alternative is the Sunset Hotel (Avenida Antigua Panamericana Norte, 196; www.hotelsunset.com.pe), a boutique hotel with six suites, a secluded beach and a romantic restaurant perched on a cliff. Doubles start at $73.
WHERE TO EAT AND SHOP
La Sirena (Panamericana Norte, 316: 51-19-9811-5737) serves exquisite nouvelle Asian-Peruvian fusion, known as novoandia, in a little garden off the main drag. Dinner for two with wine, 108 sols.
El Tuno (Panamerica Norte, 233; 51-19-9408-2410) is a bright orange Peruvian-Italian restaurant that features an accordion player and specialties like tuna tartare with shaved avocado and mango salsa (50 sols).
Soledad Surf Shop (Avenida Piura, 316) sells a full range of gear for men and women such as rash guards, flip-flops and waterproof sun block.
SURF TOURS AND GUIDES
In the north of Peru, try booking Octopus Surf Tours based in Máncora (51-19-9400-5518; www.wavehunters.com/peru/Nperu.asp). Marco (Pulpo) Antonio Ravizza knows all the secret breaks and cevicherias: $895 for the week, including lodging, three meals a day and all gear.
For lessons and guides in the south, near Lima and Punta, call the former national surf champion Luis Miguel (Magoo) de la Rosa (www.magoosurfperu.com; 51-19-9810-1988), who has the insider tips and water smarts.
JULIA CHAPLIN is a frequent contributor to the Travel section.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Advice: Friend's X
This is a new feature that I'm going to try out. It's basically just where I will be grabbing random advice out of daily life and mentioning it here. It's something that I've thought about doing for a number of years, but didn't have a good forum for it until now.
This first one was spurred by an episode of CSI: Miami. This applies mostly to high school/college, but does have some carry over beyond that as well.
If you are dating someone and you break up or are having a hard time. If your friend asks you if it's OK for him to date her... NEVER say yes. Nothing good can come of it.
If your friend was dating someone and they broke up. NEVER ask your friend if it's OK if you start dating their X. They might do something stupid and actually give you the OK. Don't believe it, because it's not OK.
This first one was spurred by an episode of CSI: Miami. This applies mostly to high school/college, but does have some carry over beyond that as well.
If you are dating someone and you break up or are having a hard time. If your friend asks you if it's OK for him to date her... NEVER say yes. Nothing good can come of it.
If your friend was dating someone and they broke up. NEVER ask your friend if it's OK if you start dating their X. They might do something stupid and actually give you the OK. Don't believe it, because it's not OK.
Monday, March 24, 2008
My experience with the Panamericana Sur in Lima, Peru.
Well this summer we stayed in a beach apartment in Punta Hermosa (43 km south of Lima). This meant that I was constantly driving into Lima for various events, dinners, and errands. These are some of my observations and comments about that experience.
Closest supermarket -
E-Wong Caminos del Inca. Asia would seem like the obvious choice when staying on the beach, but it's actually closer (35 km, S/. 3 toll) and faster to head back towards Lima than to go down to Asia (45 km, S/. 11 toll).
Toll booths -
Don't believe the lights. Half the time there are large green lights right behind signs that show the lane to be closed (you can see the light from a much greater distance). The people who work them generally seem efficient and nice enough. Overall the lines always moved quickly (nothing even close to the horrible lines in Mass or NY) and there were never any major delays.
Sundays -
On this day everything gets crazy (at least during the summer). The morning commute is changed to include the entire Panamericana Sur going south out of Lima. Anyone who wants to go to the north to Lima, has to take the Antigua Panamericana Sur. The Antigua is in total disrepair and doesn't look like it has had any real work done in years. Many areas along the road are extremely dangerous and the road has almost no signs telling you how to get to Lima or how to stay on the Antigua Panamericana Sur. Generally there are a good deal of Police in the area so you can ask them where to go.
The Antigua Panamericana Sur has one lane in each direction. So passing is possible, but extremely difficult on Sundays due to the high traffic. If you leave Lima in the afternoon and go to the south, you need to take the Antigua Panamericana Sur because the real Panamericana Sur is changed to have all lanes going North! For the Antigua Panamericana Sur, going south and going north have completely different routes. Going from Lima to the south on the Antigua Panamericana Sur is by far much more dangerous (not to mention it is afternoon/night). The roads going to the south are full of huge holes and many of them are unpaved. It goes right through some of the poorest and most dangerous shanty towns in Lima (Villa Maria, Villa El Salvador). Going to the south, it's much longer and much harder to find Police. There are almost no signs that indicate how to get to the south.
If you are a weekend traveler coming from Lima, this is great. You can quickly get down to the beach in the morning and make it back into town the same night. This is especially popular with the working class who work Mon-Sat in Peru. Many of the visitors to the beach on this day are maids, taxi drivers, bus drivers, factory workers, etc. I believe all lanes are open to the South from 7am until noon. Then I believe that all lanes are open to the North from 2pm until 7pm. These times change often and are not consistent, but they give a general idea.
In the end, this restricted a lot of my activities on Sundays. This meant that driving into Lima on a Sunday was a massive pain in the ass. The commute time getting there goes from 30-45 minutes up to 1.5 hours. The commute time getting back goes from 40-50 minutes to 2 hours. Sunday is a good day for resting and, for me, driving almost 4 hours is not resting. Staying at the beach also is not a great idea for Sundays. It's crowded, noisy, and the waves are too crowded to surf safely.
Road crossings -
%&@*%@^(%*^! It's extremely dangerous just to drive on the roads. The speed limits range from 80 Kph to 100 Kph. This means that the drivers go between 100-150+ Kph. The highway changes from 4-5 lanes on each side down to 2 on each side. It only changes to 1 lane per side when you get down past Asia. There are stairways and bridges for crossing the road every Km (half mile) or so. People are constantly complaining in both the newspaper and the radio about how there are not enough of these bridges. But the people seem to rarely use them. I've seen people carrying 100 lb sacks of rice across 4+ lanes of highway only 20 yards from a pedestrian bridge. Every day there are news stories about people dying when they try to cross the highway and don't use the bridge.
My main concern has been that at night time there is little lightning past Chorillos and Villa El Salvador. There are also a lot of trees and fences. This means that it's hard to see people in the dark and often they can be hidden behind obstructions. Often they don't look carefully with crossing. You can obviously avoid a lot of them, but if you hit just one, what happens? They are breaking an 'unenforced law' by crossing the street, jumping the fences, and not using the pedestrian bridges. Also they are not crossing at any kind of crosswalk. From the lawyers I have spoken with so far (none specialized in these cases), they seem to consider it the driver's fault no matter what. There is some belief here that it is the people's native right to cross the road when they want to and that 'western laws' don't apply to people who have 'different beliefs'.
I'm still investigating this as I just can't understand that logic or how it could possibly work in a city of almost 8 million people. A few lawyers that I've spoken with have told me that as a gringo, it would be best if I left the country and never came back if I was to kill someone accidentally on the highway. They believe that I would be put into an overcrowded Peruvian jail even if I was innocent. The jails here currently hold 44,000 people and were built to house 23,000 people. Obviously conditions are on the edge of humans rights abuse. So going to jail in Peru is a major concern. So what should someone do? Most commutes to the south are around 30-90 minutes. You could go way under the speed limit just to be safe (but get harassed by people honking at you as they fly by at twice the limit) and double your travel time. But going 'slow enough' to be safe from people crossing the road from behind trees and such causes a dangerous situation with other drivers who are going twice the speed limit. They aren't ready for a car going so slow and could possibly collide with you.
Really as far as I can tell at the moment there is no good solution. The government certainly hasn't done enough to help the situation. People crossing the road 'illegally' are almost never punished or even warned (they do it right in front of police). Some areas lack enough bridges. Speeding is not enforced by the police (I've seen cars go past parked police vehicles at over 200 Kph). Most of the police vehicles on the highway aren't highway ready and could not maintain a pursuit. Many of them are just parked there but barely run at all. I've seen many on the shoulder of the road motoring along at max speed of 40 Kph. If they can't even keep their trucks running, do you think they have speed radars? No!
It's the wild wild west of highways. Cuidao!
I'll add some more to this as I get time. I also plan to post an entry for 'Experiences Living in Punta Hermosa'.
Closest supermarket -
E-Wong Caminos del Inca. Asia would seem like the obvious choice when staying on the beach, but it's actually closer (35 km, S/. 3 toll) and faster to head back towards Lima than to go down to Asia (45 km, S/. 11 toll).
Toll booths -
Don't believe the lights. Half the time there are large green lights right behind signs that show the lane to be closed (you can see the light from a much greater distance). The people who work them generally seem efficient and nice enough. Overall the lines always moved quickly (nothing even close to the horrible lines in Mass or NY) and there were never any major delays.
Sundays -
On this day everything gets crazy (at least during the summer). The morning commute is changed to include the entire Panamericana Sur going south out of Lima. Anyone who wants to go to the north to Lima, has to take the Antigua Panamericana Sur. The Antigua is in total disrepair and doesn't look like it has had any real work done in years. Many areas along the road are extremely dangerous and the road has almost no signs telling you how to get to Lima or how to stay on the Antigua Panamericana Sur. Generally there are a good deal of Police in the area so you can ask them where to go.
The Antigua Panamericana Sur has one lane in each direction. So passing is possible, but extremely difficult on Sundays due to the high traffic. If you leave Lima in the afternoon and go to the south, you need to take the Antigua Panamericana Sur because the real Panamericana Sur is changed to have all lanes going North! For the Antigua Panamericana Sur, going south and going north have completely different routes. Going from Lima to the south on the Antigua Panamericana Sur is by far much more dangerous (not to mention it is afternoon/night). The roads going to the south are full of huge holes and many of them are unpaved. It goes right through some of the poorest and most dangerous shanty towns in Lima (Villa Maria, Villa El Salvador). Going to the south, it's much longer and much harder to find Police. There are almost no signs that indicate how to get to the south.
If you are a weekend traveler coming from Lima, this is great. You can quickly get down to the beach in the morning and make it back into town the same night. This is especially popular with the working class who work Mon-Sat in Peru. Many of the visitors to the beach on this day are maids, taxi drivers, bus drivers, factory workers, etc. I believe all lanes are open to the South from 7am until noon. Then I believe that all lanes are open to the North from 2pm until 7pm. These times change often and are not consistent, but they give a general idea.
In the end, this restricted a lot of my activities on Sundays. This meant that driving into Lima on a Sunday was a massive pain in the ass. The commute time getting there goes from 30-45 minutes up to 1.5 hours. The commute time getting back goes from 40-50 minutes to 2 hours. Sunday is a good day for resting and, for me, driving almost 4 hours is not resting. Staying at the beach also is not a great idea for Sundays. It's crowded, noisy, and the waves are too crowded to surf safely.
Road crossings -
%&@*%@^(%*^! It's extremely dangerous just to drive on the roads. The speed limits range from 80 Kph to 100 Kph. This means that the drivers go between 100-150+ Kph. The highway changes from 4-5 lanes on each side down to 2 on each side. It only changes to 1 lane per side when you get down past Asia. There are stairways and bridges for crossing the road every Km (half mile) or so. People are constantly complaining in both the newspaper and the radio about how there are not enough of these bridges. But the people seem to rarely use them. I've seen people carrying 100 lb sacks of rice across 4+ lanes of highway only 20 yards from a pedestrian bridge. Every day there are news stories about people dying when they try to cross the highway and don't use the bridge.
My main concern has been that at night time there is little lightning past Chorillos and Villa El Salvador. There are also a lot of trees and fences. This means that it's hard to see people in the dark and often they can be hidden behind obstructions. Often they don't look carefully with crossing. You can obviously avoid a lot of them, but if you hit just one, what happens? They are breaking an 'unenforced law' by crossing the street, jumping the fences, and not using the pedestrian bridges. Also they are not crossing at any kind of crosswalk. From the lawyers I have spoken with so far (none specialized in these cases), they seem to consider it the driver's fault no matter what. There is some belief here that it is the people's native right to cross the road when they want to and that 'western laws' don't apply to people who have 'different beliefs'.
I'm still investigating this as I just can't understand that logic or how it could possibly work in a city of almost 8 million people. A few lawyers that I've spoken with have told me that as a gringo, it would be best if I left the country and never came back if I was to kill someone accidentally on the highway. They believe that I would be put into an overcrowded Peruvian jail even if I was innocent. The jails here currently hold 44,000 people and were built to house 23,000 people. Obviously conditions are on the edge of humans rights abuse. So going to jail in Peru is a major concern. So what should someone do? Most commutes to the south are around 30-90 minutes. You could go way under the speed limit just to be safe (but get harassed by people honking at you as they fly by at twice the limit) and double your travel time. But going 'slow enough' to be safe from people crossing the road from behind trees and such causes a dangerous situation with other drivers who are going twice the speed limit. They aren't ready for a car going so slow and could possibly collide with you.
Really as far as I can tell at the moment there is no good solution. The government certainly hasn't done enough to help the situation. People crossing the road 'illegally' are almost never punished or even warned (they do it right in front of police). Some areas lack enough bridges. Speeding is not enforced by the police (I've seen cars go past parked police vehicles at over 200 Kph). Most of the police vehicles on the highway aren't highway ready and could not maintain a pursuit. Many of them are just parked there but barely run at all. I've seen many on the shoulder of the road motoring along at max speed of 40 Kph. If they can't even keep their trucks running, do you think they have speed radars? No!
It's the wild wild west of highways. Cuidao!
I'll add some more to this as I get time. I also plan to post an entry for 'Experiences Living in Punta Hermosa'.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Jellyfish invade San Bartolo!
Well I had been surfing at San Bartolo for a couple of weeks with no real problems. I found it to be my favorite beach in the area. I'd see a jellyfish or two every day, but mostly in the calmer waters that weren't used for surfing.
Then all the sudden last weekend the jellyfish showed up in force! There were tons of them all over the place, near the shore, along the jetties, in the surf, etc. Earlier this week, I went out to try to surf with just some board shorts and a rash vest. I could barely look at the incoming waves because I was surrounded by huge (~2 foot diameter w/ 4 tentacles about 1 meter each) jellyfish (malaguas, aguamalas, yellyfish, medusas)! I asked some of the locals in the water about the sting and I was told that it hurt badly. Every time I looked for a wave and then looked back around my board, I'd have a jellyfish only 1-3 feet away from me. When I'd finish a wave, I'd always end up right next to more jellyfish.
I decided to leave the water early and come back next time with a full wet suit. But that night I read all kinds of stories about how people had duck dived waves and ended up with jellyfish stings on their faces and eyes! Some people's eyes swelled up so big that their forehead connected to their cheek bones. Others have vision loss...
The next day I headed back to San Bartolo with my full wet suit to see how things were going. There were even more jellyfish than the day before. Just from the jetty, I could see at least 30 large jellyfish. At this point some of them had started to wash up on the beaches and the rocks. So they are slowly being ripped apart and dying, but I just checked again today and there are plenty still in the water. It's not safe for people swimming because so many are in the waves breaking onto the beach.
In my research, I found that Australia has jellyfish problems in January (sometimes they come in late December, like 2006). I imagine the same applies to South America. It looks like they are a little late this year due to La Niña keeping the water temps down (showing up in early February 2008). Many public beaches in Australia have surface nets setup just to catch jellyfish so that they won't wash up on shore. This is because Australia has the most deadly and painful species (Man 'o War/Blue Bottle and Box Jellyfish). I guess that sea turtles and sun fish eat jellyfish, but I'm not sure what else does. The ones washed up on shore don't seem to get much attention from the birds or the flies. Some Chinese (and other Asian) foods include parts of the jellyfish.
From what I've been reading, they should die off in a couple of weeks and no longer be a problem. But it stinks waiting for them to die, many of the locals don't seem to care and the lineup still seems to be busy. But I've also seen a number of locals with some pretty big scars on their chests and backs, not sure if they are from jellyfish though. The water is crystal clear and the waves are great! Die jellyfish die!
If anyone knows the species or has information on the jellyfish in these photos (have you been stung by one?), please let me know!
Then all the sudden last weekend the jellyfish showed up in force! There were tons of them all over the place, near the shore, along the jetties, in the surf, etc. Earlier this week, I went out to try to surf with just some board shorts and a rash vest. I could barely look at the incoming waves because I was surrounded by huge (~2 foot diameter w/ 4 tentacles about 1 meter each) jellyfish (malaguas, aguamalas, yellyfish, medusas)! I asked some of the locals in the water about the sting and I was told that it hurt badly. Every time I looked for a wave and then looked back around my board, I'd have a jellyfish only 1-3 feet away from me. When I'd finish a wave, I'd always end up right next to more jellyfish.
I decided to leave the water early and come back next time with a full wet suit. But that night I read all kinds of stories about how people had duck dived waves and ended up with jellyfish stings on their faces and eyes! Some people's eyes swelled up so big that their forehead connected to their cheek bones. Others have vision loss...
The next day I headed back to San Bartolo with my full wet suit to see how things were going. There were even more jellyfish than the day before. Just from the jetty, I could see at least 30 large jellyfish. At this point some of them had started to wash up on the beaches and the rocks. So they are slowly being ripped apart and dying, but I just checked again today and there are plenty still in the water. It's not safe for people swimming because so many are in the waves breaking onto the beach.
In my research, I found that Australia has jellyfish problems in January (sometimes they come in late December, like 2006). I imagine the same applies to South America. It looks like they are a little late this year due to La Niña keeping the water temps down (showing up in early February 2008). Many public beaches in Australia have surface nets setup just to catch jellyfish so that they won't wash up on shore. This is because Australia has the most deadly and painful species (Man 'o War/Blue Bottle and Box Jellyfish). I guess that sea turtles and sun fish eat jellyfish, but I'm not sure what else does. The ones washed up on shore don't seem to get much attention from the birds or the flies. Some Chinese (and other Asian) foods include parts of the jellyfish.
From what I've been reading, they should die off in a couple of weeks and no longer be a problem. But it stinks waiting for them to die, many of the locals don't seem to care and the lineup still seems to be busy. But I've also seen a number of locals with some pretty big scars on their chests and backs, not sure if they are from jellyfish though. The water is crystal clear and the waves are great! Die jellyfish die!
If anyone knows the species or has information on the jellyfish in these photos (have you been stung by one?), please let me know!
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