Mission to Find Surf...Unsuccessful (Peru)

The last two days in Quito were not all that active.  Since we nixed Cotopaxi, we basically had two extra days in the city.  They were mostly spent hanging out with other hostel guests, and walking around the city.  Nothing too exciting, lots of cooking, which was a welcome relief from fried food.  Wednesday night we were especially bored and bought a big sign to decorate for Jared's flight back.  Thursday afternoon, we picked him up from the airport, and settled in for our final night in Quito.  He was tired after his adventure, so Kenny, Alex, and I went out to meet up with my friend, who lives in Quito, Sandra again at a restaurant in her neighborhood; had some good drinks and great food before going back to the historic distric for sleep.
The next morning, we woke up and made for the Peruvian border, which was insanely easy, and free, and definitely the easiest border we've crossed.  We were headed for Lobitos, a small surfer town, and making great time.  According to our directions, we were to turn off the panamerican highway several kilometers short of the town and drive right along the coast.  The "road", however turned out to be straight up sand dunes inside of what appeared to be the private property of an oil extraction plant.  We couldn't drive more than 5 mph, and often completely lost the actual path.  The drive was crap, often loose sand, often massive bumps...did I mention we are in a small non-4x4 car?  The sand was getting in the brakes, making them hard to work with.  The sun set, and we could see the town lights ahead, but had no idea A) how to get there, because the road was so poor, and B) if the other side of this dune jungle was even open as it was private property for a company.  At one point, we had to all get out of the car to look for our path, ended up turning around and made one last ditch effort to find a new path, before potentially just whipping out the tents and taking shifts watching out for would-be thieves.  Luckily, we did finally find a proper road right at the town entrance and were able to drive without incident from that point.
The "town" was also a mystery.  It was difficult to see by night, but it was basically a town-in-training.

There were plots of empty land everywhere, that looked as though they were in the works to be developed, but there was no actual construction or machinery on them.  There were great looking playgrounds and parks, but no children anywhere.  It could have been the abandoned set of a movie.  The first hostel we found actually turned us away, because the other people in the DORM didn't want to share the room...what!?!?!?  After a considerable amount of arguing, I didn't even want to give the guy my money.  The next place we found was accommodating, and we plopped our stuff down and asked directions to the only eatery in town.  That night, we slept well and prepped for surfing the next day.
I'm not sure who claimed Lobitos as a surf spot, because the next morning Kenny and Jared went to the beach to find almost no waves in frigid water.  Jared made his mind up that we would not being spending the day there to surf, and Kenny agreed, so we grabbed a quick breakfast, and packed up the car to head to the next surf spot on route, Trujillo.
This drive was easy, straight along the Panamerican Highway, all the way into town.  We found a great place to stay, and a good dinner before bed.  The next morning, we woke up to really cold day. We bundled up, and set out to the beach to check out the waves.  The day was so gloomy and foggy and wet, yet the waves didn't seem to budge much.  Again, they were small and unenticing, making Jared again unwilling to don a wetsuit.  Kenny and Alex were willing to wait out the day, especially because the town seemed much more surfer-esque than Lobitos.  Jared and I packed the car easily, as it would just be the two of us, and said our sad goodbyes to Kenny and Alex.
We made out way to Lima, in hopes of at least a good tourist city, and possibly some waves.  The day did not improve along the drive south, but at least there were no surprises along the way.  We have, however, been stopped in Peru by police checkpoints more than in any other country, but they have all been nice and easy. By the time we arrived into Lima, rush hour traffic was in full swing, so our trip was extended by about an hour, but we found our hostel easily, which, in fact, turned out to be the upstairs apartments to a nice woman's home. She gave us a private room for a discounted price, and we happily accepted. I was ravenous, so we bee-lined it to a restaurant and tamed the beast, before heading back to sleep.
 The next morning, we were surprised by a free breakfast from the woman who lives there. She gave us directions to make our way around town, and we hopped on a collectivo (super cheap city bus) to first figure out visas for Bolivia and Brasil. The only thing we really figured out is that we could not get either there, so we decided to check out the town sites. We went to the Miraflores area to walk the Malecon. Lima is quite a stunning city, because it is set on the cliffs overlooking the ocean, which made for a few good pictures.

 The Malecon is dotted with parks all up and down the cliffs. After a few hours, we were cold and tired and made our way back, via collectivo, to the hostel
for dinner. Jared dropped off his laundry and picked up a bottle of Pisco to try. We finished off the night
with some Spartacus episodes and sleep.
 The next morning, we took the car in to a mechanic to have the brakes checked as they were again making a horrendous amount of noise, bahhh!!! Luckily, the mechanic said we only needed a good cleaning, and could be on our way after a bit. We left the car with them, and jumped back on the bus, headed for the center of town. We got off the bus about 10 blocks from our destination, and walked right into the bad neighborhood. This time, I was prepared to cause substantial collateral damage with my mace, but was lucky enough not to need it. We finally arrived to the center, and took a tour of the Church of San Fransisco, with a large catacomb underneath. We attempted the break the rules, and take a few photos, which mainly just resulted in a lot of pictures of the inside of my coat pocket. After, we walked to the main square and cathedral, with the remains of Fransisco Pizzarro (the Inca conqueror), we hope...apparently, they showed off "his" remains for almost a century, before discovering those were not intact his, but a random church contributor.

                                                               

After many photos, we booked it back to the mechanic shop just before closing. We also picked up a spare set of front brakes, in case any &:>^+=\ tries to scam us in the mountains again. We had planned on going back out to a museum and fountain before calling it a night, but Jared's laundry wasn't ready...and our Pisco sours were, so our plans got derailed.
 Today, we woke up and packed to head to Nazca, to see the ancient sand/rock formations made by the Nazca (and other) people. Apparently, they weren't discovered until a routine fly-by by a scientist. The markings sprawl over 50 km, and can really only be seen well via air. We first stopped at, I believe, the only natural oasis discovered in Peru, which looks like it once could have been very stunning, but is now sort of overrun by tourist, but still quite an interesting site, a small town with lush land completely surrounded by sand dunes. Speaking of which, northern Peru has been quite a shock, because Ecuador was so green and cultivated, and Peru is straight up sand, sand, and more sand. After the oasis, we made it to two look outs for the Nazca lines, both of which gave just a teenie glimpse at what truly is a mysterious landmark. Some say they lines were from a boisterous native, some say they corresponded to the changing seasons, and some say they are landmarks for alien aircraft. Who knows, but they were pretty neat. I wish we had the money to invest in a good look, but lord knows we don't, or we would at least rather save it for a different adventure. Like sandboarding!!! Which we plan to do in the morning. 4:30am wake up, for our 5am bus. We will be going to the largest sand dune in South America, Cerro Blanco, to spend the morning strapped to a snowboard, hopefully flying down the sand (I've been snowboarding once, and I did anything but fly anywhere. I'm hoping I get to use a helmet, as it literally saved me from extensive brains damage the first time). Which reminds me, I should check to see if we are covered by our health insurance for sandboarding...