January 26-31
Seth flew into some meetings in Salt Lake City, while Tyler had another visit from Anika here in Peru. We were very well refreshed by the time we met up again. Baby, Tyler and Seth have been living together for more then 10 months now. What a team!
The US Embassy had us RUNNING today!
It started with a pick-up of used oil from Mcdonalds, and flowed seamlessly into a press conference at the Ministry of Energy, Lima Peru.
They only invited a few of their closest friends.
It was a very purposful visit as it turned out. The Peruvian minister of energy helped us host the event and gave us introductions, etc. We got to chat with him afterwards for the better part of an hour, and he whole-heartedly embraced our ideas. Picture it, two dirt bag kayakers having an influence on the energy policy of an entire nation!
We had lunch and a parking lot demonstration at the US Embassy, and headed over to Lima University for another presentation afterwards.
The coast of Peru is fascinating. The drive took us twice as long as normal because we had to stop and film every hundred meters or so.
We took the mums to visit some of the great ruins of the North Coast like Chan Chan and to some really nice beaches on the way south.
There was a series of demonstrations in Trujillo, Peru in collaboration with the US Embassy and the Department of Energy, Peru.
This town is situated around 20 minutes from an awesome surf break where we spent the weekend.
We had the regular swarming of media and interested folks in front of the Plaza De Armas.
Afterwards, we conducted a seminar with all the diesel mechanics in the area and taught them how to convert a diesel vehicle to run on vegetable oil.
We can´t think of anyone else who has had the opportunity to spend this kind of time with their moms. Our moms have made a connection, a friendship that seems similar to the one that we share. The moms will be leaving this Friday….it sure has been a great visit.
We were a little rusty, not having surfed since Northern Colombia. Mancora is a bit of a scene, a big time pro surfer hang out. It was fun, but pretty competitive to get waves, and things weren´t really going off. We surfed at Mancora and Organos.
The conditions were a little better for kite boarding.
It was the first day of summer camp for kids in the beach town of Mancora on the North Shore of Peru. For the first day of the kids got a presentation from the OplusWP.
Afterwards, they lined them up and headed on down for some play at the beach!
It must be tough being a kid…
MOMS ON BOARD!!
Having our moms along has been such a wonderful experience for us, and especially for them. Seth´s mom has been traveling for the majority of her life to places like Nepal and India, while this is Tyler´s mom´s first time out of the United States. The two have so much in common in life, that they have been nearly inseperable this whole trip. They definitely keep themselves occupied while the boys are out surfing!
The North Coast of Peru is a desolate place, but the roads are good and Baby has been sucking up that Biodiesel like a calf from the mothers teet.
We rallyed right by the Peruvian Pipeline scattered with oil pumps. It was a far different then the last one we saw up in Alaska.
It was hard to believe that people could live out there. It was like 10 hours from anything, in the hot dry desert, but these folks seemed happy as ever.
Halfway between Guayaquil and The Peruvian Border, we hit a camoflagued Tope (speed bump) at full speed. This has been the worst thing for us, especially when our tanks are all TOTALLY topped off. Right away, we got the overwhelming of Biodiesel, and we were worried that we had busted our plastic 60 gallon tank. When we open the back of the truck we were literally hit by a flash flood of Biodiesel and plastic 5 gallon buckets. We were extremely lucky that it was only a 5 gallon tank that had ruptured! It was a bit of a mess, but definitely not worst case scenario.
No Mans Land
The area between Ecuador-Peru border near Tumbes and Huaquillas is infamous. There is a large section in between that isn´t claimed by either country. The result is just a crazy jumble…mostly people that want to rob you. This bar was called……
La Taliban
Guayaquil, Ecuador
We ran into this young man at a gas station in Colombia. We were in a super sketchy area at the time broken down with grease up to our elbows. He came over and started speaking english to us which was a surprise. A week later we got an email from his teacher inviting us to visit his school.
