Friday the 2nd of July was my last day of volunteering in Trujillo. After a sad and choked-up goodbye, I left with my co-volunteers Brittany and Kylien to Huaraz to continue my adventures in South America! Nonetheless we had some good adventures in Trujillo too!

Every weekend we organised kind of a trip with the team of volunteers. The first weekend we went relaxing in the little beachtown Huanchaco, the place where I learned to surf properly and met Vincent, my friend from university, again.

The second weekend we decided to go visit some other volunteers in Agallpampa up in the cierra (mountains). They are involved in some kind of water project for the villages up there. It was also an interesting trip, because a lot of the kids from our schools are originally from this region. Their (grand)parents migrated to Trujillo in search of a better life, but eventually ended up in the slums around the city and this is how the kids ended up in our schools.

We were lucky to visit Agallpampa just that weekend, because there was a major party going on in town! They were celebrating some saints and therefor there where some folkloric dance competitions, a soccer game, music everywhere, rooster fights and everyone was contributing to this massive festive meal! And because we were the only foreigners in town, I helped out slaughtering some cows for the meal and had some fun drinking with the local policemen. They bought me a beer, because I won a bet that I could open a bottle of beer with a sheet of A4 paper and this is how we all got involved in the party and everyone liked us a lot!

The third weekend we decided to go on a surfari with the team. We rented some boards and went to Puerto Chacama, aka the village with the longest wave in the world! The first night we camped on the beach around a bonfire and the second day we went surfing this huge wave! #Once in a while there was also some excitement during the weeks! One day some Peruvians broke into the car of one of our volunteers that is driving from Canada to Argentina and back. They stole some of his trekking gear, so like everyone would do, you make up a police statement and hope to get some money back from the insurance.

In Peru, things go quite differently. Every town has a black market here, where you go (never alone) and have a look around and who knows, there might be someone selling your stuff! This time I went with him having a look around and by coincidence I walked into a shop and yes, there was all of his stuff in a glass display! This is already a good thing, but you cannot get it all back just like that by saying it is yours (which you better never say).

If you want to get the police involved, they need to gather all their forces and raid the black market, which will not be free; Policemen like bribes. One policeman would get stoned together with you by all the 'shop'-owners. Option two is using connections! Luckily we knew someone who knew someone that knew someone else that could do something for us and try to get JF's stuff back. This partially worked, because every part of the chain wants something in exchange for their service, so this option is not free either. Option three would be going there and buying your stuff back and hoping they don't have a clue of the value of the goods and just sell you a 400USD sleeping bag for 15USD.

We combined option two and three. Although that option one really would have been fun, we decided not to cause any war or major riot. Eventually JF got most of his stuff back and could, like us, leave for Huaraz for some hiking!

To be continued..

G. on the road!