Mellowed out in Mancora

After getting back from the Amazon and spending a few more days in Lima, we were hanging out for some quality chill out time on a beautiful beach.  We hadn't done that since we were in Brazil in February, so it was well over-due.  Our timing worked out well again so we planned to meet up with Derek and Kelly in Mancora.

Mancora is a  beach town right up in the northwest of Peru, not far from the Ecuadorian border.  The Pan-American Highway runs right through it (it's actually the main street in Mancora) so it's easy to get there from anywhere else in the country, or from Ecuador.  It's a very popular tourist spot, but also for locals, especially surfers.  As you would expect in any beach town, there are so many resorts and different price levels of accommodation to choose from, including a couple of notorious party hostels.  We wanted to completely avoid that scene though and just chill out, so Derek and Kelly, who had arrived a few days before us, scouted things out and found a perfect spot.  It was about a 20-30min tuk-tuk ride out of the main part of town, away from the noise and hustle and bustle of the main road and party hostels.  There were still cabanas and places to stay out there, but it was nice and quiet.  The place they found for us had two bedrooms, both with ensuites and open-air showers, and a massive open living area in the middle with kitchen and a huge 50 inch TV with digital channels.  Absolutely perfect, we couldn't have asked for a better place.  

We celebrated our reunion and our first night in our new holiday home with a home-cooked meal and plenty of beers.  And that was pretty much how we spent the next week.  We initially confirmed for 4 nights, then Derek and Kelly decided they'd stay for another couple of nights and we definitely weren't going anywhere, so we stayed put. 

The beach was only a 30 second walk from our place and it was absolutely stunning.  Miles and miles of golden sand and hardly a person on it.  I don't know how busy the main beach was in town, but we loved having almost the whole beach to ourselves.  The weather was pretty much perfect the entire time too - sunny and hot (but not too hot), in the high 20's during the day, and about 20 degrees at night.  The only annoying thing was the bloody mosquitos!

We had a few regular visitors to our place while we were there, in the form of a group of local dogs.  There were about 5 of them that would wander through our living room and either lounge around for a while or just pass through.  One dog in particular stood out from the rest as he was very unique.  He was a Peruvian hairless dog that we named Santa's Little Devil, and he was a freaky thing.  He was very friendly and liked attention, but it was the weirdest experience to pat him.  His hairless skin felt so strange to touch, it was kind of gross at first, but he'd always come back for more.   Derek was tempted to take him home, but realised the logistics, among other things, may pose a problem.  I hope some other tourists have befriended him now.

Santa's Little Devil

Our week in Mancora was exactly what we had been looking forward to - chilling out on the beach, swimming, reading, watching sports, cooking awesome food and drinking a lot with good friends.  Thanks again Derek and Kelly for finding that place, it totally made our stay in Mancora.  And I guess you guys had a little bit to do with that too :-)