Santa Catalina - Panama

Hola muchachos, time to catch up !!

After surfing some empty beachbreak waves at Wizard Beach on Bastimentos for our last days in Bocas del Toro, we left Bocas Town under a burning sun. 4 buses and a couple of taxis later, we arrived to Santa Catalina on the Pacific Coast. As a side note, this trip was also the occasion to test how many persons you can fit in 25-seat bus….the answer is about 50 but it is not super comfortable!!

Most surfers will know Santa Catalina at least by name, and we had mixed expectations from what we had read and heard (crowd etc..) but it is still mostly the  jungle out there and it was pretty quiet. We stayed at a nice little place, right on the beach, overlooking “La Punta” which is the main spot of the area (thanks Shay for the recommendation!). The swell we tracked down on the forecast maps showed up progressively as expected…good introduction to the place with 2-3 ft the first day, 3-4 ft the next and 4-6 ft the third. The spot is a righthand reef break with nice wally sections and a great rhythm…plus the water is amazingly warm (almost doesn’t feel normal when you jump out). The wave is surfed mid to high tide only so the main task of our few days there was watching the tide fill in and pick the best time to go out. 

The swell was supposed to peak the fourth day so I made sure to wake up early to check it out and maybe catch the end of the mid tide early morning….well here is a lesson: make sure you are actually awake when you get out of bed..while still half asleep I managed to miss a step and smash my knee on the corner of the terrace…Small consolation, it turned out the swell had peaked the day before and it was onshore and a bit too low already. One more high-tide evening session and we were off to Panama City again to take our plane.

Next stop California ! Can’t wait !!

simon

Bocas del Toro - Panama

Hi everyone,

From Panama city, we caught a bus to Bocas del Toro (10 hours), where we spent a week. The white sand beaches, the Caribbean culture, vibe and food, and the amazing tropical plants and fruits here and there are all reminders that you are in the Caribbean! We caught a small swell when we arrived, and had the chance to surf in boardies, surrounded by amazing sceneries. We did a fair amount of biking in Bocas, as everything can pretty much be done by bike (unless you want to visit the other islands of course!). So we would bike 7 kms each way to the surf spots, surf, eat, chill, sleep, and this over again for three days. Then the swell dropped, so we went to Bocas del Drago on the other side of the island. Again more biking, way harder this time, but definitely worth the (hilly) ride. Starfish beach as it is called is one of the most beautiful beach I have seen, coconut trees, crystal clear water, hardly anyone, a little sheltered paradise… breathtaking. Because the swell was small we did not get the chance to surf the best spot of the archipelago on Carenero Island, but we did get some good surf at Bastimentos (another island). Wizard Beach is accessible either by boat by walking a very muddy path (it is the rainy season in the Islands). After two more days of surf at Wizard and some mud walking, we are on the road again, going to Santa Catalina on the Pacific coast. Flying to California in 8 days!

Cheers!

Marie

Casco Viejo - Panama City

Hello everyone,

We arrived in Panama on Monday after two flights of a few hours and a stopover in Bogota. We spent the first night and the following day in Casco Viejo which is the old Panama city. There is a very nice hostal there, called Luna's Castle, an old private home  immensely big and beautifuly decorated! The next morning we walked around the neighborhood which until recently was of little interest to the richer Panamians who left for Nuevo Panama, on the other side of the city. However, in 2003 the UNESCO declared Casco Viejo an important aspect of the Panamian Heritage and since then reconstruction of the abandonned and deteriorated buildings has taken place. Although most buildings are still in very bad shape, you can only imagine how beautiul this part of the city must have been...

We then took a bus to Bocas del Toro on the Northern Caribbean coast of Panama, but more on this in our next update!
Cheers,
Marie.

Contrast between Casco Viejo and Panama City in the background

Small plaza in Casco Viejo

Panama City from Casco Viejo

Marie and Pacasmayo's Lefts

Hi People,

Back to lower grounds after our trip in the mountains. No monster swell around so we didnt get to surf the mythical waves of chicama...I did have a "ceviche" there which was totally mythical though (peruvian dish made of raw fished with lemon and chili..amazing !!!)

Anyway, we headed further north towards Pacasmayo, more exposed and consistent. The waves there are guess what....long lefthanders! We stayed a few days getting to know the wave and hurting our arms paddling back against the currents (there was also some more ceviches involved but that's another story).
As I was getting close to being surfed out, I took a few pictures of Marie tuning her carving game on the pacasmayo's lefts.Check it out !!

Kuelap, the Chachapoyas Fortress

After checking out all the weird stuff of the shaman's market in Chiclayo we headed out northeast to the small town of Chachapoyas in the northern Andes.

"Chachapoyas" which means People of the Clouds was also the name of an ancient civilization that used to live in the area. They were conquered by the more famous Incas sometime before the Spanish showed up in Perù.

Our mission was to visit their massive fortress that is hidden in the mountains at +3000 m overlooking the Utcubamba Valley. After a dodgy combi ride at dawn at 100 km/h in narrow gravel roads on the edges of the cliffs (I wish I had slept all the way like Marie, I would have been less tense !!) we got to the small pueblo Maria. A couple of hours walk and we got to Kuelap !

The size of the whole structure is impressive and it is hard to imagine the amount of work and time required to get all that up. It was pretty amazing to walk though the ruins on top of the mountains...it seemed to be a pretty well organized community. Plus they have the nicest views of the mountains so that was probably a sweet life up there !

Hope you enjoy the pictures and the next update will be Marie ripping the long walls of Pacasmayo !

Go to the Witches' Market and They 'll fix you!

Los niños de Perù

Peru so far...

Hi people,

After our 8 days in Lobitos, we decided to go a bit further south and catch some waves around Chicama and Pacasmayo (8 hours North of Lima). But, first, we wanted to spend one good night with a hot shower, so we made a stop in Trujillo. I (Marie) was still trying to recover from a food intoxication I had with a fish dish two days ago, so I was really anticipating a bumpy bus ride, but all was fine, although I ended up on a white rice and coca-cola diet for the following 3 days… Anyway, Trujillo is a nice city; we did the basic walking around (Plaza de Armas, Mercado central…). It is the city where the Spanish and Pizzaro first arrived to in Peru, so it has a lot of colonial Spanish style buildings, all with different bright colors. From Trujillo we took another bus to Chicama, where we stayed only one day and one night: the swell was too small for Chicama to be pumping, but we got a taste of what it could be like! Simon ate the best ceviche hehad so far in Peru, while I watched him, furious, with my rice and coca-cola… The next day, we took another bus to Pacasmayo this time, a fishing town a little bit further north than Chicama, it is said to be more consistent. Once there the swell was also very small, we took a keep cool approach to the day, walking around town, lots of internet, and decided it was the best time to go explore the mountains of Peru. We decided that we were not going to go to Cuzco and the Machu-Pichu because it takes a lot of time and money, instead we went to Kuelap, the ancient village of the Chachapoyas people (the people of the clouds), and it was amazing, but more on this in our next update.

We hope you enjoy the blog and our trip so far!

Suerte to all of you as we say in Peru!

Marie

Pizarro Av., Trujillo

Plaza de Armas, Trujillo

Chicama

Chicama

Chicama

Evening Surf @ Lobitos - Peru

© Marie

One Wave @ El Hueco

Untitled from simonweppe on Vimeo.

Lobitos Wave Machine

Good Morning !

Good Night !

Park 'n Go !!

Hi people, some news from Lobitos ! 

The 20 hours+ of bus brought us to the fishing town of Talara. After a 30 minutes ride in a dodgy combi where we almost lost the boards that were on the roof, we arrived in the small pueblo of Lobitos right in the middle of the desert, safe and sound although “sligthtly” exhausted.

This place is close to a natural wonder for surfers. A wide “croissant”-shaped bay bounded by 2 rocky headlands that has a perfect orientation for southerly swells that consistently hit Peru. The place used to be a military base and so not open to public until 2000, then massive rainfalls due to the 2005 El Nino filled the bay with sand.  Add few years of south swell to shape all that sand and you end up with an amazing wave machine !!  

Locals say to make the most of it because that place might not last forever, so this is what we are doing…..testing the limits of how much surfing our bodys can take… and I think we are getting close to the limits now !!

PS: Side notes for our friends kitesurfers and windsurfers, by noon the cross-offshore wind picks up to 15-20 knots  !!!

We are going south on Thursday and the next update will be from Chicama/Pacasmayo !! 

Punta Hermosa - Peru

Hi guys,

So after our stopover in Santiago, we took a flight to Lima and then a taxi to the small town of Punta Hermosa, 45 minutes South of Lima. We spent 4 days there, at Bravo Surfcamp. We surfed Cabarellos, Senoritas and Punta Rocas. These are all point breaks, and Cabarellos and Senoritas are in the same bay, a right at one end and a left at the other = crazy set up! 

We tried our first Peruvian ceviche (raw fish cooked in lime juice): amazing! You can eat for pretty cheap in Peru, the set menu starts at 6 soles ($2) for a three courses meal.

On our last day, we spent the morning at the ruins of Pachacamac, one of the most ancient religious site of the South, where the Ychmu, Lima and Inca people lived. The tour of the ruins finishes with a panoramic view over the ocean and the Lurin valley, the contrast here, with the desert scenery of the Andes, the deep blue of the ocean and the bright green of the valley is simply breath-taking…

It is from Punta Hermosa that we prepared our departure to the North of Peru, but first we spent two days in Lima, the capital of Peru. 

Next update with photos from Lima and where we are currently getting awesome waves; Lobitos!!

Cheers,

Marie

Stopover in Santiago de Chile

Hi people,

We have just spent three days in Santiago de Chile. Santiago is a city full of life (and people), with many high buildings, cafes, restaurants and very cosmopolite neighborhoods.  Chileans were very kind with us given how rusty our Spanish is.... We loved our time spent in Providencia, which is one of Santiago's indie neighborhood, and a place we recommend. Otherwise, Santiago is like any other large city, some places are very nice to visit, others are better to avoid (dirty, grey and unpleasant). With regards to the food, we tried the famous enpanadas (stuff pastries with either pino = beef stew, or  queso = cheese), we also tried porotos a typical chilean meal made of beans, corn and pumpkin. 

We are now preparing for our next flight =>Peru. Keep u posted.

Cheers,

Marie

Downtown Santiago

Providencia

Plaza de las armas

Universidad de Chile

Mercado central

Santiago by night

Le Rebord

 

Once upon a time was a mellow pointbreak that sometimes..when the combination of swell, winds, tide and sand was right became... less mellow...