Mancora is a place renowned for having the best beaches in Peru and the best climate also. Being summertime all year round its a slice of paradise for us Brits!
Again we stayed in the Loki hostel, 7 dollars a night for a view like the above, not bad hey!
Me, Heather, Hannah, Lisa and Chay (Hannah's boyfriend who was over visiting ) had already decided that our week in Mancora was going to be a week of nothing but pool, beach and seafood, and thats what it was!
Each morning we would get up and ask : beach or pool today? and each night ask : what cocktails do you fancy?
We ate so much Ceviche (raw fish, Peruvian style sashimi but spicier), prawns and salads.
We ate AMAZING mexican food, sushi and thai, all three restaurants being with 200 yards of each other. perfection.
And of course, Mancora is a mean surfing spot, so of course we had to try it out!
Plus, an hour lesson each with our own instructor for ten pounds, we couldnt say no!
Surfing is definately a 'its looks easier than it is' sport, because i couldnt even get myself kneeling on the board for the first 15 mins! but eventually i managed to surf a wave 3 or 4 times, a very proud moment indeed!!!
Even with a bit of blood leaking from my thigh after scraping the sea bed, its something i will try again.
The only thing is to be aware of the local guys on the beach, who decided it was normal to take photos of Lisa, Heather and I whilst sunbathing and when Heather got irrate with them (which I loved), all they replied was that it was for 'their collection', oh thats ok then isn't it?! Strange men!
Mancora is beautiful and there is so much more to do that I didn't get round to, such a parties in the clubs on the beach etc / getting to see outside the hostal/restaurant/beach area.
However we did make it to the local mud baths, 20/25 minutes away in a mototaxi from Loki hostel. A mototaxi ride I'll never forget! Me, Hannah and Chay were in one mototaxi and Lisa and Heather in the other. A mototaxi is basically a Tuk-Tuk which is a motorbike that has a rear covered seat back at the back and can fit 3 people in. So off we went on the bumpy road, every limb of ours vibrating along with the motion of the mototaxi, and to pass the time Me, Chay and Hannah thought of as many songs as we could to sing along the way, the guy must have thought we were nuts. From the Beatles to YMCA, me and Hannah were the perfect backing singers to Chay, a taxi ride to remember for sure!
Then we arrived to the mud baths around 5pm, the water was gorgeous and warm and Chay's diving skills provided us with lots of mud to lash on our faces and upper bodies, you just had to be careful of the odd stone or hair in the mud clay. Only the photo below can explain our beauty at the mud baths.
The only thing we didn't like about Mancora, was the fellow travellers in Loki at the time, RARS. Aka posh gap yah kids travelling on daddy's money. Sometimes we felt a bit out of place surrounded by all these bellends but there was 5 of us, so we had such a good time anyway!!
Mancora is a definite recommendation, so much so, that Im going back there on my way to Ecuador and Colombia!
