After 48 hours of thankfully uneventful travelling I made it to Talara Airport where I was met by the EcoSwell team. Beaming faces and kisses all around, I was made to feel so welcome, and all the anxiety and homesickness started to slip away.

Talara is the main town near Lobitos, so it was time for the weekly food shop and running some errands, but first we went to get some lunch. Heat, jet lag and general travel confusion tends to wipe out my appetite but I did manage to try the local dishes of lemony-squid and prawn paella.

Lobitos is not far from Talara are the weathered and disjointed road (british pot-holes will never be a problem gain) passes the oil port and many on land pumping stations. This was my first taste of the oil industry I had heard so much about. It was not as ugly or imposing as I thought, but almost complimented the barren, uneven dessert. It is simply a part of life here, but sadly the money from it does not make it back into the community. The boys (Andres and Alejandro) told me that this road becomes a river bed during the El Niño and Lobitos is completely cut of from Talara. As such EcoSwell are working with the Locals, Army and Police to try to prepare, but more on that later.

The EcoSwell house is in Villa de Officialles; these houses were constructed by the military when they took over. All the land East and North of this is owned by the military. Primaverea is land that was given to the fishermen by a previous mayor, and all the land West of this is the subject of many land disputes (more on this later).

There was a big swell in this week, so many surfers had come up to enjoy the waves. The boys took me to La Batteria – a wave to the West of Lobitos, so named because of the Oil Battery on the cliff above. The waves were a bit big for me to attempt so I explored the beach. There are many sea lions off the coast, and on occasions a dead one washes up, this is totally expected. However as I wondered along the headland with Andres, looking for muscles for lunch, we stumbled on something rather bigger. I huge sea lion had been napping on the headland. I’m not sure who was more shocked, but needless to say we both darted in opposite directions.

The week started well, with a team meeting discussing the tasks we needed to complete and I created a plan for my time here. I spent the week mapping the sanitation in Lobitos, analysing the previous stakeholder analysis and interviews, and drafting a survey for the community.

One of EcoSwells projects is ‘reforestation’ this includes helping the community plant trees and I am really lucky to be able to help with some of these other projects while I am here. On Wednesday we were joined by some friends of Andres who have travelled through South America. It was lovely to have them here, and they helped with the planting. They wanted to have a go at surfing, so on Thursday I had my first surf lesson. We got up early before work (6.30) and headed to the beach. It was so much fun and a great way to start the day. I now have 3 months to practice, but we need the swell to come back.

This first week has been a whirl wind of hard work and hard play. And I am certainly looking forward to the next 12 weeks.