08/07/2019 – Mancora, Peru

We woke up early for our planned morning surf, but had received a message from Pilar, our teacher, saying she couldn’t make the lesson. We rearranged for sunset time, and happily dozed off to sleep again. We got up and had breakfast in our homestay, fruit bowl, scrambled eggs, coffee and juice. Then we quickly got ourselves sorted, and grabbed a mototaxi to Laguna, for a yoga class. Our host Virginia and one other person came to the class. It was much more intense than the previous class but we appreciated stretching our weary limbs! The yoga space is like an open air bamboo teepee, from which you can hear the waves of the ocean, a magic setting! The teacher did some guided meditation for a while after the class, which was very calming but I can’t say either Josh or I could get fully on board with. Then we walked into town and got ourselves a coffee in the sun before heading back to our accommodation. We used the internet to start planning our onwards journey, we leave Mancora tomorrow and have no solid plans! Then we went for some lunch at a traditional Peruvian café called Isabella, Josh had chicken broth soup, and I ceviche, followed by rice lentils and chicken, with homemade lemonade (total combined bill of £4.50!) We went down the road and bought some bus tickets for the following days journey then walked home via a coffee and cake pitstop to get ready for surfing. We met Pilar at the surf point and got ourselves warmed up and into our wetsuits. The waves were absolutely huge this evening, around 2meters high, I can’t tell you what the white horses look like as you turn to face a wall of water, but it is scary! Even the frequent surfers were commenting on the size of the waves. I put my trust in Pilar and we headed out into the ocean, another beautiful orange sunset cast across it. When the big waves or ‘the set’ came I had to paddle as fast as I could in a NE direction to get out of the swell as Pilar (without a board) dived down underneath the waves. It was a non stop work out, I was either paddling away from the waves, paddling back, trying to catch a wave, falling off and then paddling back to do it again! Josh was with his instructor Jorje again. It was a challenging surf but we did it, and mastered the turtle move where you flip upside down on a board to let the crashing surf sweep over you and then hop back on and continue paddling. Josh went ashore a little bit early as he has bruised his rib surfing the day before. I love this sport and so want to do more of it! We walked home, had a nice hot shower and then had dinner in the garden, prepared by our host Virginia. She made us a huge piece of tuna cooked in sesame seeds, with potatoes, vegetables and rice, it was definitely the best meal we have had in Mancora, and was served by her youngest son Fausto, who is only 10, which is a nice personal touch! We turned in to our room to do a bit more research into our travel plans for the next week.