How 2 days becomes 2 weeks in Mancora, Peru

After having lived in Buenos Aires only a short while (3 months), I was already itching to get out and see the rest of South America, so when some friends emailed me seeing if I wanted to travel with them, I was buying a plane ticket before I even had the chance to say yes.

I had a few options on where to meet them.  I could meet them in Cuzco and hike Machu Picchu with them; we could meet in Lima and travel from Lima to Quito via the coastline, or I could meet up with them in Ecuador and explore the Galapagos.  Since I did not have enough money for option A or C, it was the Lima to Quito leg I was going for.  In reality, this was the perfect thing for me because there is nothing I love more than the beach on a vacation.

I flew into Lima, met up with my friends and we were immediately off in a bus to the coast.  We had heard about a small kite surfing, beach town in the north called Mancora from some fellow travellers, so we decided to head all the way there instead of stopping along the way.  The reasoning was, if we like it, we can stay longer instead of wasting time on other beaches.

Mancora, Peru was a dream!  It is (it was, I should say, as I was there in 2007 and I am sure it has changed and grown since then) a small beach town with a few bars, a few restaurants, lots of surfers and even more ceviche.  There are small dumpy backpacker places, a few nicer hostelerias and some rental beach properties.  All in all, it was a tiny beach paradise.  My friends and I would spend the days playing around on the beach, eating the best ceviche of our lives, drinking great maracuya cocktails for happy hour and dancing all night at one of the beach bum dive bars on the main strip.

It was very easy to stay in this place, especially once we got to walking around a bit and realized that Mancora was also pretty chic.  There were small, hidden clothing boutiques with five-table fancy restaurants hidden behind them, and a surprisingly great culinary scene outside of the usual peruvian flare.  While we were there we even saw the actor Adrian Brody who was with his girlfriend shooting a movie in town.

Two days became two weeks in an instant, and sadly we had to make our way to Quito so I wouldn’t miss my flight out, but I will always have a soft spot for the little beach town that captured my heart and the best ceviche of my life.