Beach Resorts

Mancora, Peru

Sarah Erlinder and I arrived in Mancora after about 18 hours of quality bus time. Its a long way to Northern Peru from Lima. Mancora proved to be a beach town like all others. It sits on the Pan American Highway just south of Ecuador. It is like all beach towns. A bit dirty, lots of folks selling gross kinis and cheap jewlery, the people here have a lot of tats, and everywhere people are either bright red or very dark.

We rolled in and found this sort of gross place right on the beach. (I think I am starting to demand a higher level of cleanliness.) It was alright and very cheap. The next morning we woke up and took a nice beach walk. As we went further away from town and the PanAmerican Highway there were these resorts. Nice pools, right on the ocean, people relaxing and drinking tropical drinks. In short a dream. I had to pee so we walked up to use the bathroom and inquired about the price. Only $25 a night. What. So with the greenback behind us we checked into one of these resorts and spent the remainder of our time there. It was sort of weird because neither of our guide books talked about these places. There were no gringos in sight. The people there were mostly wealthy Peruvians on holiday.

It was a great choice. We spent the days by the pool with the ocean 20 feet away, sipping mango daquaris, and reading. And night under the covers because of the AC. But I did get a bit sunburned.