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| Country number two! |
After a wonderful time in Ecuador that was longer than we expected, we have made it to Peru. From Cuenca we took an overnight bus over the border without problems other than a 3 hour midnight layover on a bus station bench in an unknown border town.
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| Ryan and his pals waiting for a bus |
When we arrived in Mancora at 7 am feeling very tired and a little shell shocked, our first impression of Peru was a swarm of mototaxi (tuk tuk) drivers who were shouting out suggestions for hostels and shoving information in our faces. We eventually had to shout back to get them to leave us alone long enough to get our packs and start walking (Anne hadn't even had her coffee yet... always a dangerous time to be in her face!) They were not dissuaded however and several followed us and even waited outside the cafe we found for breakfast. Well, once we found a place to stay, had some food, and took a deep breath we determined that we WERE in fact on a beautiful beach in a new country and things were actually okay.
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| Peruvian "Cebiche" with our toes in the sand |
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| Fishing boats ("lanchas") at sunset |
Mancora is a bit more of a party town so after a brief stay we quickly opted for a beach just south of there called Vichayitos which is calmer, more pristine, and just beautiful!
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| Anne preparing for handstands on the beach |
After one night in a nice bungalow that included a projection of Rock of Ages (crazy movie...) and free popcorn, we were without a room for the night, but not ready to leave the beach. We spent a while walking up and down the row of resorts becoming more and more discouraged that they were all well out of our budget. In something of a desperation move we knocked on the door of a private home that had a small hand-painted sign indicating that they rented rooms. 79-year-old Francesco answered the door and our prayers. After brief confusion, the retired single Italian man rented us his private backyard bungalow for cheap in Italian and broken Spanish. It was perfect and Francesco was a great host, lending us his car one day and even driving us 20 mins away to catch a bus when it was time for us to leave.
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| Ryan just before getting soaked by the next wave |
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| Corny sand design love |
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| 'fraid-y crabs scuttle into their holes just before you get to them on your beach walks |
From there we arrived in Chiclayo after a long and sweltering day of bus rides across the deserts of Northern Peru (kind of looks like Nevada, but with bigger piles of trash). Since we were both feeling ready to stop moving around so much, we opted to skip all of the important archeological sites near there (don't worry, we'll go back...) and head straight on to Huanchaco where we have a month-long volunteer gig set up. We're excited and will be posting more about Huanchaco and the school we're working at soon.
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