Welcome to the Land of Hippies

I just got home from the most beautiful beach town in the country of Peru, but also possibly the town most populated by hippies. It was a great spring break. We spent most the time just relaxing by the beach. It reminded me a lot of family vacations we had when I was younger. There were even certain smells that brought me back to beach vacations in Florida. :-)

There were 9 of us on the trip. We took a 1-hour flight from Lima to Piura and then drove about 3 hours from Piura to Mancora. We left so early in the morning that we had the whole day on Tuesday to spend on the beach, but we were also so exhausted by the time we arrived. Good thing we went for a relaxing vacation! We rented a bungalow just south of the town of Mancora. The house ended up costing about $60 per person for the week--not bad! It was perfect for a group of college students, and it was nice to have our own place where we could cook some meals and just hang out. It also included a pool! The beach in front of our house was really nice, too. There were occasional vendors walking by, but otherwise it was pretty quiet.

Our house just far enough from Mancora that it was hard to walk to town, so instead we had to take "moto-taxis." It's sort of like a 3-wheeled motorcycle with a seat in the back and a cover over the top. It's a pretty logical means of transportation, considering the fact that the roads are all dirt and most people just want to travel just a short distance. But almost every time we rode in one, I was a little afraid we wouldn't make it in one piece! It was an adventure, that's for sure!

Mancora was such a strange little town. At first glance, it seemed pretty sketchy, but I quickly learned to love it! There was a cool craft market where vendors sold any and every type of jewelry. They also sold pottery, clothes, food, etc. It was easy to get sucked into the market...cheap and unique jewelry seems to be a weakness of mine. The main street wasn't very appealing to the eye, but we quickly learned that masked behind the dirty buildings are some of the most delicious restaurants! We ate at a new place every night, and each night the food was just as tasty as the night before. Mmm! Lots of seafood dishes with unique sauces and some GREAT desserts. And Mancora really is the land of hippies. Hippie-surfers who make jewelry when they're not riding the waves. In fact, there is a pillar near the beach that says (in Spanish) "The entrance of hippies, vendors, peddlers, and unauthorized persons is prohibited." See photo below. :-) After spending five days there, I realized that Mancora has this sort of captivating power. It seems that these hippies just happened upon the town and never wanted to leave. In fact, we met a woman who said she has been traveling all over South America but just keeps coming back to Mancora because she likes it so much. Maybe she just likes the marijuana and the Bob Marley music. Who knows.

We visited Mancora during the off-season. This meant that everything was cheap and there were no crowds. But it also meant that we weren't able to do some of the things we wanted to do. For example, we wanted to go to bathe in the mud baths near Mancora, but the roads were flooded because of the rain. It turned out okay, though. I caught up on sleep and got lots of reading done on the beach. And I saw some of the most breathtaking sunsets...

One of my favorite parts about traveling around this country is the people I meet. Kia and I met some people from Colorado and ended up touring their beach house and having drinks with them. They were some of the most interesting people I've ever met. Two of the guys from our group met Lucho Florez, a famous clothing designer, and were invited to lunch in his glass beach house. Even if I'm not meeting people, it's also interesting to see the melting pot of people in one small town. We saw people from England, Australia, Germany, and lots South American countries. I always have the urge to find out everyone's stories. But that's usually not socially acceptable. So sometimes I just make stories up as I people-watch. :-)

It was a great vacation, and now it's back to classes. Have I mentioned that it's a little difficult to find motivation to study when you're living in a different country??

Here are a few photos. The complete documentation is in my web album (you can find link on the right side of this page).