Aloha,

I have been very sick for the last two days, and I was just starting to feel better yesterday. Luckily the waves have been flat. Today we woke up and finally saw the swell everyone was talking about. We had a great photo session this morning with great waves over head and sun.

    Yesterday we all took an hour drive to a place called Pacasmayo. The waves are usually bigger there and there is also usually more wind, but when we got there it was flat and not much wind at all. A few of us gave it a try for a little bit, but it wasn't all that great. We ended up just looking around and eating at the Pacasmayo hotel.



     The day before yesterday we went to one of the oldest remaining civilization in the world, Chan Chan. The entire town is made of mud, rocks and shells from the beach. It is amazing that after 5,000 years it still remains. The reason parts of the town are still standing is because it never rains in that part of Peru and it is very hot and dry. Chan Chan is very well maintained by the people who work for the Chan Chan museum. There are beautiful and meaningful designs all around the mud walls.
   







The designs on the wall are otters, and the lines represent swells.



7 of 10 people were fishermen in Chan Chan.



Pelicans were sacred to the people of Chan Chan because they were fishermen too.



A lake from an aquifer under the land. Under ground tunnels of water from the Andes mountain range provide the only water for plants and animals because it never rains in this part of Peru.

The Kings tomb.










    After visiting Chan Chan we went to a town called Huanchaco to surf on the first surf boards in the world. These boards were made of reeds and were very difficult to catch waves on. Originally these were for fishing, fishermen would put their nets and thing on the boat then paddle it out with bamboo cut in half vertically.


More pics from Chicama when the surf was down.
Ekolu did a nice concert in the town hall, then all of the kids, Connor, Ekolu and I sang a song. The song was called "A stand up World" Ekolu wrote it himself.

Moto taxi, There are many of these on the streets. Most of the drivers are probably about 14.

The front street of Chicama.



Good times in Chicama..

The first house in Chicama. This is where the first surfers slept to surf Chicama.