Peru - Mancora

We were dropped off early morning from our night bus in Mancora and immediately loved the change of scenery. The place is basically one main street, off which there are tons of local eateries, hostals and market stalls. A short tut-tut ride (on a tarmac road, very different to the painful tut-tut journeys in Pisco on pot hole ridden dirt tracks) took us to Loki del Mar, our hostal for 5 days. Loki is a chain of hostals in Bolivia and Peru based in the cities mainly, with this being their newest venture on the coast; they are party hostals and although a little pricey they are really well maintained and a fun place to stay...and this one had a pool! Having to wait for our room to be ready we spent the first morning checking out the town to find what tasty street food options there were...not many! Checking into our room we were very happy to find we had a nice balcony overlooking the pool and beach. We then headed to the beach for the afternoon and enjoyed the rays!

There wasn't a lot to do here except sun bathe, surf, kite surf, drink, eat....and that's about it, so we happily spent our days sun bathing and taking on the waves before enjoying a few beers in the evening whilst we watched the beautiful sun set from the beach. We must admit though, that although we were staying at the crazy party hostal we didn't exactly join the majority of gringos and party through till the morning every night...strangely we both felt so tired that we were able to drift off at a sensible hour and sleep through the loud music and cheers that died off usually about 4am each day! (Maybe it's our age...everyone there seemed to be gap year students!)
The beach was great, nice fine sand, sandy sea beds and warm water! The surfing whilst we were there however, was difficult. The waves were strong and messy and there were lots of other surfers in the water to avoid hitting or being hit by! However, Lynne took a couple of lessons and with the help of the instructor soon became the Queen of the waves, riding many waves comfortably stood up and showing all those other beginners how to do it!! (Admittedly also showing David, who was cocky enough to think he was a decent surfer but who figured he must have done something to offend the sea because he took a battering!).

We also got back into the running making use of the long beach. We usually went an hour or so before sunset and enjoyed the tranquility of the far stretches of the beach all to ourselves. For lunch / dinner we often tucked into one of the many fresh fish meals available including Ceviche, the local coastal cuisine in Peru that consists of citrus-marinated raw seafood served with onions, chile, sweet potatoe, salad and corn.

Soon enough it was time to leave and having enjoyed our time on the coast we decided that our first stop in Ecuador would be on the coast and took the overnight bus to Montanita!