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Published: December 3rd 2006
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Our entry to Peru from Ecuador was problem-free at the border. Stepping foot in Piura after a long overnite bus ride was another story. The first thing that we noticed that was different from Ecuador is that in Peru there are no Terminal Terrestres, which are bus stations which hold spaces for all the bus companies. Instead, we were told that we had to take a taxi to a different station where our next bus would take us to Mancora.
So we trusted our taxi driver to take us there safely for $2 USD. The moment that we began loading our bags into his car, a group of choros aka punks tried to rush us with pickpockets. They almost took off with Nolan’s bag if it wasn’t for our taxi driver’s cat-like reflexes. As soon as we started rolling our driver tells us that he wants to get paid in soles, which is the currency in Peru. Since it was only 7am and no banks were open, he suggested that we go to his “friends” around the corner who are money changers. They try to rip us off right off the bat, and to make things worse our driver is
trying to rip us off by telling us that 10 soles is the same as 2 USD, which is a complete lie. I slickly only change the 2 USD that he demands for his fare just to get out of the situation, and give him what his “friends” give me, and the immediate argument that ensues between them is obvious that I was getting ripped off.
We finally got to the next bus station and got out of Piura, and on a crappy bus to Mancora. From there we got an amazing view of the Peruvian desert as the road descended into the coast. The glimpse of the sparkling blue ocean from the horizon got us excited that we were heading back to the beach. As soon as we got into town we jumped into a motor taxi (or tuk tuk) which took us to a hostel right along the beach. Our room had its own balcony overlooking the beach, with a nice coastal breeze that cooled the scorching sun. We ate some fried fish on the patio of the hotel’s restaurant overlooking the beach, and sipped on some Inca Cola, by far Peru’s best export soda.
We
caught up on some missed sleep and later took a stroll to town to check out the vibes. It was really mellow for a Friday evening, so we just grabbed some eats, checked our emails and took it easy that night. The next day is when all the action was going to happen anyway.
We got up early and rented a motorbike to ride out for the day, Motorcycle Diaries style. We took a ride through town before venturing out to the northern beaches outsideof Mancora. I was riding with Nolan on his bike we he suddenly decided to go off road towards a dirt trail. We hit a patch of sand and bailed awkwardly, I scraped my arm pretty bad and Nolan busted his knee even worse. We ended up hitting up some nice pristine beaches up north in a ritzy neighborhood with numerous vacant beach homes. We cleaned our cuts up in the warm water, ran around a little bit and decided to get a drink at a resort nearby. We sat around a nice pool with a spitting fountain in the middle as we sipped on some delicious frozen lemonade. We jumped back on our bike
back towards Mancora when we saw a sign for some mud baths. We rode for about 15km (Nolan managed to bail again, luckily this time he was on his own!) until we finally ended up in the middle of a mud bath full of gringos. 2 more Canadians, a couple of Americans, and a couple of Brits joined us as we shared stories of our adventures thus far. It was a nice and relaxing bath, even though it looked like a little swamp in the middle of the desert surrounded by rocks.
Later that night we ended up back in town, and Nolan and I ordered a large pizza to take back to our hotel after the long day. We chilled out on our private balcony overlooking the crashing waves. The next day we spent out on the beach, relaxing and enjoying the beautiful scenery. We enjoyed some really tasty ceviche, which is fish cooked in lime juice. The seafood in Mancora was so good that I ate daily and could not get sick of it!! So after a fun weekend of sun, beach, great food and scenery, we decided to move on Chiclayo.
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