Lazy Days in Mancora

I was a bit apprehensive about our journey into Peru from Cuenca, as it seemed to be an amalgamation of all of the things I usually try to avoid whilst travelling.

We would be getting an overnight bus, crossing the border in complete darkness at about 1am, and arriving at our destination before sunrise, at 5.30am. But from all our research and talking to other travellers, taking a single bus the whole distance overnight was the safest option. So after killing 10hours from checking out of our hotel in Cuenca, we boarded our last bus in Ecuador.

Who did we bump into on the same bus? Geoffrey and Kim! Our hiking companions from the Quilotoa loop had been to the Ecuadorian coast and through Cuenca and were back on the same trail as us. They were undertaking a mammoth journey all the way to Trujillo, so we only had a short catch up whilst waiting in the line at immigration, but as we are on similar timelines we have made plans to meet up again in Cuzco to exchange stories of our Peru travel experiences.

The bus was not comfortable, to say the least, and we arrived slightly delayed in Mancora at 6am. We were thankful for the beautiful sunrise saving us from walking through the dark to find our hostel - which was pretty hard to find even in daylight! Once we found our way in, we sat in reception expecting to wait the 7 hours until check in. I think the cleaning lady took pity on me when I fell asleep on the sofa at about 8am, and gave us the key to our room and told us to get comfortable. Never been so grateful!

After a blissful four hour nap, we were ready… for four days of complete relaxation! That was the only plan for our time in Mancora. We had sped through Ecuador and experienced so much in such a short space of time, we were both ready for some laid back beach vibes.

Mancora is a popular surfer and kite surfer town thanks to consistent waves and year round sun. Visiting in July, we were technically out of season (high season being December to February), but we still enjoyed bright sunshine and 28 degrees all through our visit. Perfect for us!

We made a routine of having a lie in, making breakfast in the hostel and spending the morning lying on the beach. Graeme is determined to get a tan on his shoulders and torso (although they seem to quite stubbornly refuse to tan). I, on the other hand, am reapplying the factor 70 sun cream we bought in Colombia every half hour and have ended up with tan lines like a zebra!

Our next stop would be a cafe for a late lunch, before retiring to our hostel’s terrace for a couple of hours to read our books, listen to podcasts and generally chill. Then we would grab some beers and head to the beach to watch the sun set before dinner. Tell me this isn’t the perfect life?!

Speaking of dinner, just a few days into our time in Peru and we noticed the food stepped up a gear. The fresh seafood and East Asian influence to the cuisine has gone down very well so far and we ate some of the best dishes of the trip to date during our time in Mancora. We can’t wait to eat our way through Peru!

We considered joining the surfers on the waves and treating ourselves to a lesson whilst in the city, but then we learnt we happened to be in the area at a very special time: breeding season for humpback whales.

From July to October, these majestic sea creatures migrate to the waters off the shores of Ecuador and Peru to find a mate and breed, before heading back south to their feeding grounds. We hadn’t planned it or known before arriving, but we couldn’t pass up the chance to go whale-watching when it was so close by!

We spoke to a number of tour operators and were a little disheartened at first. Most tours out of Mancora looked a little… tinpot. They all included swimming with turtles and free GoPro footage of you doing show, which was proudly displayed on the screens, but Graeme and I both thought that the turtles looked sad! Of course we don’t know if that’s true or how the turtles are treated because we didn’t go on one of these tours, but 50 people on a platform with turtles attracted by feed being thrown into the sea didn’t seem like fun to us.

We asked our hostel owner for a recommendation and we are so glad we did. He recommended Pacifico Adventures. This tour company is run by marine biologists who study the whales in the area and contribute to conservation efforts for marine life. The tour left from the pier in Los Órganos at 6.40am, 10km from Mancora, which meant a little more effort on our part. Waking up at 5am, we were on a 6.15am bus to Los Órganos and ended up running from the bus station to the pier to be on time! By 7am we were on the water and by 7.30am we were watching humpback whales surface and dive to the depths, flicking their tails at us as they went.

It was a truly unforgettable experience. At one point there were a pair of whales alongside our little boat, and we could fully appreciate the scale of them as their backs broke the surface of the water.

We learnt so much about humpback whales and their behaviour, and we also saw a pod of dolphins swimming in search of food. We ended our time in the boat by lowering a special microphone into the water so we could listen to the whale song. Back on dry land, we were guided around the Pacifico Adventures Marine Biology museum, where we learnt about the whales, sharks and turtles found in the area and were shown fossils and bones of different marine animals.

Returning to Mancora by lunchtime, we settled back into our beach life routine.

The next day, our hostel owners again proved themselves to be legends, letting us keep access to our room until our 10pm night bus left, so we were able to have one last full beach day knowing we could shower off the sand before the long journey to Trujillo.

We spoke to many travellers that rushed through northern Peru in a bid to get to the jewels of the south, but we are glad we took a bit of time to enjoy the laid-back beach vibes of Mancora.

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