25/06/2019 – Day 1 Mancora, Peru

We got up and had breakfast outside in the casa garden. We had fresh fruit, coffee, scrambled eggs on toast, it was a lovely breakfast, and the house is in the more residential area of the town, so was very peaceful. We are hoping we can negotiate a cheaper rate for the nights in between staying with the boys in the hostel and starting our surf camp, so that we can return, but we will see. We got our stuff together and then our host ordered us a motortaxi, which picked us and our bags up and took us to our hostel the other side of town for the equivalent of 75p (3 Sol). Our room wasn’t ready at the hostel so we left our luggage in their storage (an unlocked hut on the road with workmen working in it, probably not the safest storage we have ever seen but still, it was either that or carry everything on our backs in 30°C heat.) We walked along the main street to check out the vibe in the daytime, and popped in to a café for some more coffee. We went to a little market stall and bought the boys souvenir shot glasses, where we met a little 1 month old puppy! It was very cute but definitely still in the sharp teeth chewy phase. They seem to be able to have the puppies a lot younger than we do at home, but I guess they don’t vaccinate them and there aren’t really any rules to go by. We bought some big bottles of water and went back to the hostel and were assigned our room. We have a cabin with two bunk beds, a shower and toilet, and a hammock outside. The hostel has a pool and is right on the beach too. We dumped our bags and then went to a cafe opposite that was advertising cheap food. We ordered fresh juices that tasted very tangy (as though it had been made in a very unclean blender) so we left that one! We used the bathrooms which was inside the owners home, it was a simple oblong concrete building, with dog kennels made from cardboard boxes and a mattress on the floor. Still, the sandwich was nice, and cheap! We went back to the hostel and parked ourselves on a sun lounger next to the pool in the sun to wait for the boys arrival. Josh was beside himself with excitement, pacing up and down every so often. Eventually we spotted the boys with their rucksacks being shown to our room, so we ran up and had some big hugs, apparently it is one of the longest Josh and Goldie have gone without seeing one another! The boys got their swimming shorts on and then we went to the bar next to the pool and ordered an early dinner and some wine. It is a wristband tab system in the hostel, so could get a bit out of hand (did get a bit out of hand!) We ended up playing beer pong with wine (new name, sauvignon pong!) drank some cheap shots and the rest is history!

MaShendie re-united at last!