Journey:

We took our return flight from the Galapagos and went straight to the bus station (which is basically opposite the airport but still cost $4 for some reason.)

We then had about a 5 hour wait for our overnight bus to Mancora. We travelled with SuperCiva and it was absolute luxury (although the ticket price reflected that.) We got given snacks, the seats were absolutely huge and reclined all the way down, there was so much space. It was amazing.

However, not so amazing when we were woken at 1am at the Peru border. It took us about 2 hours for everyone on the bus to be stamped through the Ecuador exit and Peru entrance (which was admittedly quicker than the Ecuador/Colombia border.) When we were finally through we had another few hours sleep before we arrived in Mancora at 5:30am.

Accommodation:

Misfit Hostel

This hostel was located right on the beach and we had our own personal beach hut with a bathroom on the first floor and bedroom with a little balcony on the second floor. It sounds ideal right? Wrong. Queue massive long rant…

1) The first thing I noticed (although Thomas couldn’t ever smell it so thinks I’m crazy here) was the ever present smell of drains.

2) The breakfast (which was pathetically tiny) was eaten surrounded (and I mean surrounded) by flies and an assortment of other insects.

3) None of the toilets worked

4) The showers were all salt water (what’s the point? You might as well just go for a swim in the sea.)

However, this would all have been bearable but for the cricket issue. There were hundreds and hundreds of crickets in the little beach house we were staying in. If you stood up you would immediately get hit by two jumping around so the only way you could stay in the room was hiding under the mosquito net around the bed (although this didn’t completely stop them coming and joining you in the bed.) After this we decided to leave and move elsewhere. We had to pay 3 nights stay still when we had only stayed for 1 but this was worth it so long as we didn’t have to sleep with a thousand crickets again.

Kites Hotel

Our second hotel in Mancora was a hundred times nicer than the first. Originally it was going to cost us S.120 (roughly $36 per night) but as they obviously would rather have a room filled than nobody in and it was low season they gave it to us for S.80 ($24) instead. It had a swimming pool, toilets that worked, and best thing of all it had only a small amount of crickets. Crickets were unavoidable in Mancora but in this hotel there were maybe 10 in our room per night instead of 100 (except on the last night which I will forever remember as the invasion of the crickets – more to come later.)

Sights/activities:

Surfing

This is genuinely the only activity to do here, other than relaxing on a beach (not an issy friendly activity due to the massive risk of sunburn.) There’s a really nice left wave which is good for beginners and the more experienced. However, this is also the downside, with at least 15 people in the water at all times competing for the same wave it means you struggle to catch a lot of waves. Also, be warned the locals think that the waves should be theirs alone and are not the friendliest.

Food:

We basically went to the same place for lunch/dinner every day. Just off from the beach on the left hand side there is a restaurant and they do a lunch menu (starter/main/drink) for S.10. The tequenos (I just asked Thomas how to describe these and he said cheese pastry things but I can’t think of a better description myself) were my favourite option for the starter. In the evening everywhere does barbecues for again S.10.

For dessert (finding good dessert is the most important thing by far) we found somewhere on the Main Street (just next to the road going to the beach.) There was a little cart selling tea/coffee and a variety of cakes called Cafe Carola and we ate a large amount of their passion fruit pie which was amazing. (We came there so much they recognised us by the end and gave us some free pie.)

Summary:

If I was returning to Peru I would definitely give Mancora a miss. It’s a fairly average town without much personality and the inhabitants are generally quite unfriendly and don’t particularly like tourists. The beach is fine and the surfing is good fun (when you actually manage to catch a wave amongst the many surfers.)

The main downside for me was the huge amount of crickets. As I had said before we moved out of our first hostel due to the amount of crickets in our room; well on the last night there were crickets absolutely everywhere in this town. They lined the streets everywhere and were in every single restaurant and shop. There was no escaping them and there must have been millions in the town. I have no idea why/where they were from but I will always remember Mancora as the town that was invaded by crickets.