AspiringNomad

How naive of me to think that I might be able to catch up on some sleep in Mancora. After a fairly chilled and wholesome 6 nights in the Galapagos, I decided to book a hostel that would be a bit more lively. I had heard from my friends that Mancora wasn’t particularly busy at the moment and if you wanted a fiesta then you might need to travel to another hostel in the area to find it.

I doubted how true that bit of information was when Callum and I arrived at the hostel at 3am and the party was still going strong! Apparently, with even with a small number of people, Mancora loves a late night!

It transpired that the hostel plays music loudly until 3am every night and all the hostels take it in turns to host parties throughout the week. So yeah, there wasn’t going to be much sleeping.

I was reunited with a couple of friends I had met in Ecuador (Joe and Emily) and some new faces (Chris, Michael and Aiofe) and we set off for breakfast. It was the first time I was seeing Mancora in the daylight. Despite not having any expectations, I was a little disappointed. I was hoping that it was going to have a surf/chilled vibe to the place but instead, it was very dusty, fairly run down and lots of locals trying to sell you jewellery or sunglasses. After breakfast, we wandered back to the hostel. Unfortunately, the weather was very windy, so going in the sea for surfing or whale watching was going to be impossible! We all soon realised that Mancora was going to be a little different to what we hoped for but we were more than happy to make the most of what we did have; sun, sea and good company!

We spent some time on the beach that afternoon cautiously going into the sea. Stereotypically, the guys went much deeper than perhaps was safe and as each giant wave came in, they all temporarily disappeared, then reappeared about 20ft closer to shore! As they tried to swim with the waves their faces stuck out of the foam from the water with a look of pure joy! My ribs hurt from laughing at us getting absolutely battered by the waves! As the day went on, we ended up back in the hostel playing volleyball in the pool. We decided that we would head out for some cheap food at about 7:30pm. The usual chicken, rice, and veg was had all round and washed down with tres cervezas split between the 7 of us.

Chris had to leave us at 9pm as he was continuing on to Huaraz (a 20-hour bus journey!) The rest of us decided to grab some beers from the off licence next door to the restaurant as they were much cheaper than the hostel (about 4 soles, which is less than £1) A conveniently positioned table and chairs outside of the off licence kept us comfortable as one beer turned into another and another and another, 2am soon rolled around! We decided it was time to head back to the hostel after a strange local came to sit with us. He seronaded us with a song that I can only assume he made up himself on his guitar that only had 3 strings! It was utterly painful to listen to but hilarious nonetheless. If you’ve been keeping up with the times, you’ll have worked out that at 2am, the party at the hostel was still going strong! If you can’t be them, join them! We stayed at the bar in the hostel until they shut everything down then stumbled back to our dorms at about 3:30am.

11am the following day came around and Aiofe, Michael and Emily had already left on their 8am bus to Lima! Rather them than me! Callum, Joe and I headed out to breakfast. On the way, I had a quick catch up with the folks back in Norfolk who kindly reminded me that I was infact going out for Lunch, not breakfast!

It was another lazy day spent back at the Hostel by the pool in the sun. Joe was also due to head off at 8pm to Huaraz that evening so we went out to a lovely Italian restaurant for some pizza and red wine.

As we were now left with no friends, Callum and I decided to head to one of the other hostels on an adventure to find more people. The Wild Rover was our first stop and we met Ricardo and Caroline who were also travelling alone. The free shots and wheel spinning forfeits were a dangerous start to the evening. After a few rounds of pool and many drinks later, the four of us headed back to our hostel as they were throwing a Hawaiin party.

As I hung out the side of the tuk tuk whilst going back, I should have known to stop drinking but the lack of inhibition got the better of me and after a few more spins of the wheel I was, let’s say, more than ready for bed. My memory isn’t the clearest, but there was definitely a kitten in our dorm, Ricardo let his hair down to reveal his uncanny resemblance to Jesus, Callum was walking around with Caroline’s crochet bralette on and Caroline was yelling ‘Naomi, come party!’ as I shamefully had my head over the toilet! Callum, unfortunately, is now able to take the mick out of me at any given moment after he witnessed the consequences of a good fiesta!

I woke up this morning feeling only a little worse for wear and gathered my things up ready to check out. Coincidently, Callum and I had the same flight booked to get to Cusco today so headed for something to eat and rehydrate. We turned up at the shop that we had booked a shuttle bus to get to Tumbes airport. The man clearly had forgotten to organise anything, so we patiently waited as he discreetly contacted a friend to make sure we were picked up. About 30mins later a shuttle arrived. It was one with the windows that only open a fraction, full of people and no air con. After 1.5hrs of sweating out last nights alcohol on the shuttle bus, we arrived at the small airport of Tumbes. It was a smooth journey from there to Lima to catch our second flight to Cusco. I plan to spend about a week in Cusco, which I am really looking forward to. Lots of adventure, hiking, seeing Machu Picchu, zip lines and more rafting! I am staying here for Halloween and meeting back up with friends from Ecuador.

You’ll be pleased to hear that I plan to lay off the booze for a while and indulge in the more authentic side of Peru!