Nikita surfer Oceane Leveque set out to search for the longest lefts she could find in the land of the Incas, Peru, and we were delighted when she sent over a little recap of her adventures!
Words by Oceane Leveque
When I started telling around I was going on a trip to Peru, people’s first thoughts would usually go to famous Machu Picchu, Cuzco town and their highly spiritual trekking opportunities. But very little of them knew that the Incas’ land is also the realm of left-handed waves, some of which being the longest in the world. Thus only fellow surfers understood my plan to skip ancestral culture and head straight North to the magical spots of Lobitos and Máncora, which I was lucky to ride some 7 years ago.
After my Peruvian good friend Ernesto picked me up and his family welcomed and treated me to the best local food ever, we started our quest for waves. The 18-hour ride from Lima, stuck between the Pacific Ocean and some desert sand dunes, is barren, dull and endless. Only remains of an impressive bi-colored landscape spreading forever in every shade of blue and yellow and one single question: is life even possible around here?
Same thought once I arrived in Lobitos, a little fishing village which, despite its fast development those past years, still reminds one of western movies’ ghost towns. Its abandoned empty wooden houses mixed with a strong south wind blowing and lifting the sand in small twirls along the beach with a whistling sound gives Lobitos its unique atmosphere. Some might call it eerie… I certainly would!
A quick ride by moto-taxi later, concluded by the drivers’ prophecy: “Sí, hay olas”: the waves are good (!!!)… and here I am, facing the sea and frothing in front of this beautiful tubular forever peeling left. The surf is small but so fantastically clean and perfect that suddenly the millions of hours spent in buses, planes, taxis and moto-taxis to get there are forgotten in a blink:
This is the heaven I was looking for.
And so have I kept enjoying the Peru I’ve loved every time more. Its numerous secluded quiet beaches, the modest smile of its people, the mess and craziness of its colorful towns and the intensity of its sunsets make it a truly unique destination.
Don’t get me wrong, the land there is neither tropical nor welcoming; on the contrary, it is dry, tough and arid. But once you have patiently gone through the first hard layer, its secrets will be revealed to you in an unmatchable rewarding way.
