land of 10.000 turns - mancora, peru

last one...

2008-08-07T18:39:00.001-05:00

The eight months in south america started in lima, made its way through mancora, the galapagos islands, trujillo, chicama, huanchaco, cusco, machu picchu, valle nevado, termas de chillan and ended in santiago de chile, truly described as a unique experience.

It was a time with incredible experiences, both positive and negative. There was the arrival in this small fishing village in the north of peru and the feeling “I am going to stay here for 6 months?!” Then the huge fight with the first company and the insecure feeling of what is going to happen in the future and of course the thoughts about the homies and people you love and miss, but that are sooo far away…

The life at the beach, working in boardshorts and t-shirt was an amazing time and I already miss the sound of the waves and the ocean, singing when I am going to sleep. When I look back, I remember some great experiences that I will never forget! I went surfing in one of the best waves in the world, paddling out in the sunset in this warm, glassy water, had dolphins swimming around me while sitting in the lineup, did paragliding in the sacred valley near cusco, went snorkelling with sharks, rays and sea lions, kitesurfed in conditions that I would describe as perfect, climbed machu picchu, snowboarded the endless powder of the andes mountains and met people that will stay in my heart forever and that I cannot wait to see again. There were these key-people that simply made my stay and that I owe big time: Jason from Colorado, you are my man, who was the key that helped me stay in mancora, surf in the morning and drink brahma beer every night, make pizza mama mia, eat pollo a la brasa and enjoy the best of peru. Along with him were Johanna and Gary from samana chakra, that gave me the possibility to work for them without seeing any cv or whatever I have done in the past, “I like your smile” was the sentence I will always remember and that seemed sufficient enough. Gary was the one that, although unfortunately only there with me for a short time, gave me so much inside into kitesurfing, hooked me up with the burton guys down in chile and simply helped me out whenever he could – you guys are just great and amazing and I have learned a lot from you for every part of my life, thank you so much!

I also remember the days with my parents in mancora and the great Peruvian cuisine that we enjoyed at samana chakra and la sirena as well as the trip with my brother along the Peruvian coast and the Galapagos islands, just surfing in our heads, surfing the longest left handed wave of the world and visit this magical place machu picchu, its endless stairs and simply mind-blowing atmosphere.

Now I am sitting here in a small town in the Chilean mountains, waiting for my last day here in South America. The forecast says, there is going to be 20cm of snow in the night and sun during the day – it seems to be a perfect, epic day at the end of my trip that I believe changed my behaviour, attitude and simply myself in various ways and I will always remember these days, sitting on the beach, enjoy the sunset and listening to my ipod only in one ear, because the sound of the waves is just too beautiful not to listen to…

a lot happened in the last weeks...but time is flying by

2008-05-29T11:55:00.004-05:00

hey guapas and guapos,
in the last weeks, my parents visited me for some days and it was just amazing to welcome them here in Mancora. i had to eat lunch AND dinner in various restaurants here, really tough!
then i am working on the marketing plan to get german kitesurfers here to mancora. so i am contacting kite mags, tour operators, etc to raise awareness for this destination.

the american guy jason, i lived with in the last months, left three weeks ago and is now back in aspen, colorado. i am now living with an argentinian family. they are really nice people and i get to speak a lot of spanish (however, sometimes i still get lost...).

besides that, the windy season started a few weeks ago and i got to get on the water a lot. its nice to kitesurf in uncrowded waves and enjoy the warm water of the pacific ocean!
unfortunately, i had a kite accident last wednesday: here is what happened (maybe:-)

still dont really know, what happened, cause i cant remember anything from the accident. the guy that i live with was with me on the beach and we reconstructed the scene:
it was nice and strong wind, guess at about 20 knts. i was out kitesurfing for 2 hours and i had the feeling that the kite loses some air. so i went to the beach and my friend helped me to put the kite down. i checked the tubes and indeed there was some air missing. i saw that the deflate ventile was a little bit open, so i closed that and pumped new air into the kite...my friend helped me to launch the kite and some lines were tangled. i told him to try to untangle them....with a lot of strength, he untangled them. the powerlines straighten and i got pulled towards the fence (i expected that). everything seemed fine and i walked backwards toward the sea, kite at about 10,11 o`clock. then a sudden pull came from the kite and i made two steps towards the fence and then jumped over it (dont know if it was the kite or myself that pulled me into the air - could be a reflex to avoid getting pulled into the fence which is full of thorns).
my friend then saw me lying in the sand (face towards the house, feet towards the fence( so i must have lost control and turned around during the jump), kite lying down. i was complaining about pain in my breast and back and had some cuts on my feet from the fence. my friend took great care of me and helped me to stand up after some time, i went to have a shower (you could imagine how i looked like, wet, full of sand and bloody feet). then we drove to the medical service...
i cant remember anything from that point that my friend helped me to launch the kite until an hour in the ambulance.
however, i am getting better everyday, still sore muscles, but i hope i can get back on the water in a week:-)
i am sure, the first sessions will be strange and i will learn some lessons from that accident...great luck i had!

now i am waiting for my brother to meet him in guayaquil, ecuador at june 16th to fly to the galapagps islands for some days, before returning to mancora for 2 weeks. after my birthday, we will start our trip down the coast, visit some surfspots and machu picchu finally...then end of july, my brother leaves from lima and i am heading to santiago to get some snowboarding action in chile and argentina before returing to germany on august 6th.
of course i will keep you guys updated of this trip and what happenes in the last weeks here in mancora, peru...

to end this report, i have to admit that i miss you guys and especially my girl! hope you are all doing fine and keep writing emails!

have a good one and enjoy the pics

finally some news from mancora

2008-04-17T09:36:00.015-05:00

hey boys and girls,
i know that it took a long time since i posted the last time, but i guess i am adapting more and more to the peruvian way of life - manana, manana.
however, here we go! work here right now is relatively quiet since it is low season. last week i went with jason and ryan (californian ex-pro surfer) for a surf trip to trujillo, 900 km south of mancora. the mission behind this trip was to find a mcdonalds and to surf the world's longest left-handed wave in chicama.
after arriving in trujillo, we asked the taxi driver, where to find a mcdonalds, burger king or any other western-world food...unfortunately, he said, that there is not one single restaurant here - what a nightmare;-( so we decided to take the taxi to huanchaco, a beach resort near trujillo with a nice beach break. we surfed the waves for 2 days and then made our way to chicama. on the way, jason suddenly screamed: YELLOW M!!!we found a mcdonalds in a huge mall that was just opened 5 months ago. so we spend the day eating!:-)
chicama was pretty small, but still impressive. located in the middle of nowhere, this wave is supposed to be the longest left-handed wave in the world - when it is big! however, the wave is just perfect, but the water amazingly cold and we were freeeeeeezing our ass off! unfortunately, i broke a rip while surfing and have to take a break for hopefully only a few days....
so, before taking the bus back to mancora, i visited chan chan, an ancient kingdom, quite impressive and the funniest thing was, that i was the only one running around in these ruins, which made me take some random fotos...

so yesterday morning i came back to mancora and back to work...the sun is still shining, the sky is blue and in the next days, wind and waves are expected - we'll see!

i hope you guys at home are doing fine and i am always looking forward to receiving some emails!
oh, internet is still only available in this internetz kaffee...

check out the photos and tell me what you think!:-)

saludos de mancora, peru

impressions mancora pics

2008-03-10T12:17:00.010-05:00

impressions from Mancora

2008-03-10T12:04:00.002-05:00

hey fellas,
beach life here in mancora goes on and on...
the new company Samana Chakra i work for is just amazing and i get the possibility to work independently and with complete freedom to divide my day. while a lot of trust is put into my abilities and skills, i simply enjoy working for them.
besides that, i have to do a morning and sunset surf session with my boss, which is really hard, but if the boss is telling me that i have to, well...:-)))
in the last weeks, there was a lot of rain during the nights, so i took some pictures of the crappy and dirty main streets in mancora. the result of that rain is a new species of insects every night and they dont come with a few, no millions;-) arrive every night which means that half an hour is spent to kill all kinds of animals before actually going to sleep...
in the next weeks, i will do some trips to the next bigger city piura and some surf spots around mancora. i hope to find a supermarket over there to get some variability in the daily food and to find some pesto would be a dream come true;-)
oh, one last thing..internet is still not present in the hotel and i am in doubt i will still be here the day it surprisingly will...

so, i hope you guys are alright and i am always looking forward to hearing from you!
have a good one and no worries..

saludos
captain

Los Lobitos

2008-02-15T20:02:00.002-05:00

Waves in Los Lobitos

2008-02-15T20:00:00.002-05:00

Cabo Blanco

2008-02-15T19:58:00.002-05:00

mototaxi

2008-02-15T19:56:00.002-05:00

again...sunset

2008-02-15T19:52:00.002-05:00

new board

2008-02-15T19:49:00.002-05:00

so many news - briefly said!

2008-02-15T19:36:00.002-05:00

hey weasels,
in the last few days, so many things happened, i dont even know where to begin...
unfortunately, i had to change my placement company due to interpersonal circumstances - in a few words: my supervisor was acting more than unrpfessional and kind of threw me out of the hotel, fu....ing biatsh!
however, things seem to turn more than positive and i will work for two other companies. after leaving the hotel i went to the neighbour to stay for at least a night. jason, the owne, is an american from aspen. he was a great support and helped me getting over this situation. besides that he managed to offer me a new placement in cooperation with another company. he is owning a small, family owned hotel which will offer me a few projects and the other one is the spa/wellness hotel samana chakra (check out the link!) which will be the main company i will be working for.
besides some little projects, a strategic masterplan for tourism in mancora will be developed and presented to the ministry of tourism and municipality! this is a huge and challenging project and i am looking more than forward to it.

besides all the work, i also found some time to go surfing and more and more waves get cought, however sometimes only for a few seconds:-) weather is still great and hopefully never changes...
the spanish language skills are more and more improving and even though i am still a gringo (however my skin is quite tanned) i know more and more people here.

i hope you guys are doing well and i wanna say thanks for the support i got in the last days!

see ya mates and news from mancora will come soon...

captain

2008-01-22T19:24:00.001-05:00

sunset Máncora playa yesterday

2008-01-22T19:21:00.001-05:00

rough conditions with sometimes scary waves rolling in...

2008-01-22T19:18:00.001-05:00

kitesession in Pocitas, south of Máncora

2008-01-22T19:15:00.001-05:00

view from the hotel room

2008-01-22T19:12:00.001-05:00

Surfspot Máncora Playa

Máncora - first days

2008-01-18T19:07:00.000-05:00

"Bienvenidos a Máncora - paraiso del turismo y del amor" was the sign that showed the entrance to the "city" I will spent the next months in...sounds alright ey?!
The first days were quite slow and chilled out and most time was spent at the beach. The people here are nice and friendly, however there are even in this small village places that a "gringo" should not go to.
Unfortunately I have no internet yet so that I have to visit the incredibly fast internet cafes - therefore no pics yet, but hope that is going to change soon.
The hotel and company I am working for is located just at the beach and I can hear the waves breaking into the bay when lying in bed after having killed the daily 10-20 insects in my room;-)
Right now, there are only a few guests staying, but next week i will do a tour with some American surfers to the spots around Máncora - lets see whats happening!

So I guess thats it again for now - pics will follow with a faster internet connection...

Oh, and comments are welcome;-)

Saludos del paraíso

Arrived!

2008-01-12T08:42:00.000-05:00

Sooooo, finally I arrived in Lima in the early evening after almost 20 hours travelling.
Now, I will stay a few days in the Inka Lodge in Lima, before setting sails to Máncora on Monday afternoon...
Punta Hermosa and a Surf-fair are waiting right now.

More news in a few days.

el captain

Welcome

2008-01-04T07:30:00.001-05:00

Welcome and Bienvenidos,
For the next 8 months I will leave my harbour in cologne and I hope that this blog will be the connection between me being in Perú and all my fellows around the world and across the sea.
I will try to keep you up to date of whats going on in Máncora and hope that I will get news from whats up with you guys...

Have a good one and see ya mates.

el captain