Life's a beach

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Montañita is a ´hippie' surf town in the south of Ecuador. Despite being low season, the bars and clubs were so loud that even with ear plugs in an early night was near impossible. Saying that, on our first night we were feeling pretty rough (had eaten too many veggies the night before!!) and so slept all afternoon, then went for dinner (where steph was the only one who could manage more than a few mouthfuls) and we were in bed by 9.30pm. Definitely not the typical first night there for most travelers. The next morning we were devastated...We had been so excited about getting to the beach, we hadn´t even contemplated the possibility that it could be cold. Alas, we paid our $5 to sit on the most uncomfortable beach loungers in the world and wrapped ourselves in our towels.. determined to have a relaxing beach day. Luckily we were then joined by a friendly aussie we had met earlier who suggested we all go surfing. Having done it before, I loved it! However it was the first time for the other two and in retrospect it would have probably been wise if they had got a lesson first...long story short.. there was a lot of blood and we had to pay extra to cover the damage to the board!!



That night we did party montañita style.. there we dozens of frozen cocktails being offered to us from the many different drinks stalls in the streets. They were delicious and we had a lot of fun dancing in the street until the early hours.


The next day we headed to Cuenca, a pretty town with a gorgeous flower market. But we were all in a rather sorry state after the night before. We stayed there one night and then it was time for our very first border crossing!


We were all very nervous about crossing from Ecuador to Peru.. having heard many horror stories about muggings, passports being stolen, women disappearing etc. Bizarrely all of our guidebooks suggested that crossing at night was safer.. so we did. The bus company had said that if we got the bus at 6pm we would arrive to our next destination, Mancora (a small surf town in northern Peru), at 6am the next day.. meaning we would get a full nights sleep on the bus. That was a lie. The whole night was spent jumping on and off the bus getting our passports stamped, waiting for an hour and a half in the middle of nowhere, and then we actually arrived earlier than expected! We got to Mancora at 4am and stumbled sleepily up to the hostel asking if we could sleep in hammocks as we hadn't been expecting to pay for that night. Luckily the receptionist was very relaxed and let us check in early!

We were only meant to be spending 2 days in Mancora before heading further south in Peru, but this expanded to 3 days, then 4... finally we left on the 6th day. It is an understatement to say that we all fell in love with Mancora..even after 6 days we didn't want to leave. Gorgeous beaches to sunbathe and surf, a hostel with private pool full of surf mad Aussies, amazing local cuisine ('cevice' is incredible) , and fun games and activities every day. We met a lot of awesome people and had a lot of strange experiences! (My fave was when the aforementioned aussies decided it would be a good idea to lock a padlock onto the toe of one of them and throw the key off the roof! What seemed absolutely hilarious at night, the next morning was another story. There was swelling and it became a rather urgent challenge to try and work out how to get it off. Giant plyers were attempted, but with the screams that idea was quickly shunned. Then a handsaw was tried... this appeared to be working, until a slight slip of the wrist and the other toes became in severe danger. Finally, about 16 hours after the lock was put on, they decided maybe the best idea would be to actually look for the key.. 40 mins later the lock was off! Quite an anticlimax but definitely the best result for the poor hungover aussie!)

The 6 days in Mancora passed so quickly, and before we knew it we were saying goodbye to all our new friends and starting the 40 hour bus ride to Cuzco in the south of Peru. To be honest we were all petrified of the bus ride, firstly for the discomfort but also because we knew it was one of the most notoriously dangerous roads in South America. Luckily all was well and we made the journey with relative ease, arriving in Cuzco monday morning, giving us a few days to get used to the altitude before heading off to do the 4 day Inca Trail.

Right now our bags are packed and we leave at 6am to begin the trek. We're all slightly apprehensive, bags are full of blister plasters, vitamins and our new alpacca outfits to protect us from the subzero temperatures at the top. But we are so excited, can't wait to meet some llamas up close and see what all the fuss is about with Machu Picchu.

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