Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Day 2: February 21 2011: Chancay to Huarara (?)

Im so fuckin tired. Too tired to write anything. So Im gonna make this quick. The day was full of ups and downs. Im talking hills and emotions. I skated the first 5 km. Nice roads. Cool weather. I don´t even remember why I stopped skating and started walking. I wasn´t tired. The road wasn´t great but it was skateable. But regardless I did. And out of nowhere came a dog. He wasn´t like other dogs. He didn´t try to attack, didn´t bark. HE just got close to me and started following. Sometimes rubbing against my legs, sometimes walking in between them. This was no dirty stret dog. The 10 o clock heat was killer but he still trotted proudly with his tongue hanging out. I tried to lose him by skating but he didn´t like my faster pace. He would jump infront of me. Not barking or trying to bite my wheels, but to just block me. As if to tell me don´t go too fast, walk with me.

So I did. I wanted to see where this dog would follow me until. At first I didnt mind the walk but then I started to break down. Here I was running away from everything and everyone again. I started to make friends in Lima. I was getting to surf for free and was offered a place to stay for free by one of the locals who let me use his board. But I threw it even though I wanted it. Everything I tried to build in Rhode Island went to waste. I had to start all over again. The realtionship I had with the person I loved the most I almost threw it all away before my trip because I was too stubborn to listen, to stubborn to stay, too focused on my trip to care about her sadness. My parents. My dad told me that I was losing my relationship with them. I proved nothing to myself at the Adrenalina, the only thing I thought I knew how to do. Here I was in the middle of the fucking desert with nothing except a tent, a sleeping bag and my board, with nothing to live for, three years after I lost it all in Ghana. What have I done? Nothing. I didnt even have enough money to fly home when all was done. I wondered why God was protecting me. Even my mind which I once had, I was slowly losing. I am crazy. That I have come to accept and I am on the brink of losing it.

I saw my little dog friend. He was still trotting with a fat smile next to me. He didn´t care where he was going. He just did. I looked at him and I promised myself, that I was going to finish this. And then I was going to go back and finish what I started. I was going to get work done and build a home. I would find my woman and make it with her. No more running away from relationships, from jobs, from life. I was thankful my little perro was there. ¨Thank you little buddy¨ , I said.

When the tears were all shed, I was really starting to feel the heat and at about 1130 me and the dog stopped for some food. Under the shade of a billboard we sat and we split some tuna I had. I told him that I was sorry. I couldn´t walk anymore. I had to skate after we were done eating. He was just happy he tuna cheese and bread.

I found a sugarcane stem I planned on using as a paddle when we were done. Again he tried to stop me from skating but this time I swung my stick at him to scare him and it worked. He still followed until he was too tired. Eventually I lost him. I was sad I did.

The road to Huarara was full of big hills. With every up I accomplished I went down with an infinite amount of hills ahead of me. It was so fucking frustrating because I had no way of telling when it was going to be over, unlike a mountain. Once you get to the top you are at the top. But the constant uphills were a bitch. Finally after one last up I could see a city. It was so much bigger than I thought. I arrived at 330 and got some real Chinese food. I kept moving at 5 trying to find a place to camp but this place was big and sketchy. I would have to make it out of this urban zone to camp but I was too tired to keep skating. Two towns north a policeman stopped me and asked me ¨Donde vas?¨ or where are you going. I said ¨aqui, pero soy mirar por a place to dormir¨ (yes that was my quote)รง

He told me there was a hostel right up ahead. I was uncovered and I wouldnt camp tonight. For 10 soles I would just be happy sleeping on a bed and recharging the iphone.

Day 1: Febraury 20th 2011, Barranco, Lima to Chancay (74 km, 47 mi)

As soon as I put my foot down this morning with my pack on I felt all the stress in my head and the fear in my soul shrink and move down to my feet. With every kick I lost some of each. I was ridiculuosly calm this morning. I wanted to leave at 6 but I ended up sleeping in until 7:00. By the time I left it was 7:30. Had a mango for breakfast, best breakfast ever.

The ride out of Barranco was pretty easy. I knew where to go having done the ride to Lima a couple of days before. The closer I got to Lima the more cars that flooded the road. It was nothing compared to a weekday though. I got out of Lima at about 9:30. On Panamericana norte is where people really started to get angry at me. I didnt take the wild honking serisouly, that was their means of communication. A lot of putas and locos flew by me. And the best part was that I got sprayed by a water gun by two different cars and hit by a water balloon by a third. For some reason none of it got to me. Not even when a bus started honking at me and didnt let go of it until he was so close to me I had to bail on the gravel. Feeling like a man on a mission is a good thing. I stopped at Puente Piedre for a quick snack and got lunch at Ancon, a pretty little beach town. It was about noon. By the time I left Ancon it was 1 and by the time I was back on the highway after getting lost it was 2. I was looking for the Panamerican variante a highway right on the ocean. When I got there is was beautiful. Relatively empty roads with a nice little shoulder. The ocean was on my left and giant sand cliffs on my right. Sunny blue skies and smooth roads. And even though the sun was doing work and I was going up, I started going down real quick with a view of some perfect breaks. I got to Chancay at about 4.

As I sit on this cliff with a beautiful sunset infront of me and waves crashing underneath me, I look back and appreciate syuch a diverse day. I skated shit roads with no shoulders, through a city and barren desert, cliffs and ocean, head and tailwind. Today I had it all and I skated 47 miles. What a great way to start 820 miles.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

DAY -2: February 18th 2011

I was supposed to leave on Thursday, at least that was the date I had randomly chosen. I didn´t. Now I have moved that date to Sunday the 20th. I figured Sunday was not so random. The streets will be quietest on Sunday morning. They´ll be empty, epmtier than any other time.

I have downloaded a map of my route on my phone. The GPS app Motion X GPS is fantastic. I have a terrain and road map of my route. 1320 km or about 820 miles is the official distance. I figure it will take about a month. I would really like to get back to Rhode Island by the beginning of April and really excited to start landscaping again. I do not have a ticket. I have no idea where Im going to leave from or how but that´ll figure itself out. I have no idea what Im going to do in Tumbes, I heard it was a shithole, but usually the best adventures happen in the crappiest places. I cant worry about Tumbes yet, my first stop is a town called Chancay about 78 km north of Barranco in Lima. Thats about 48 miles which is a very ambitious goal for the first day. The minimum of 40 miles a day will still stand (64km). (Distance converter: another reason why the iphone is a handy tool)

I think Im ready to face the headwind. I can´t escape the fact that there will be shit roads. BArren desert is all thats ahead of me with the ocean by my side. I am so excited to sleep by the ocean almost every night.

Terrified is the word I want to use. Its probably the most accurate, but there is just something inside me that is holding my sould prisoner. I tried to let it go, to forget about the trip, cancel the skate but it won´t let me go. The first time turned my life around and here Iam : time to do it all over again