Round 6 Mancora- part 1

We left our Amazon Jungle and flew to Piura, Peru. From Piura we knew we had to take a taxi to Mancora. The bus situation was also an option, but would take a few hours longer and the comfort level would be questionable. We were mostly in a hurry to get to the sandy beaches so we could start the, "I'm thinking and doing absolutely nothing since I'm laying on the beach" phase of our trip. Serendipitously, there was this nice young man in the airport who looked very American. I asked him if he was going to Mancora and to my delight he said "yes!". We ended up sharing a two hour taxi ride with him and his girlfriend, Becca. This meant our 400 Sole ($120) ride would be divided into four. Great!! So we rode in a newer economy Toyota, which felt like a limo, and definitely doesn't corner on rails. Our Driver was a bit scary, but we survived. He recommended a place for us to stay. This is always shady because they get a cut for directing us to certain places. We went along with it, telling him we wanted a ride into the city if we weren't satisfied. Well. We got there and bargained down to $25 per person per night. Heather and I knew that we would be staying here at least one night and then heading into town closer to the action. These pics are from our first night in Playa Bonita. It was heaven.
We were greeted with Pisco Sours (the famous Peruvian drink) and started immediately relaxing and enjoying our surroundings.

Sunset that evening, the first of many.

The next morning, Heather and I were eager to head to the center of town. We decided to pack up and check out a few of the recommended hotels from our Lonely Planet that were right in front of the surf break and near all the restaurants and bars. We walked around with our packs and were eager to check-in somewhere and get in the water. After all, it was at least 85 degrees and we were hot!

Turns out our time in Playa Bonita set us up for real disappointment. We ended up staying one night in the following room. This was the only open room in the area and we weren't happy about it, but determined to make the best of it. We dropped our stuff and went to the beach for surfing and sunning.


As you can see in the picture above, this place was icky! Under different circumstances or in other cities, this would have been more acceptable. BUT- We were paying $20 per night per person to say in this s-hole! This was only $5 less than our beloved Playa Bonita. Before dinner we were resting in our beds and I kind of found a ton of ants in bed with me. I know I'm laughing now, but at the time it was not a good situation. We ended up getting new sheets and burning an insect coil to hopefully ward off any visiting critters. We went to bed (I didn't really sleep) with the agreement that we were headed right back to Playa Bonita with the hopes that they would give us the same cheap deal. They did and we started our vacation. again....

We still mototaxied into town for activity, but spent a lot of time with our new friends Becca and Jeff. They were from Manhattan and South Carolina and were on their own Peruvian excursion. They were very happy to have English speaking company, as were we.



We had a fishing adventure one day. It was a bit of a mess, but we eventually ended up on a fishing boat where we caught all kinds of sea creatures. Wasn't exactly the deep-sea fishing we thought would produce our dinner, but was a fun adventure anyways.
My Big Catch!

Back to Mancora via Mototaxi!
Too much for one post. More soon on Mancora.