Back to the Beach- Peru Style

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As soon as we crossed the border into Peru the temperature rose by about 10 degrees, and we saw the sun for the first time in a while which was a nice welcoming. We entered via the Panamerican Highway which runs parallel to the coast, between the mountains and the sea. After about half an hour of driving through grassy land, we were into a barren and rugged landscape not dissimilar to that in The Hills Have Eyes.

We were driving through the same unhabitable environment for what seemed like forever, when all of a sudden a town started to appear. Only on the coastal side of the road however, the other side remained rugged. We had arrived in Mancora which is a small beach/surfing resort in the north of Peru, and was our destination of choice for the next few days. It occupied maybe a length of 2 miles maximum, and was a combination of guesthouses, surf shops, restaurants and bars.

Our hostel was Loki Del Mar, and could be described as Butlins for backpackers. It had a pool and outside bar area, with direct access to the beach. Every travellers' dream. We quickly decided this was not the case for us after discovering the beach was home to numerous dead sealions (some headless) and the alcohol was more than double the price of that in Ecuador. Loki was a real party hostel with many organised games and activities every day such as pub quiz, boozy bingo, beer pong, and water polo. Everything you ate or drank was put on a tab and you were able to pay at the end of your stay which was pretty good as it meant you didn't have to carry cash all of the time. Besides, there was nothing else to do other than stay in the complex anyway. There really is not a lot to say about Mancora other than it is a pleasant beach resort.

One thing we hadn't left behind in Ecuador was the bad attitude of the staff working in the tourism industry, and the general public that we encountered. On our first night we went out for dinner. The people working at the restaurant-come shop- come board rental place- were less than pleased that they had company. You would have thought they didn't want our custom as they completely ignored our presence, and when Luke did eventually go and place an order inside the shop, they just grunted at him. Plates were slammed down on the table, and unfinished drinks whipped away before you could say Jack Robinson. This treatment was not uncommon, and we had become used to it in Ecuador- even in the Irish bar where the waitress had sucked her teeth at us when Katie asked for mash instead of chips. She was punished when the waitress unfortunately messed up the order and completely forgot her dinner. Yeh right. Anyway, we don't know if the people on this side of the world just have an attitude towards foreigners, but we have experienced this hostility from about 75% of people we have come into contact with. We think it is probably because we are white and therefore perceived as rich (or maybe even American which is possibly worse here) or maybe just invaders in general. It is hopefully not because we are ignorant- every time we have come into contact with anybody we have communicated in Spanish and tried really hard. But they don't seem to want to listen regardless. Countless times we have been cut in front of in queues, even when they have been controlled by security at ATMs. Often we are just ignored altogether. It seems really bizarre considering a lot of these people's lives depend on our tourism. The worst culprits seem to be the traditionally dressed women who carry giant sacks on their backs. They barge into you all of the time, and even push you out of the way without so much of a sorry look. It is annoying that we just put up with this treatment and continue to visit these places, we wouldn't put up with this in Europe. Obviously not all people are like this, we have met some really lovely people here who have been interested to talk to us, and haven't spent the whole time time staring at us with spinning dollar eyes. Some people- especially those working in hostels- have been really helpful, and some times we have been approached on the street and offered help if we looked lost. Just the vast majority of the time this unfortunately hasn't been the case.

Anyway, enough of the rant. We returned to the hostel after dinner where we teamed up with an Aussie couple for a round of pub quiz which we lost abismally. The following day we spent lazing around the pool and walked along the beach. On the evening we went for dinner at a steak house which was really amazing. We went to bed relatively early (i.e. before 6am) as we weren't feeling the atmosphere at the hostel.

Luke had wanted to rent a surf board the next day, but there seemed to be no waves whatsoever. Considering it was technically the first day of summer in northern Peru, it wasn't really hot enough to go in the pool either. We spent most of the day on the beach, then headed out to book our first cama night bus to Lima for that evening.
We booked onto a Cruz del Sur bus which cost £45 each. For those of you who have not heard of this company, it is the Orient Express of the bus world. The journey was going to take around 17 hours, so we had booked onto executive class with chairs that turn into beds. We haven't seen these back in the UK- but then again woudn't really need them unless there was a direct service from Lands End to John O Groats. We had booked the tickets through a secondary supplier but later found out that the Cruz del Sur office was just one block up the road. Damn trickery of the sellers- they told us that the bus stopped outside their shop and that was where we had to get the bus. They had told us that most seats had sold out so we had accepted their 10% service charge as we were really eager to get to Lima the following day. We headed to their shop, and at 5.25pm (the bus was meant to be at 5.15) they hailed down a moto-taxi (tuc-tuc attached to a motorbike) for us and sent us one block up to the Cruz del Sur office where the buses really picked up. We could have even missed the bus as they sent us late. We were really annoyed but it was our own fault for not carrying out enough research. Damn tricksters, no wonder they didn't tell us the real place where we would have to catch the bus right until the last minute.

Anyway, the bus was amazing, a bit like walking into a plush cinema that you would see on cribs. Except without the huge screen. We were meant to be served two meals on the bus- both dinner and breakfast, and were meant to arrive in Lima the following morning at 10am. So obviously this didn't happen.

The bus 'broke down' four hours into the the journey. We were told a new bus was coming to collect us in 3 hours, and that we were 16 hours from Lima. How were we 16 hours from Lima when we had already travelled for 4 hours, and the whole journey was meant to take 17 hours? We were parked on the side of the road in the arse end of nowhere, so eventually fell to sleep. Around 2.15am we were woken and moved to our replacement bus. It had taken 5 hours for the new bus to arrive what a bloody joke, and if we still had another 16 hours, we were not going to get to Lima until late the following evening. As we were originally meant to arrive in Lima at 10am, we were going to catch a connecting bus straight onto Ica- well that was looking out of the question now. We asked the bus workers about discounts but they said no. We were determined to demand some kind of refund upon arrival in Lima as it was just ridiculous. We finally arrived in Lima at gone 7.30pm, almost 10 hours later than the scheduled arrival. We were not impressed, and were not feeling like catching another bus to Ica. What surprised us most was that we were the only people to complain. Who said that the British will take anything? We stood up for ourselves and were given the address of head office to email for a discount on future travels. Well watch this space.

We decided to stay the night in Lima, so headed to Loki in the Miraflores area which is apparently the safest place in the city. After a quick shower we decided to cheer ourselves up with a giant Mcdonalds, which we spotted on the map was just a few blocks from our hostel. By this point we didn't give a damn if the streets were heaving with vagabonds, we were going there. We found McDonalds and were not disappointed with their selection which even included KFC style pieces. It was really expensive but we had a blowout and even finished it off with drinks at the McCafe. As we were leaving we spotted that there was a cinema next door, and that Harry Potter was showing in 5 minutes. Could it be? We went to enquire whether it was in English, which of course it was- good old JK. So we (probably the only English people there to take the bow for our good lady) went to see Harry P in Lima in English, whilst the locals spent the time squinting at the subtitles. Score.

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