scene of the crime

I have been unseasonably tan ever since that fateful day... when I visited la playa Huanchaco.

Huanchaco is about a 10-minute taxi ride away from the main streets of Trujillo and honestly, it looks a bit like Santa Cruz. There are actually quite a few hippie expats living here... their hair may be blond but they are tan as leather and they speak castellano like nobody's business. These hippies have discovered what Trujillanos already know: for R & R, Huanchaco Beach is the place to be.

not too many people,
plenty of sand,
and beautiful mountains in the distance

you don't have to fight for real estate here

Water sports are pretty popular here. My Peruvian brother is a big fan of bodyboarding and frequents the many beaches of Peru. He usually plays at the beach in Lima because that's where he lives but he enjoys visiting the beaches in northern Peru.

surfer and traditional reed boat pass by

water and haze

I snapped most of these pictures when the sun broke through but clouds are more common in the area around Trujillo. Huanchaco is no exception and the skies glowed gray for a few hours. This caused me to forget my own advice and neglect to reapply sunblock, which resulted in my shrimplike color for New Year's. I never thought I could tan my legs. I thought wrong!

But the most important member was protected, always navigating herself to the shade of an umbrella- or my hat:

baby Caye plays it safe

Remember, you can still get sunburnt even if the skies are cloudy and/or gray. Clouds so not diminish the sunlight as much as they refract it, meaning that UV rays are coming at you from all angles and not just overhead. Don't forget to apply and reapply sunblock!