Pos: here
Loc: Puerto Inka
Acc: tent
Dist: 37,6 km
Start: 06:30 End: 13:30

Tomorrow:
No paddling tomorrow!

We started the day with the outlook of a short paddle and a full rest day tomorrow! I think we deserved it!

When we were launching a bit later than usual, already some full boat loads of fishermen came back from their morning tour, and were landing with two small nutshell boat for disembarking. Each was a bit overloaded with 7-8 young men, but they didn’t do us the morning pleasure of falling into the water… 🙂

They were heavily whistling at three young ladies daring to appear at the landing site. I wonder how the men-women quota is out here, and who eventually made the game? In former times, they’d be whistling at *me*…

The paddle didn’t offer any exciting features, and we were soon reaching a wide bay with a huge city. at the end, where we’d find our ancient Puerto Inka. It has been a former fishing port and village, but now has a quite famous beach resort and hotel and the Inka sites are now ruins only.

When we were turning into the bay, it was obvious that the beach landing had some surf, and we got geared up to the teeth. It had two beaches, one smaller a bit more sheltered site to the right, and a longer one to the left, where the hotel was located. We certainly opted for the easier and more remote right corner, and we both paddled in without incident. Though I had to lay straight on the back deck when the next wave tried to lift my stern…I was just shooting straight on to the reasonably shallow sandy beach.

It was quite hot and sunny around lunch time, and after we chose our camp corner on the far right side, and put up the tent, we both were jumping fully dressed into the surfy chilly water! Not very long though, but very refreshing…

The dark sand was so hot I had to wear sandals while changing. I chose for the first time to put on my silky black beach dress, which reminded me of my Australian tour.

Soon we had a look at the resort, and found it was quite touristic, and obviously a popular stopping point for organized motorbike, pick up truck and motor home tours! It was still out of season though, and only a group of youngster were eating in the open restaurant. We were for anything else other than the usual pasta or rice in the tent, and had some edible food, I had some fish, and Peter some chicken. Not really first class, but at least with some fresh veggies. An ice cream, and the start of our “beach holiday” was perfect!

Still, we preferred to stay in our tent at the beach rather  than in a resort room, which firstly we wouldn’t be happy to pay for, and second no one offered for free here 🙂 – what for…the pool was empty, and a swim and shower we had on the beach. It is a very beautiful bay though, and our separate beach is just for us. Few tourists were walking by and climbed up to the historical site behind our camp.

Tomorrow, we have a walk up to our first “real Inka ruins”, and we will have one of the rare real beach rest days without city chores and internet! Our bodies and minds need it…