Peru!

We got up at 6:15, packed and got a taxi to the main bus terminal to catch the bus to Piura that left at 7:20am. We had a front seat which I always like because then you don't have anyone in front of you to contend with for space but I have to say that staring at the giant picture of Jesus right in front of our seat for 12 hours was a bit unnerving.

The bus ride was fairly uneventful making few stops. When we got to the Ecuador/Peru border, the immigration desks from both countries were literally right next to each other in the same room so there were very few questions being asked and no payments needed- really simple which I like.

We had originally planned to go to Piura but decided instead to get off two hours sooner in Mancora since we had heard Piura had nothing in it and that Mancora was a nice beach town. I am so glad we did! Mancora was a lovely little town with a beautiful beach. We had met a guy on our bus named Adam (from the UK) who tagged along with us as we went to the bank to exhange our US dollars for Soles and found a hostel. We stayed at Hospidaje California and he ended staying at the hostel across the street from ours since ours didn't have dorms, but we still met up for drinks after we got settled in.

It was 2 drinks x $20 soles happy hour all over town so we ordered mojitos and giant beers. It was a great place to sit on the terrace over looking the beach and watch the sunset.

Adrian was another guy from Ecuador staying at Adam's hostel that accompanied us to dinner. We ate at a great seafood place that served some sort of teriyaki fish-mmmmmm.

Alyssa wasn't feeling very well during dinner so she went back to the hostel to go to bed. Once we had finished eating, the boys and I walked back to the hostel to check on her. I banged on the door for about 5 minutes before I began getting worried. She had said she would leave the door unlocked for me but when I arrived, the door was locked and she wasn't answering. Immediately I imagined her being abducted and began to panick. I asked the hostel if they had another key so that I could open the door but they said that our key was the only one to the room...are you kidding me!?! I went back to the door and pounded on it so loudly I thought I would break it down, all the while screaming her name. Everyone else in the hostel came out of their rooms to see what the hell the crazy American girl was doing. Finally, the hostel realized my distress and came with some pliers and a credit card to jimmy open the door. I was concerned that they broke in with such ease but immediately happy to be in the room. There was Alyssa, all curled up in her blankets, sound asleep. I was very relieved and grabbed the key so that I could leave her locked inside. After my ordeal, the boys took me out for some beers and dancing at the local club "El Timao". I was the only white girl in that bar and clearly stuck out but it was a lot of fun. Adrian was trying to teach me some local dances that involved a lot of shoulders and hips and were hilarious. I clearly had way too many beers and at some point Adrian was nice enough to get me some water and walk me home since this was not a safe town for a lone, drunk woman at that hour. We had lost Adam earlier since he was also way too drunk. He had been on a 36 hour bus ride the day before and then came straight out drinking with us without a nap- not a good plan. I was safely in bed by 1:00am but knew already that I would regret those beers the following morning.

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