Crossing Countries - Mancora (Peru)

Sunset In Mancora

Its amazing how different a place can look simply by crossing from one country to another. Really, that is pretty odd, because its only an imaginary line - but somehow the change is very noticable. That is because, in the south of Ecuador, the climate is such that plants and vegetation thrive so the whole landscape looks green, mainly with banana plantations. But as you cross to the north of Peru, the climate shifts and everything becomes very arid and dry. Of course, being in Peru is different for a whole host of other (non-landscape) reasons, such as the infrastructure and people, the cultures and the currency. One thing you notice straight away when you enter Peru is how everyone drives tuk-tuk's - a motorbike with a big carriage on the back for carrying a few passengers. They are extremely popular in Asia, where I used to hop on them all over the place to get from one location to the next. You don't really see them in Ecuador though.

The drive from the border to the popular beach-side town of Mancora is only a few hours, so we arrived pretty quickly. Most of our trip from this point on would be along some part of the Pacific coast. That meant one thing in terms of food...........fish. Anyone who has ever met me, knows that I am not a big fan of eating anything that has come out of the ocean. Don't get me wrong - if it resides on the land, whatever it is, then I will throw it down my gob with little hesitation. On my travels I have eaten; Grasshopper; Snake; Guinea Pig; and Cricket (to name just a few), but put a piece of cod in front of me and my lip starts to quiver. In Peru and in Ecuador too they have a famous fishy dish called cerviche - which is some type of uncooked sea creature in a very strong lime-juice sauce. Its a bit like a soup and the idea is that the fish doesn't need to be cooked because the lime-juice keeps it fresh. I have actually tried this dish before and apart from all the fishiness, its quite tasty. Along this part of the coast 90% of places only sell fish and cerviche so I thought it was going to be hard-work just to find something for me to eat. On top of that, my work compañero (Pete Hall) also told me that in northern Peru, they harvest so much anchovy that they end up feeding it to the chickens so that the chickens also have a fishy taste..............I knew then I was going to be in real trouble!!! Actually, throughout my time in Peru and back up through Ecuador I generally didn't have problems finding something (non-fishy) to eat and I was also the only person in our group who didn't get sick at some stage................I say thats 1-0 to the land eater!!!

Mancora was much smaller than I expected. It has a reputation for being a popular backpacker spot, especially for those who want to party, so I was suprised that the Coello family chose this place for their relaxing vacation. Actually it seems, that's its the hostals themselves which are the party venues and although the town did have quite a few beach-side bars, it wasn't as crazy as I had expected. I guess it could be compared to Ecuador's Montañita - but really there was a lot less going on here in Mancora. For us, it didn't actually matter - because we were here just to enjoy the beach and do very little - clubbing wasn't really on our agenda. We only stayed in Mancora for two nights in the end, because the sun failed to come out in any forceful manner and the town of Mancora failed to impress the Coello family. The first night we stayed close to the town. It was a nice hotel but the beach there had a constant gale force wind. So, the second night we headed a bit up the coast and found an amazing resort type place where we could just relax. The beach was far more tranquilo and this hotel was incredible. We essentially had our own apartment, right on the beach, and the pool was so amazing that we barely put our feet on the sand. There, we did nothing but soak up the sun and drank Pisco Sours (a famous Peruvian alcoholic cocktail). This hotel also had an amazing restaurant, pool-table and service, which meant you never had to leave your sun-bed. It really was an amazing place for doing very little.

Often we would head into the town of Mancora just to eat and see the place at night. It has a nice street-side market, specifically for selling to backpackers. I tried to get used to the currency in Peru but I wasn't there long enough to fully adapt. Its a pretty easy conversion though - at about 2.5 Soles (more or less) to one US ($) Dollar. The Peruvian people always seemed firendly and polite, just like their Ecuadorian neighbours although again, I wasn't in the country long enough to fully know anything about them. A few days later, we headed north, back up the coast towards Ecuador again. It was interesting and fun being in a new country and I was glad for the opportunity to see another place on this vast continent. I would definately like to head back to Peru again some day soon - and do a bit of backpacking around some of the famous sites (like Cusco and Machu Picchu), but they will have to wait until next time. For now, we continued back up north and once again made it to familiar territory.....................Ecuador!!!