Our transition however across the Ecudorian/Peruvian border was rather unusual, shifted off a bus, hassled almost to the verge of madness by over eager taxi drivers we stamped out of Ecuador, (rather effortlessley) and made the journey across the no-mans land into Peruvian territories. We´d done well considering this was a rather notorious border crossing.
Once in Peru we found ourselves dumped from the bus, now 10 gringo´s strong in number (Claire, James from Southampton, Hannah and Lydia from Germany all joining the fray) and began the haggle of getting a cheap enough bus out of Tomes to Mancora our next, and rather surfery destination. By the cover of darkness we arrived into Mancora after a rather interesting bus ride, also involving a stop search throughn a designated checkpoint (no miss Peruvian lady were not going to carry half your shoe store for you thjrough the checkpoint). Settling into our home for the next four days at the Sol Y Mar, it was off to the steak house for a feast of steak bigger than any ive ever seen in my life.. Round one went to Daisy, the poor old cow beat me down this time with her humungous portions... Id have top return and reclaim my dignity another night for now i was defeated.
The food in Peru does carzy things...
The next four days in Mancora consisted of lots of swimming, sand, sunbathing and a whole lot of surf... Not to mention alot of digging holes and making sofas in the sand... Not to mention the odd fish fight. Eating in the morning at the ´Green eggs and ham´ resteraunt, usually on large stacks of pancakes we energised ourselves for the days ahead, or until i defeated Daisy at the steak house. Surfuing was actually pretty fun, it wasnt really until the last day that id managed to secure my own board, and when i did i was oout for the waves faster than you could say greased lightning. But hey, not blowing my own trumpet but self teaching myself worked, and it really is quite a feeliong when you manage to catch that wave and ride it into the shore... All whilst maintainiong your balance. And just when you think life on a surfers beach cant get any cooler, a surfing Golden retreiver shows up and puts everyone else to shame... He did look very cool though, and despite my best attempts to steal the demon surfing dog away, his true love was the surf... after all whats the life of a backpacker to a surfing dog!!!!
Leaving Mancora on the 7th of July we boarded our overnight bus destined for Trujillo at 10pm and settled off into sleep, all except Charlie who was destined to be kept awake by the lack of ´recline´in her reclining chair, and the chair infront that was resting on her knees. It was at some un-natural hour in the morning that id semi-woke to find the rather sketchy Peruvian in the yellow football shirt and green baseball cap no longer occupying the seat opposite me, and also at this moment that i noticed Cherry´s bag was no longer nestelled between her legs, but rather it was behind her own seat... It wasnt unitll about 7am with an hour left to go before we arrived in Trujillo that we realised someone had forced theyre way into her bagand switched her camera for a white sock. Needless to say, the non-existance of a nights sleep coupled with the deviousness of a one socked peruvian was enough to put our group ihn a considerable air of unease. We swiftly moved up the coast for another surf destination of Huanchaco.
In fairness we havent done much since arriving in Huanchaco, despite the presence of great waves, we´ve not braved the chilly waters to surf, weve dined out, Swigged beer on our balcony and arranged our bus tickets to Lima, (to which were leaving tonight at 10:30 tonight). We´ve also been fortunate to re-bump into a New torker named Andre who was in our rafting tour back in Banos who accompanied us today and taken a trip to some rather overly restored inca ruins, and then in passing two of the girls (Hannah and Lydia) as we ate out earlier today. However today has revealed no sightings of Grandpa, an overly helpful sixty something year old peruvian surfer with an overly mellow ameican accent... But hey theres still some time to go!
Chanchan ruins or crazy Gringos?
As of right now though were all just whiling away the hours until the bus ride to Lima (10 hours journey time) Charlie and Cherry have gone for a manicure round the corner while the guys are surfing the net and plotting more of our trip. Hopefuly tonights bus ride will prove to be alot more relaxing than the previous one, we can only hope, after all its not fair to let the actions of one taint your perspectives on a country yet to be explored...
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