We started out our trip Thursday afternoon with a "16 hour" bus ride to Máncora. I say "16 hour" bus ride, because when all was said and done we really spent 20 hours on the bus. It wasn't all that bad. In fact, I slept for at least half of it. The rest of the trip, I was entertained either by the lovely landscape of Peru, one of the many scary and/or wildly inappropriate movies playing, or listening to the life stories of my housemates! Before I knew it, we had arrived in Máncora.
Here are some pictures my friends Amelia and Natalie snapped on the way to Máncora!
Unfortunately, my camera had already died by this point of the trip...
What a way to pass time!
Once in Máncora, we got off the bus and started looking for a hostel to stay at. Luckily, my housemate Kati had done some research and we easily found a hostel with a room the perfect size for our group! I had never stayed at a hostel before and didn't really know what to expect, but I sincerely enjoyed by time at Kokopelli! We shared a room with four sets of bunk beds and each person had a lock box to keep all of their things secure. The staff was incredibly friendly and they kept the hostel in tip top shape. I'd definitely stay at Kokopelli again!
Here's a shot of the pool that I nabbed from their website.
This is the view of the hostel outside of our room.
After settling into our room, we all changed into our swimsuits and headed out to the beach. We proceeded to enjoy our first full day of sun since arriving in Peru. In fact, we enjoyed it a bit too much and all got burnt. Opps! I guess I forgot how close Peru is to the equator... that's pretty easy to do when you're living in a city that is CONSTANTLY covered by clouds. It's a good thing we left Lima actually, because I was beginning to become Vitamin D deficient!
Some of my housemates and I relaxing on the beach!
Our first day in Máncora was pretty low key, but the second day was action packed! Four out of the eight girls in our group decided to do a tour with Ursula Behr of Iguanas Tours. First off, I'd like to say what a cool chica this lady is! She has an incredibly interesting life story and her thirst for adventure is contagious! Needless to say, we had an absolute blast on her tour!
Here's a picture of Ursula holding a crocodile from the sanctuary we went to.
(Sorry it's so small, but once again I had to borrow the picture from her website.)
Before going to the crocodile sanctuary, we went to a National Park so far north in Peru that we were almost in Ecuador. Literally, we were a few blocks away from Ecuador! But alas, that wasn't our final destination... Hopefully once classes are over I'll make it to Ecuador!
Our first activity was kayaking in a National Park to admire the well-preserved wildlife and mangrove trees. We encountered numerous iguanas, dozens of birds, and countless crabs! It was quite an adventure, but more than that it was an eye-opener to see the difference between the preserved park and other unpreserved areas where the biodiversity can't thrive as much.
We finished out the day in a little town called Zorritos where we went for a swim in a pool fed by hot springs. That was definitely my favorite part of the day and possibly of the whole trip to Máncora. The pool is only used by locals, but lucky for us Ursula was let in on the secret too! For me it was incredibly satisfying to think of who first discovered this work of nature and what they thought of it and its supposed healing powers.
Here's a picture of my friends Mari, Natalie, Kati and I in the pool.
The pool was as warm as a hot tub and the fountain on the left was even hotter!
After a day full on fun, Ursula invited us to help supervise a swimming competition in the ocean the next day. Our "job" was to kayak with the swimmers, provide water, directions, encouragement and whatever else they needed. So basically, all eight of us got a free 5 mile long kayak ride in the ocean! It was a blast and my other favorite activity. After we finished the race, the swimmers and hosts were all very grateful and actually gave us free t-shirts and certificates of participation!
My free t-shirt with the Travesía Máncora-Vichayito logo! I wish I had pictures of the event, but we were all too afraid to bring cameras. Turns out that it was a good choice because the waves were pretty big and we were all drenched by the end of the race!
All in all, Máncora was a success! I had a blast, soaked up some sun, went swimming in a hot spring, kayaking the ocean, and stayed in my first hostel! I cannot wait to return and next time I'll definitely check out the mudbaths!
To go with the Máncora theme I picked two words of the week...
la playa= beach
quemado por el sol= sunburnt
Hasta Luego,
Katie
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