Mancora Bay Hotel

... if we tried. Grabbed another moto, which knew where he was going, haggled out a price and headed off down the road. This was the same road we had just come down, only in the opposite direction, we actually drove right past the hostal we just checked out of. Bouncing down the dirt road we come to another hill, this one steeper than the last, the driver quite a bit heavier and still just a moto-taxi. Try as he might the driver could ...

... road blockade, although the bus had to keep moving as one protester did try to open the luggage compartment under the bus!!! All in all not a good first impression of Peru!!!

Arrived in Manocra in the small hours only to be told the hotel had been double booked!!!! So half the group had to be transferred to another hostel next door, tiredness is kicking in now and patience is wareing thin!!! But there was a bed ...

... chocolate and jam - yeah the jam was weird, but it was still incredible.

Sophie: How has it been for you getting used to the bargaining culture in Peru?

Evan: It is frustrating knowing the initial price of most things is too high, but it´s a good feeling when I can negotiate a fair price. I´m getting used to it. The bus tickets to Lima seemed fair at $27.00 each.

Sophie: Speaking of which, we are about to be late for the bus!

... out of an evening with our new friends, no drinking for me (or eating) due to antibiotics, and of course not taking any photos.
Nevertheless it was the beach, it was fun hanging out with Barb for the week, it was great to be back near the sea and the sand. And despite all the not so good events, I still like Mancora and had a relatively good week!

Next destination: Quito, Ecuador.
Goodbye Peru, I probably won´t be missing you too much.

... and ride the wave in a couple of times. Eric and I didn’t do so well-the pacific ocean was sending us through a washing-machine-spin-cycle. I am not a good surfer and by the time I finally manage to stand up on the board the wave rolls onto the shore and dies off. I am actually quite a pathetic surfer in all honesty as I spend most of my time surfing belly-down on the board simply trying to paddle myself out to the waves.
Eric does a better job than ...

... price for us’ and then asked about our travel plans.

Javier spent about 10 minutes trying to convince us about the virtues of staying longer (and how average Ecuador was (his wife is Ecuadorian, she should know) and then says ‘we go now to town, come’. Already sensing that he was the kind of guy you want to go along with despite his pushiness because there was usually going to be an adventure in it, we did just that. We piled into an old Jeep 4WD and drove ...

... ventured out of the grounds to the rest of the town.
In reality the hostel was pretty cool, there was a pool and meals served, a pool table and it was right on the beach. We had to wait a while till our room was ready but we chatted with an Argentinean guy who was volunteering there, like Remi in Quito.

We went for a walk down the beach to get something to eat, it was similar to Mexico with the mud buildings and walls of different colours giving it a festive ...

... uz tma kdyz jsme dorazili a tak koupani nechame na rano a jde se na veceri. Cerstve ryby jsou ve vsech resturacich. Bohuzel ne vsechno musi klapat a tak i my jsme narazili na nas prvni problem. V Ecuadoru se platilo dolary a tak jsme nemuseli resit vymenu penez ale tady v Peru uz je jina mena a tak bylo treba vymenit penize. Bohuzel byl vecer a banka byla zavrena a tak se zdalo ze nejlepsi bude pouzit bankomat. To jsme jeste netusili ze nam bankomat penize neda a ze vecere ...

... the artesanal miners situation, basically the Peruvian government wants to ban illegal miners who dont work in proper mines, obviously these guys are upset at the prospect of the lost of their livelihood. Eventually at around 4.30pm , we were told to go back to our vehicles, and after only another 1 hour and a half, we were on our way back on the road. Thankfully we had not folowed the wishes of some of our fellow coach passengers who wanted to ...

so i left Lima a few days ago, and to tell you all the truth, i really don´t miss it. Sure, Zac is there doing his thing and i am now traveling alone for the remainder of my trip (down to 2 weeks), but i never felt comfortable there and am not sad to now see it way in the distance. having spent the better part of 2 months in Peru, i would have to say that i learned a lot about myself, especially how to sing to myself being that my iPod was stolen ...