Máncora

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Hola mis amigos!

From Huanchaco, which I was sad to leave behind, we headed further up the coast to Máncora, a little surfing party town close to the border with Ecuador. We took an overnight bus there, which would have been fine had it not been for the grade A snorer sitting behind me on the bus. Still, it is far nicer travelling on those long buses with friends than on your own, so I would rather be on the bus with some travel buddies and The Snore King than by myself on a peaceful one! We arrived early in the morning, hopped into a couple of mototaxis (like a motorised rickshaw) which took us to a few, equally bad, B&Bs. One advertised an "open water feature" which was essentially a stagnant pool right outside the dorms. The bloke had practically just set up a place for mosquito-breeding, he just needed some Barry White playing at the side of it to finish off the mosquito love-shack.

Anyway, we wandered around for a while to a lot of different places, but nothing really caught our fancy, so we headed back to where we had dumped our backpacks, and on the way passed a complex of what looked like very modern eco-style houses. We took a look at it, but thought it would be way out of our budget, but undeterred, we headed in to have a look round. One can dream, right? There were three huge houses, all soon to be dubbed "Spaceship Mansions" by Steve. Inside they were lovely, with an upstairs balcony, widescreen TV, and a bathroom to die for! Plus there was a big pool right outside. There were still some building works going on, and no-one had rented out the places yet, so we managed to do a bit of bartering with the guy in charge. Melissa´s bartering power is pretty impressive, he originally started at 150 dollars a night, per person, which we tried hard not to pass out at, but with her stubborn repetition of "25 soles. No mas" (the equivalent of just over a fiver), he eventually succumbed, and we were thrilled to bits to have our own Spaceship Mansion for a few nights!

That afternoon, we went to the local mercado to get food for a barbecue that night...chicken and veggies for kebabs, avocados and tomatoes and mangoes for home-made guacamole and Melissa´s amazing mango salsa, and everything you need for mojitos! It was a delicious dinner and awesome to have our own place to play music, mix cocktails and have some lovely home-cooked food. Then we headed out to check out a couple of bars in Máncora.

The following morning I woke up feeling a wee bit dodgy, and ended up with my head in the toilet! Thinking it was just from alcohol the night before, I ate a big bowl of cereal with the others before heading to the beach. Soon enough, a familiar wave of nausea that I had not felt since I got sick in Bolivia washed over me, and Dana, Melissa and I went to the Loki hostel, where my I had to run to the bathroom and throw up my honey-nut loops all over their lovely spotless toilets! It was St Patrick´s Day, so the Loki (the party hostel in Máncora) was having a full-on knees-up. A guy with dyed green hair came up to me and tried to persuade me to have a shot of Baileys...that finished me off and I had to go home!

After watching some TV and having a little doze, I was feeling ok, but not well enough to join the rest of the guys on their night out to celebrate St Patrick, so I stayed in and had a very feverish night, where I was convinced there was a mouse in my room, so I was wandering around with a torch looking for it, even thought the lights worked perfectly well and there was no inidication at all of a rat or mouse anywhere! Steve and George came back a bit earlier than the girls, and they were incredibly nice, getting me some damp towels to try and cool me down as my temperature was really high. Somehow I managed to get some sleep, and woke up the next day feeling like a new woman! Steve and I went to the market early, and it was great seeing the mercado in full swing, fresh fish stalls and big tubs of prawns, plus meat stalls with cuts that looked like a child´s severed leg. Although I´m sure it wasn´t. We got loads of stuff for a seafood dinner (dirt cheap as well), so I knew I was back to my old self if I could walk through a market with all sorts of smells and feel on top of the world! We had another day on the beach, and bumped into James which was nice, and he agreed to join us for fish tacos and prawn kebabs later that night as it was our last night in Máncora.

Unfortunately, early that evening Dana had gone for a swim in the sea just before sunset. On her way back to the house, she got held up at gunpoint by two guys wearing masks. A terrifying thing to go through, she was obviously very shaken up and upset, but luckily she had nothing with her apart from a tiny bit of cash. It was horrible to see a friend so clearly upset, and we did our best to take care of her, and give her a lovely dinner. The following day she seemed much better, but it tainted my image of Máncora somewhat.

We were all heading our separate ways after that, Dana and James heading to Cuenca in Ecuador, I needed to get to Quito to catch my flight to Cartagena in Colombia, and Melissa, Steve and George were carrying on together to Montañita in Ecuador. It was a sad farewell, my heart sank a little at leaving behind such an awesome group of people, wondering if I would meet anyone in Colombia that was as fun to travel with! So, I hopped on to my bus, the only person of our little group continuing alone, and was on the way to Quito. But first, I had the Peru/Ecuador border to cross, which was a bit of a random experience...

The bus to the Peru border was a terrible rickety old thing, but not too long a journey. Plus there is a nice lady that takes care of everyone to make sure the border crossing goes smoothly. Leaving Peru was fine, then we drove to Huaquillas, the Ecuadorian border town. We took our backpacks off the bus, which promptly drove away, and seeing no sign of the next bus to Quito, I was a bit confused. But I had met some British guys on the bus who I stuck with, safety in numbers after all! I was in the queue to get my entry stamp, when I heard a lot of commotion behind me, and turned around to see a random Peruvian man chasing a goose that had somehow got loose, and was invading the queue for immigration! After getting my stamp, the border crossing lady grabbed my backpack and shoved me in a taxi and before I could say "Donde?!" I was being whisked off in a taxi on my own, with no clue as to where I was going. I kept asking the taxi driver where we were going, but he did not reply, so I was pretty sure I was going to get mugged down some horrible back alley. Luckily, we pulled up at the bus terminal in Huaquillas, which I was unbelievably happy to see, and soon the British guys were there too, so I could stop worrying. Then the border crossing lady turned up, gave me a carton of juice and waved us on our merry way! A bit of a strange experience to say the least!

I´m not writing a blog about Quito, because I spent less than 24 hours there! But I stayed in a lovely hostel and met a girl called Natalie who was on the same flight as me to Bogota, then I was carrying on to Cartageña. The hostel was great, but I just have to write about the breakfast. On the menu it looked lovely, a fruit juice shake with a cheese toastie and a coffee. It came out not looking at all appetising, the fruit shake looked and smelled like vomit, bringing back memories of a holiday I had with my university friends Becki and Mel when I ordered a cherry milkshake which we named a ´vom shake´ it was so gross. The cheese toastie was a warm burger bun with a slice of plastic cheese. And the coffee finished it off...a cup full of hot milk with a plastic pot of Nescafé next to it.

So, my next blog will be about Colombia, but may not be for a little while as I head to Costa Rica in two days to meet up with Graham (my boyfriend for those who don´t know!) who I have not seen for five months! Needless to say, I am very excited! So I will fill you all in on the big reunion and all about my time in Colombia when I have a free moment in Costa Rica.

Mucho Amor! xx

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