Mancora, Peru. Like White Rock beach but, warmer water

Mancora is a beach and surf town. The mains strip is mainly restaurants, craft stores or mini marts selling things you might have forgotten at home. The each has fine sand and almost no pebbles. Just a long stretch of green-blue.

Lining the beach are about 20 stalls offering a variety of seafood, fried food or pasta. At the north end of the beach, about 100 or so people are playing in the water. A little further south, that’s where all the surfers are. And that’s where I went to gawk at beautiful people. Sadly, not so good looking. Fit but nothing dashing. I had about 3 really young, fit guys hit on me though. Surfer dudes in the mid or early 20’s. One, I can’t actually hold a decent conversation in Spanish. Two, I’m not that casual where company needs no verbal conversation. A shame. Even the chubby dude at the hotel asked me out. I had to chuckle.

Most of the stores have grass thatched roofs and wooden posts. Little motorcycles with covered seats attached to it roam the strip, occasionally honking to attract customers. Looks like a tricycle-buggy. The weather was quite nice. You could go out in the day in a tank top and shorts but it cools down enough in the evening to wear light pants with your tank top, which is good because there are mosquitoes. Not too many but enough for me to be perturbed when my can of OFF ran out after I sprayed my legs. I now have a bite on my arm.

I was hoping to find a hostel where I would be able to meet some people so I can go out a night and try some Pisco Sour. Sadly, no. Well the night is still young. And there’s always the hotel dude. Yah… NO.

For dinner, I had a “quesadilla”. Some pita-like bread wrapped around lots of cheese. For those from BA, like UGI’s pizza but wrapped up. They also served “garlic bread.” Lots of butter, not so much garlic. Really, I wanted something light but I didn’t dare have salad, especially after my bout in Bolivia. This place was called Gecko. Nice atmosphere and the food that other people were having looked really good. I got the set dinner because it was cheaper. They even had Dido piping. I’m not a fan but after days and days of cumbia, it was a nice welcome.