a beach vacation

We loved the beach! We left here on a bus at 10:45 pm Thursday night. We got to Chiclayo at 5 am the next morning, then got on the next bus north at 6. At 9:30 we got into Piura, crossed the road to another bus station that goes farther north, just in time to get on the 9:30 bus that was running a little late.

We got to Mancora at 12:30, a little dazed from the crazy activity of suddenly being in a crowded bohemian beach town. We decided to eat lunch and then figure out what would be next after that.

Satisfied, we decided to get into a mototaxi and head to our hotel a couple minutes out of the town to tranquility! And let me just say, Mancora is the only place in Peru where people don't make me feel like a bag of money to be used up. Every time I've been there now I get the sense that the people are just happy to live in a bustling tourist town and they're content with that!

First things first, Forrest got right to work sitting on our private balcony overlooking the ocean. We went and sat by the ocean, and later we went swimming in the pool and then lied beside the pool to dry off. It didn't matter where we were, we kept falling asleep! We were pretty tired from the bus trip, and the environment wasn't keeping us awake!

We slept so good that night.

Every morning we'd go down to breakfast by the ocean.

Then we'd take our book/magazine and go sit by the ocean for a few hours reading and playing in the ocean. This is where we spent every morning.

Then around 1 or 2 we'd go into the town and find a restaurant to eat, and then look around at the shops. We found a nice pizza restaurant where they make the pizzas in a wood-fired oven.

Another day we found a random theme-less restaurant called El Faro, where Forrest had steak and I had chicken with curry sauce. They made the most wonderful frozen lemonade.

Then it was back to the beach for us to be lazy for the rest of the day!

Here we are with the sunset...

Bungalows we stayed at...

Another sunset...

We were there from Friday till Monday, and sadly we had to leave at noon to eat and get on the bus. When we were all the way back in Chiclayo about 8:30 pm to get our last bus home to Cajamarca, the unthinkable happened! All the night buses were full. If we make our reservations ahead, some delay happens in the trip to make us miss the bus and lose our tickets. If we don't, there will be no seats left. So we stayed in a hostal with pillows so hard I woke up with a sore head. Then we got on the bus at 10:45 am Tuesday to get home at 6 pm. This is a picture of the road on the way into the mountains.