Mancora, Peru – July 5th – 13th, 2017

From Cartagena, Colombia, it took us about 36 hours to get to Mancora, Peru, a surf town near the border with Ecuador. We flew from Cartagena to Bogota, had a 3-hour layover, then flew to Lima, where we stayed the night at a nearby guesthouse. Unfortunately, our planning skills fell short of figuring out how to get from the Lima airport to the guesthouse 3 km away (1.85 miles). Apparently, the Lima airport taxi drivers have united and refuse to transport anyone (especially a foreigner) for less than $20, even if the trip will only take 5 minutes! After a half hour of failed bargaining attempts (the lowest price we got was $15), we ended up calling the guesthouse (through the airport wifi) and had them send a car for the bargain price of $10. We were not pleased, especially since the guesthouse cost was $20 for the night and breakfast and we had to be back at the airport in only 6-hours (and to get back we had to pay another $10!). I know I know, $20, no big deal, but $20 is food for 3 days there! Speaking off food, the hotel was nowhere near any food options and the only vegetarian option was to pay $10 for eggs. Frustrating! Speaking of frustrating, due to the persistence of the guesthouse staff, we were picked up at 3am and transported to the airport in order to be 2-hours early for our domestic flight leaving at 5:15am. When we arrived, the Avianca staff decided it was a good time to inform us that the flight was delayed 5-hours. Why they couldn’t they tell us earlier, you ask? Funny, I asked the same question. Well, you see, they didn’t know that the plane that was supposed to arrive the night before didn’t arrive. Wait… they did know that! ARRRGH! Not to worry though, they were comping breakfast, which turned out to be 4 oz. of tea and 2 pieces of white bread. By the time the plane took off at 10:45am, we had spent more time in the Lima airport than the guesthouse. To be fair, the roundtrip flight from Lima to Piura cost only $42, so how much could we really complain.

Now finally in Piura, we still had to make our way to Mancora, 4-ish-hours away. We knew we needed to take a bus, what we didn’t know was which bus to take, how to get to the bus station, and what time the bus to Mancora left (all things that could have been solved with the internet – if only we had a SIM card and the bus companies posted their schedules). Unperturbed, we avoided the crooked taxis by walking to the main street and jumping on a colectivo public bus toward the station on Maps.Me (our trusty offline map app). After an incredibly indirect route through the city and lots of interesting people watching, we paid our 1 sol (30 cents) and hoped off at the first station. Unfortunately, the bus didn’t leave for another 2-hours so we decided to risk it and go to the other bus station (on the other side of town of course). After another 30-minute colectivo ride, we arrived and were pleased to discover that this bus was not only cheaper, but left in 5 minutes! Woohooo! Once on our way, we reflected on how far we’ve come with our traveling skills. Not only did we not yell at anyone all day (including each other), but we went with the flow, were patient, and sure enough, arrived at our destination unscathed. I guess the realization that getting worked up does nothing for you has finally set in.  

Travel days, including comped airlines breakfast and the view in Lima.

After moving around every few days, it was a relief to check into a hotel and stay for an entire week! Much of our time was spent taking surf lessons, attempting to surf on our own, doing yoga, hanging out at the mostly-abandoned hotel/surf camp, fighting off an extraordinarily persistent sinus infection, and catching up on a back-log of travel planning and house rental turnover absurdity. Oh ya, and celebrating our 1-year anniversary!!! I’ll start with the surfing: We’re terrible, the break was tiny, and the instructor got frustrated with us (specifically me), but it was still a lot of fun. The break being tiny was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you could circumnavigate the white water, making paddling out a breeze. On the other hand, the break was so small that all the surfers were crammed together making it difficult to catch a wave without running into somebody (the lack of turning skills multiplied the severity of this problem). Also, for a few days in a row, the waves were so pitiful, that after spending an hour sitting on the glassy calm water (think lake not ocean), we were forced to give up and hope for better surf later in the day. In summary, the surf wasn’t very good – even to our standards, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t enjoy it. To make up for the surf conditions, the yoga was extra difficult. We especially appreciated the laying down (Savasana) pose at the end.

The beach in Mancora and the adorable friendly puppy that turned deranged before out eyes. 

Surfing and wiping out surfing. Yes, the waves are super small, thanks for noticing.

When we weren’t doing yoga or surfing, we could be found at the surf camp hanging out in the hammocks or talking to the owner or one other guest. Yup, you read that right, one other guest (luckily, she was awesome and we enjoyed her company)! Fair to say that it was not peak tourist season in Mancora. A side-effect to it being off-season was that many of the restaurants were closed. This still left a fairly decent selection of touristy restaurants, but we found none that were good enough to write home about… with the exception of our surf camp hotel which had the most incredible fresh breakfast and a dessert cart which supplied us with cheap incredible pies and cakes each night! With crepes, fresh bread, fresh fruit, smoothies, French press coffee, and more, breakfast became, by far our favorite time of the day. After several days of unenthused eating (except breakfast and dessert of course), I ventured into the local side streets and after quizzing every local I could find (in broken Spanish), eventually made it to the market street where I was greeted with curiosity and bewilderment – apparently not many tourists go to the local market. Undeterred, I bought enough sandwich fixin’s for the rest of the week, thereby solving the “sick of eating out” crises. A side-effect to my shopping adventure was that I realized just how much I relied on Andy to share the responsibility of asking questions, understanding what they said, counting money, and making sure we weren’t being ripped off. It was very overwhelming to do on my own.   

Laguna surf camp.

Day trip to nearby Los Organos.

Unfortunately, it was not all fun and games in Mancora. After almost 3-weeks of attempting to ignore a sinus headache and runny nose, I finally broke down and went to the pharmacy. As I’ve mentioned before, it is incredibly easy and affordable to get basic medical care in many parts of the developing world. Even with the language barrier, it took only a few minutes to explain my symptoms, convince the pharmacist that the typical medications were not helping, and pay the $3 for a course of amoxicillin. As expected, the sinus infection cleared within the week. Not sure why it took me 3-weeks to deal with it – stubbornness I suppose. Also, on one of our evening trips to the dessert cart, a local kid with a stroller erratically steered his baby sister’s stroller directly into my toe, likely breaking it. It turned a vibrant purple color and swelled like an over-stuffed snausage. Not cool kid. Lastly, although most of the locals were pleasant and friendly, the laundry guy was not. After dropping our clothes off with him, we began to question the “accuracy” of his handheld scale (which he purposely kept hidden when weighing the clothes). Tired of being ripped off, we decided to go back and confront him. We asked if he could please weight the clothes again, this time, while showing us the scale. Turns out that we were right, he had overcharged us significantly! He seemed a little sheepish, but did not apologize, simply changed the amount due and went about his day. We were lucky all the clothes came back.      

   

The highlight to our week in Mancora was definitely our wedding anniversary! Andy had booked a couple’s spa experience at one of the fancy places nearby… you know, the ones we can’t afford to stay at. It was ridiculous!!! The private spa was on the roof of the hotel, overlooking an expansive abandoned beach. After the steam room, we indulged in a 90-minute massage, followed by an hour to relax in the private jacuzzi while drinking complimentary champagne and watching the sun set over the ocean. It was definitely a surreal, pinch-me moment! After the spa, we walked about a mile down the beach to our dinner reservation – also at a fancy hotel that we couldn’t afford to stay at. The meal was also incredible: pineapple/cucumber/mint juice, pumpkin/parmesan/pecan ravioli, zucchini carpaccio, and Andean wheat! Fair to say it’s going to be hard to beat our first year of marriage!

Anniversary evening! Also, I finally captured the nasty long fingernail that we'd been seeing all over the world on men's pinky fingers... apparently it's a thing. It's in the bottom-right photo.

Anniversary spa experience!

Our artwork was washed away by a wave about 5 seconds after finishing.

After a week of shear bliss, we were hesitant to leave Mancora to re-enter the hustle of fast-paced travel. As consolation, our friend Matt was joining us for the next leg of the journey!