Máncora 16th-21st of October

Well I slowed down a lot in the last week, which is good really. I´ve pretty much had my fill of long distance buses now. I arrived in Mancora in the north of Peru last Thursday morning. It is a small beach town strung along the panamaricana. The main attraction is of course the beautiful beaches lying both north and south from the town, the warm water and year round sunshine. I was met of the bus by Jo (before she had to dash of to get to her voluntary work), a much better experience, than the usual stumble of a bus into an unknown town with unknown people. I happened to arrive on the same day as national awareness day for children with physical and mental disabilities, and as Jo and Mickey are working in a school for children with special needs, they were all taking part in a march through the middle of town in the morning. Later in the afternoon I went out to the school, as they were having a party both to celebrate the day and also it was the 6th birthday of the school. This meant lots of dancing (in which Jo and Micky were dragged up for pretty much every dance), a talent show done by the kids and cake!Later in the afternoon we took one of our many trips to the local beach. There are literally hundreds of pelicans fishing the waters near the beach, so when you are surfing you sometimes get within only a few feet of them which is actually a little scary (Pelicans are really big!).The next day the 3 of us went for a surf lesson with a guy called Robbie. He is a Peruvian/American ex pro surfer, who has decided to spend his retirement in Manocora, running a surf shop/school. He drove us out to a quite nearby beach, where we spent a few hours getting thoroughly knacked paddling around and attempting to catch some surf. Great fun though. Afterwards we went for lunch with Robbie and a local restaurant, where we could try all the local fish specialities. The most famous is a dish called Cerviche, which is basically raw fish and lime. Nice enough, but something i think i´ll only try once.....In the evening we met up with other Volunteers (from the states), who are also working in Mancora. Went out to experience a little bit of Mancora`s night life, but we were so tired from surfing we only lasted till about 1am.Saturday was a fairly lazy day. Starting on the beach for a few hours and then in the afternoon we took a trip out to some nearby hot springs. This involves hiring one of the moto taxis to drive the 30 mins out there, wait for an hour or so then drive back. Instead of taxis in Mancora, they have these moto taxis, which are very similar to the Tuk Tuks they have in Thailand. Its basically the front half of a motorbike, strapped onto a cart with seats and roof. Very unstable, especially when driven by drivers who seem to have an average age of about 12! anyway, we made it out there safely and had a nice time relaxing in the (supposedly mineral enriched) water. It is pretty much a muddy hole in the ground, but you can make face packs from the mud (supposedly good for the skin).On Sunday we took a wander south, beyond the fishing wharf to a very pretty palm lined beach. This is where all the posh hotels are, but fortunately they are mainly well disguised in the trees, so don`t spoil the view too much. Generally just lazed about, went swimming, built sand castles before heading back to Mancora at sunset.On Monday morning, Jo and Micky had school again. So I just went for another wander along the beach, this time in the less scenic northern direction. In the afternoon I went with Jo and Micky for the afternoon classes at the school. They seemed to only really have 1 hour of proper classes though, and then spent 2 hours doing sports outside. Very hot and tiring work, chasing them around. I think it was maybe their day for sports though.Come Tuesday morning it was time for me to get back on the road again, very sad to leave really, but they will be reunions again in December. First i took a bus to Tumbes on the Ecuadorian border, then changed to an international bus to Guayaquil. Going this way, is much safer than taking taxis and colectivos across the border as this one in particular has a pretty bad reputation. Once I had safely made it to Ecuadorian customs, i amazing bumped into those 3 Australians again! just to prove that it was indeed a dodgy border crossing, they informed me their taxi driver had driven them down an alley and charged them a ´special border tax´! they are heading to Columbia too, so maybe we`ll meet yet another time!I arrived in Guayaquil in the early evening and headed straight over to the airport. My flight o Bogota was a 6am, so i just set up camp in a secluded corner and tried to get a least a little bit of sleep, although they insisted on playing music out through the tannoy all night.So I have arrived safely here in Bogota, and will be here until Saturday when Ben arrives and we will head to the Cartagena on the Caribbean coast.
O