Hola! Hola! Hola!
My goodness it feel like a long time since I have posted a blog, but that is because I was too busy having the absolute time of my LIFE in Mancora, Peru! Wow, let me just start off by saying that the beach life is the life for me. Sand between my toes, salt on my lips, sun on my skin, and a smile on my face, yup, that pretty much sums up the past week and a half of my life :)
So starting from the beginning, we hopped on a bus Friday afternoon and rode for 20 hours overnight to reach our destination of Mancora, Peru Saturday afternoon. The bus ride actually seemed surprisingly short, like super short. We slept, ate, and watched movies and I swear my trips to Vail, CO seem longer. We then took a 30 minute taxi ride up to Los Organos where we rode what felt like to the very far edge of the town, on the tipety top of a mountain to our lovely bungalow. Just a two room bungalow with a bathroom. You walk in the front glass sliding doors straight into the main room which has a huge king sized bed. While laying in the bed you look straight out into the ocean, breathtaking. In the same room was the kitchen, equipped with all the necessary cooking appliances (a Bunsen Burner to boil things and a tiny George Foreman to toast bread, or in our case we attempted mushy hot dogs to make them less mushy), I kind of felt like I was doing science experiments every time I cooked. The second room was simple, two beds on posts and one mattress on the floor. What else could we possibly need? At this point we knew we were definitely going to be beach bummin' for the week. We walked to the town of Los Organos to get some groceries for the week since we were literally miles away from any sort of civilization, plus we did not want to be eating out every single meal. On our way home we had to take what is called a moto-taxi, essentially a motorcycle with a hitch on the back that carries 3 people. The picture below is significantly fancier than the ones we rode in, but you get the idea. Anna and I rode in one taxi together and the other three girls in a different one. We came to what I would call the "death hill" (literally a 130 degree hill to reach the top of the mountain) and our moto taxi reved its engine and started putting at the pace of a snail up the hill. Fear in our eyes, Anna and I clutched one another for dear life waiting for the moto-taxi to begin rolling backwards down the hill. Most moto-taxi drivers were not at all familiar with our bungalow since it was so remote. Some how the little moto-taxi that could made it up the hill. Success! Unfortunately when we tried this again a couple of days later it was not quite the same success...the moto-taxi did start rolling backwards barreling us to our death until the moto-taxi was able to stop itself, me and the girls hopped out and the moto-taxi drive drove our groceries to the top as we walked. The number of near death (I may be dramatizing that) but seriously scary, terrifying experiences I have had is really quite unfathomable and I in no way imagined that I would come across this many before coming to Peru. But! Regardless, I would not trade them for ANYTHING! I love all my crazy adventures and the nonsensical situations I find myself in. Each one is learning experience and I grow with each passing one.
We woke up Sunday to the soft, swishing of the waves and that was literally it. We were 100% secluded from all other people. The silence was amazing. Lima is a city comparable to New York City with sirens going off, dogs barking, people yelling, and noise galore. This was just what we needed after a month of noise; silence. I spent my mornings (most mornings) relaxing in the hammocks just outside our bungalow. Two cloth hammocks sat calmly inside a tavern and looked out to the ocean. I read my bible, listened to music, journaled, prayed, and enjoyed. I can truly say those moments in the hammock were some of the most peaceful, restful moments I have ever had in my life. After hammock hour many days I would then hit the beach and tan, walk along the shore, splash in the waves and read the Fault in Our Stars. What a wonderful spring break book. On Saturday though the girls and I (4 other girls from the group of UNK student came with me), we went called our taxi man and headed to Mancora to explore the city and do some shopping. For lunch we grabbed the freshest of fresh seafood and for dinner we cooked up some pasta.
Monday was tour day as we left in the morning for an all day tour of a random assortment of activities. Our tour guy claimed he was a professor and had that corky, crazy eyed look on his face and from that moment on, I knew today would be nothing but a typical day in Peru. Speaking of typical Peruvian type things, no worries, we left the tour an hour and a half late. Our first stop was a beach called Punta Sal where we hung on the beach while some other tourists with us took a boat stroll. We then were scheduled to head to the mud baths (essentially the reason the girls and I decided to sign up for this $15 all day tour) and the tour guide announced on the bus that he thought the mud baths were silly and dumb, therefore, we shouldn't go. People were fired up and demanded that we go. Once we got there the guide announced we would have enough time to take a picture, but not get in...what a waste of time. The mud baths looked fun and we were totally bummed we missed the experience, but we were awfully pleased that because we cut short our mud bath time we were able to spend more time at Zorritos Beach which was filled with warm, bath water. It was heaven. Although the beaches may be beautiful, the water is cold! Not too cold, especially in Mancora, because it is so boiling hot, but none the less cold. After our bath water beach we headed to Tumbes for some fresh seafood. I tried conch shell and was sadly disappointed because of the overly chewy texture, but I had to try it because it is so popular and well known here. After lunch we went on boat ride and the guide explained how this area of the ocean/river is split. There was a clear difference between the ocean, salt water (blue) and the fresh, river water (yellowy). As we rode the little boat around they told us we were going to see the crocodiles! I was beyond excited!! We passed through narrow passages of jungle like scenery and I was ready for the guide to whisper "look right there, do you see it!" But, to my disappointment we parked the boat on a dock, were asked to get off the boat and entered what I would call tortureville. These poor, innocent crocodiles were cooped up in spaces that were meant for at max 3 or 4 of them, and there would be 30-40 of them. All on top of one another, no water, and I'm pretty sure half or more were dead. My heart sank, and I could hardly bare to look at the other exhibits of more and more and more cooped up crocs. They claim that they don't allow them to stay in the rivers because they were being hunted and they wanted to conserve them. I don't believe it. The girls and I tried plotting a devious plot to come back and free all the crocs, operations #freethecrocs. Eventually we took our long bus ride home and planned to have hot dog night. A little taste of home never hurt right? Well...to our disappointment, our 7 soles ($2.30) for like 15 hot dogs, were absolutely inedible. The insides were mushy even after being cooked, hence why I mentioned earlier that we attempted to George Foreman them to ease the pain.
Tuesday we took as a rest day to recuperate. We headed to Los Organos for some light grocery shopping and then went to Mancora. I did a dare devil thing that day and got a twisty braid hair thingy wrapped around my hair! Gasp! Hopefully it comes out easy and I don't have to cut all my hair out...that would be terrible. But for now it looks pretty awesome! We then went and got some fancy cocktail drinks (had my first Peruvian Pina Colada, good choice) and had pizza. Spoiler alert: also had pizza Friday night. We aren't being anti Peru thought I swear!!! In Mancora there were more pizza places than all the other restaurants combined! But! Jaime and I justified our pizza choice because we got shrimp pizza...and we were by the ocean...so yeah that counts as seafood.
Wednesday Jaime and I chilled at the Bungalow and found a beach restaurant for lunch where we ate literally on the ocean. We ordered Inka Cola, the Peruvian soda, and it was a liter and a half. No worries, Jaime and I conquered it. Jaime claims it tastes similar to Mountain Doo (how do you even spell the doo part?) and Mackenzie said one time it tastes like bubblegum and I intensely agree with Mackenzie. On point, it is totally bubblegumy. The other 3 girls took a day trip to Ecuador. I came to Mancora to beach it, so that's why I decided against the Ecuador quest. Before lunch Jaime and I came across a guy from Chile and another from Argentina. It is so interesting the fascination that South American men have with white girls. In America a man is never in awe when seeing lets say a Chinese or Chilean girl, but here it is like they are seeing a rare crystal in the mud (totally not the saying but I can't think of it right now). South America must be far less traveled by Americans than I originally assumed because they are almost always taken by surprise when seeing me. Later that night Jaime and I had a date night with our wine and the sunset. The sunsets on Los Organos beach are the most beautiful sunsets I have and may ever experience in this blink of an eye life of mine. The swirling mixtures of orange, pink and yellow rage against the blue sky and the sun seems absolutely humungous. When talking about the size of the sun in middle school science classes I never was able to fathom it, I still can't, but these sunsets helped just a touch. I wish so badly that I had a photographic memory because looking at the pictures on my phone and then looking back up at the sky, ugh, not even close. I honestly don't even know what I tried to take them. Anyways, we discovered that night also that the sunset does not end when you can no longer see the sun, it actually lingers and becomes more brilliant as time passes. Jaime and I sat on the beach for over an hour and gazed, it was wonderful. Sidenote: when we first went down there we accidentally went to far along the beach and entered what we named "crab land," about 2 blocks filled with hundreds of crabs coming and going in and out of there holes! What a sight to see, small ones, big ones, white ones, red ones, all crawling horizontally. Jaime and I also started a semi nightly star gazing hour where we laid on our one little laying out chair on the porch and star gazed and chatted. Another sidenote: let me complain about something super silly and materialistic here just for a moment. This is a beach bungalow. People come for the BEACH, that means the sun, which means they want to lay out and get tan. Why oh why would a 4 person house only have one beach chair?? OK, I'm done.
Thursday Jaime and I made the executive decision to go get surfing lessons. An older gentlemen, probably 60 or so (actually ages here are IMPOSSIBLE to guess because men who are 35 look like they are 16 and then men who are 20 look like they are 30) who was ripped out of his mind, named Rocky of all the Peruvian names in the world, was our instructor. Before being able to start our lessons he had to deal with a screaming teenager who was wailing because there was something in his foot. I had heard about a couple of the kids in our groups getting sea urchins in their feet, but I was told they didn't have those in Mancora. LIES. That story is for later. Anyhow, we started off by doing tons of burpies essentially on surfboards that he drew with his finger in the sand. After our training, workout session we hit the water. I was actually incredibly amazed that almost every time I tried to catch a wave I did! However, I seemed to steer my board towards the rocks every time on accident and almost nailed my head on the rocks multiple times, thank goodness I didn't thought! Also, I cut up my foot and when we were walking home it was hurting pretty bad. The pain got worse throughout the day and my foot felt like flaming daggers were being stabbed into it on that night. Sea urchins. These little black balls of torture have long pointy spines on the ends. They hide in the rocky parts of the ocean, and Mallory being Mallory, always hurting myself and having weird nonsense like this happen to me, got sea urchins in her foot. It is Sunday night and I currently still have them in there. They don't hurt anymore, but I need to go see the school nurse to see if they need to be taken out or how I go about his business considering we don't have sea urchins in Nebraska so I know absolutely nothing about them. Anyways, back to surfing. Seriously besides the sea urchins and near death almost head injuries, surfing has been one of my favorite experiences in Peru so far! I think I love it so much because it reminds me of snowboarding which I am deeply saddened about missing out on this year. After catching some waves for an hour the instructor offered for us to come to a bonfire with all of the other surf instructors that night. We ended up going into Mancora instead with the other girls and it started raining so they would not have been able to light the wood anyways. That night we fancied ourselves a nice dinner of coconut shrimp at a French restaurant that was to die for. Mm mm mm! So yummy!
Friday was an early morning (extra early since I was up all night with sea urchin pains), but Jaime and I woke up around 6:15am to get ready for turtle swimming. We got to the port and geared up in our wetsuits. The other people on the tour were a little bit out of place as most of them had never used a snorkel before nor knew how to swim. The instructor basically let Jaime and I do and go as we pleased. We were the first to get in the water and holy moley was that water ICE COLD. Thank goodness we had the wetsuits because without them it would not have been bearable; truly I'm sure there were ice chips floating around somewhere. We spent about an hour and a half swimming with these giant turtles that reminded me of dinosaurs. They were so friendly and willing to be so close to us. Seriously a wonderful and magical experience that I will never forget. We were told not to touch the turtles, but how on earth could I resist when the turtle was inches away from me. The shell was hard and slimy with moss and their hands and feet were scaly. Many had big warts on their skin, too. People always color turtles such a bright green when really they are a soft, greyish green, not bright at all. Their faces were had a soft look on them, like a grandpa who had been watching the cooking channel for 4 hours straight. After the turtles we headed to what the instructor called "pools" where the rocks formed just right so that when the waves rushed in the water shot up into the sky and drenched us! Once back in Los Organos I decided it was time to get a doctor to take the sea urchins out. The first doctor office was a bust as no one offered me assistance and I'm pretty sure it was only for children. The second office was even worse as the 15 year old looking doctor cleaned my foot with rubbing alcohol and claimed that there was nothing in my foot. Ha. False. Then he made me pay him 20 soles to clean my foot with rubbing alcohol! What a scam! Getting robbed by a 15 year old Dr.! Anyways, the pain has subsided, but the needles are obviously in there. Hopefully the school nurse can shed some light on my current situation tomorrow.
Once back at the Bungalow I tanned for a bit and cooked us up some baked potatoes. I then crashed for an hour before getting the wake up call to get ready to go into town for our last randevu in Mancora! The night was a night of ups and downs and all arounds. The man who had done our hair things asked if he and 2 of his friends could join us for dinner because they had made friends with two of the girls in our group. Myself and the other 2 girls opted out just because we didn't know the men very well and rather not have to translate Spanish while on Spring Break haha. After pizza dinner round two we found the most amazing dessert known to man that I sadly don't remember the name of. But it was essentially two thin pita breads cooked with nutella inside them and hot fudge and ice cream on top, amazing. We then hit the Discotecas considering it was a Friday night and he town was hoppin'! We danced the night away and had planned to head back to Los Organos around 3am. A man who had serenaded Anna at lunch the other day was talking with her again (dressed in his pilgrim looking outfit with a man who appeared dressed as Zorro by his side) and explained to us that there were no safe taxis in Mancora at night. Who knew? Obviously not the American girls. So, we grabbed some grub and headed to the bus station to catch the 4am bus. Little did we know a bus would fill up at 4am (and not with other young people who were partying, but with old men and mothers with their toddlers. I couldn't decide if they had just woken up or hadn't gone to bed, yet.) Regardless, the 4am bus was booked so we waited around for the 5am bus. Once we got home around 6am (because we couldn't have the moto-taxi take us up the hill so we had to walk for 30 minutes on the beach once we arrived in Los Organos) the sun was beginning to rise. I finally did it, I finally pulled my first all nighter without ever trying!! Success! After getting to bed around 6:15am, I woke up around noon and had until 3 to pack up, eat breakfast, and leave for Mancora once again. Jaime and I were the only ones taking our bus back since Anna and Rachel had decided to fly. Jaime and I found a café, used the internet, I bought bananas for the trip home because bus food is unbearable, and we listened to Taylor Swift until the bus arrived (a half hour late no worries). Also, as we were sitting waiting a large van full of children pulled up and a little girl, probably 7 or 8, hopped out of the car and in the middle of the street, in the middle of the town of Mancora, drops pants and starts peeing in the street. That's casual. After a while the van of kids loaded back up and the same little girl was watching me mouth the lyrics and bob my head so she started doing the same. I caught her in the act and she giggled and smiled, I waved, she waved, and then the whole big van of kids all started waving at the American girl. I smiled and my heart was happy as I had flashbacks from my time at the orphanage in Costa Rica.
Arriving home today was not exactly the home sweet home feeling I get when coming home to Nebraska. The city is still loud, the streets are still stuffed with people, and the cars still see traffic laws as a mild suggestion not to be followed even when police cars are around. On that note, our taxi driver was asked to pull over when driving us to Mancora one night. We were nervous because we (as well as everyone else in this country) had 4 people in the 3 person back seat. Not to worry, the officer completely neglected this fact and was rather pressing us for our passports. We explained that they were back at our bungalow and he let us continue on. I feel like even though this blog is the longest blog by far that I have written, there are still so many details and thoughts that I missed because I am writing this out of such hazy memory from events that happened up to a week ago. Hopefully some of the funny, vivid memories with return and I will be able to add more detail. But for now this will do.
Yet again, my list of things about Peru I wish to remember:
*KFC has vale parking (insert crying laughing face)
*I have yet to see a Peruvian put their napkin on their lap during a meal
*At restaurants you are given one very thin, small napkin that barely could wipe a milk mustache.
*February is supposed to be the hottest and sunniest month of the year yet there are clouds everyday and it still gets a bit chilly at night
*There are cookies called Alfahor and I have no idea what is inside but I think it is a mix of brown sugar and magic. They are wonderful.
*I wish me surfing regularly in the states could actually be a thing.
*There are an equal amount of times of struggle and times of fun, but the fun is so fun, and the struggles are so good for my personal growth, that I appreciate them both equally.
*I forgot to mention in my blog that when we woke up on Monday morning to go on our random tour the water had shut off and we had no electricity.
*I realized that wifi is not a necessity and that social media needs to be immensely cut from my life.
*I realized that when I spend time with the Lord in the morning rather than at night, my whole day is a billion times better and when the water is shut off I shrug my shoulders and say "could be worse" rather than freaking out that I'm in a deserted bungalow miles away from civilization.
*Brining Kleenex to go packs everywhere you go is a must.
*I highly appreciate bathrooms that are not ratchet and disgusting because they are tough to come by.
*I wish I owned a billion comfort colors bro tanks because they are my favorite thing to wear here even though they make me appear even more American since no Peruvian would ever be caught dead in a t-shirt let along a bro tank.
*The women walk for miles in high heels down rocky, gravel filled hills. Insane.
*I miss sidewalks.
*I'm trying to figure out how Peruvians casually just walk out in front of cars that are zooming down the street and the car stops for them every time! I want to do that...although I never think I will master the art of walking out in front of speeding cars before I leave.
Tis all for now!
Besos! Chau!
Mal
My goodness it feel like a long time since I have posted a blog, but that is because I was too busy having the absolute time of my LIFE in Mancora, Peru! Wow, let me just start off by saying that the beach life is the life for me. Sand between my toes, salt on my lips, sun on my skin, and a smile on my face, yup, that pretty much sums up the past week and a half of my life :)
So starting from the beginning, we hopped on a bus Friday afternoon and rode for 20 hours overnight to reach our destination of Mancora, Peru Saturday afternoon. The bus ride actually seemed surprisingly short, like super short. We slept, ate, and watched movies and I swear my trips to Vail, CO seem longer. We then took a 30 minute taxi ride up to Los Organos where we rode what felt like to the very far edge of the town, on the tipety top of a mountain to our lovely bungalow. Just a two room bungalow with a bathroom. You walk in the front glass sliding doors straight into the main room which has a huge king sized bed. While laying in the bed you look straight out into the ocean, breathtaking. In the same room was the kitchen, equipped with all the necessary cooking appliances (a Bunsen Burner to boil things and a tiny George Foreman to toast bread, or in our case we attempted mushy hot dogs to make them less mushy), I kind of felt like I was doing science experiments every time I cooked. The second room was simple, two beds on posts and one mattress on the floor. What else could we possibly need? At this point we knew we were definitely going to be beach bummin' for the week. We walked to the town of Los Organos to get some groceries for the week since we were literally miles away from any sort of civilization, plus we did not want to be eating out every single meal. On our way home we had to take what is called a moto-taxi, essentially a motorcycle with a hitch on the back that carries 3 people. The picture below is significantly fancier than the ones we rode in, but you get the idea. Anna and I rode in one taxi together and the other three girls in a different one. We came to what I would call the "death hill" (literally a 130 degree hill to reach the top of the mountain) and our moto taxi reved its engine and started putting at the pace of a snail up the hill. Fear in our eyes, Anna and I clutched one another for dear life waiting for the moto-taxi to begin rolling backwards down the hill. Most moto-taxi drivers were not at all familiar with our bungalow since it was so remote. Some how the little moto-taxi that could made it up the hill. Success! Unfortunately when we tried this again a couple of days later it was not quite the same success...the moto-taxi did start rolling backwards barreling us to our death until the moto-taxi was able to stop itself, me and the girls hopped out and the moto-taxi drive drove our groceries to the top as we walked. The number of near death (I may be dramatizing that) but seriously scary, terrifying experiences I have had is really quite unfathomable and I in no way imagined that I would come across this many before coming to Peru. But! Regardless, I would not trade them for ANYTHING! I love all my crazy adventures and the nonsensical situations I find myself in. Each one is learning experience and I grow with each passing one.
We woke up Sunday to the soft, swishing of the waves and that was literally it. We were 100% secluded from all other people. The silence was amazing. Lima is a city comparable to New York City with sirens going off, dogs barking, people yelling, and noise galore. This was just what we needed after a month of noise; silence. I spent my mornings (most mornings) relaxing in the hammocks just outside our bungalow. Two cloth hammocks sat calmly inside a tavern and looked out to the ocean. I read my bible, listened to music, journaled, prayed, and enjoyed. I can truly say those moments in the hammock were some of the most peaceful, restful moments I have ever had in my life. After hammock hour many days I would then hit the beach and tan, walk along the shore, splash in the waves and read the Fault in Our Stars. What a wonderful spring break book. On Saturday though the girls and I (4 other girls from the group of UNK student came with me), we went called our taxi man and headed to Mancora to explore the city and do some shopping. For lunch we grabbed the freshest of fresh seafood and for dinner we cooked up some pasta.
Monday was tour day as we left in the morning for an all day tour of a random assortment of activities. Our tour guy claimed he was a professor and had that corky, crazy eyed look on his face and from that moment on, I knew today would be nothing but a typical day in Peru. Speaking of typical Peruvian type things, no worries, we left the tour an hour and a half late. Our first stop was a beach called Punta Sal where we hung on the beach while some other tourists with us took a boat stroll. We then were scheduled to head to the mud baths (essentially the reason the girls and I decided to sign up for this $15 all day tour) and the tour guide announced on the bus that he thought the mud baths were silly and dumb, therefore, we shouldn't go. People were fired up and demanded that we go. Once we got there the guide announced we would have enough time to take a picture, but not get in...what a waste of time. The mud baths looked fun and we were totally bummed we missed the experience, but we were awfully pleased that because we cut short our mud bath time we were able to spend more time at Zorritos Beach which was filled with warm, bath water. It was heaven. Although the beaches may be beautiful, the water is cold! Not too cold, especially in Mancora, because it is so boiling hot, but none the less cold. After our bath water beach we headed to Tumbes for some fresh seafood. I tried conch shell and was sadly disappointed because of the overly chewy texture, but I had to try it because it is so popular and well known here. After lunch we went on boat ride and the guide explained how this area of the ocean/river is split. There was a clear difference between the ocean, salt water (blue) and the fresh, river water (yellowy). As we rode the little boat around they told us we were going to see the crocodiles! I was beyond excited!! We passed through narrow passages of jungle like scenery and I was ready for the guide to whisper "look right there, do you see it!" But, to my disappointment we parked the boat on a dock, were asked to get off the boat and entered what I would call tortureville. These poor, innocent crocodiles were cooped up in spaces that were meant for at max 3 or 4 of them, and there would be 30-40 of them. All on top of one another, no water, and I'm pretty sure half or more were dead. My heart sank, and I could hardly bare to look at the other exhibits of more and more and more cooped up crocs. They claim that they don't allow them to stay in the rivers because they were being hunted and they wanted to conserve them. I don't believe it. The girls and I tried plotting a devious plot to come back and free all the crocs, operations #freethecrocs. Eventually we took our long bus ride home and planned to have hot dog night. A little taste of home never hurt right? Well...to our disappointment, our 7 soles ($2.30) for like 15 hot dogs, were absolutely inedible. The insides were mushy even after being cooked, hence why I mentioned earlier that we attempted to George Foreman them to ease the pain.
Tuesday we took as a rest day to recuperate. We headed to Los Organos for some light grocery shopping and then went to Mancora. I did a dare devil thing that day and got a twisty braid hair thingy wrapped around my hair! Gasp! Hopefully it comes out easy and I don't have to cut all my hair out...that would be terrible. But for now it looks pretty awesome! We then went and got some fancy cocktail drinks (had my first Peruvian Pina Colada, good choice) and had pizza. Spoiler alert: also had pizza Friday night. We aren't being anti Peru thought I swear!!! In Mancora there were more pizza places than all the other restaurants combined! But! Jaime and I justified our pizza choice because we got shrimp pizza...and we were by the ocean...so yeah that counts as seafood.
Wednesday Jaime and I chilled at the Bungalow and found a beach restaurant for lunch where we ate literally on the ocean. We ordered Inka Cola, the Peruvian soda, and it was a liter and a half. No worries, Jaime and I conquered it. Jaime claims it tastes similar to Mountain Doo (how do you even spell the doo part?) and Mackenzie said one time it tastes like bubblegum and I intensely agree with Mackenzie. On point, it is totally bubblegumy. The other 3 girls took a day trip to Ecuador. I came to Mancora to beach it, so that's why I decided against the Ecuador quest. Before lunch Jaime and I came across a guy from Chile and another from Argentina. It is so interesting the fascination that South American men have with white girls. In America a man is never in awe when seeing lets say a Chinese or Chilean girl, but here it is like they are seeing a rare crystal in the mud (totally not the saying but I can't think of it right now). South America must be far less traveled by Americans than I originally assumed because they are almost always taken by surprise when seeing me. Later that night Jaime and I had a date night with our wine and the sunset. The sunsets on Los Organos beach are the most beautiful sunsets I have and may ever experience in this blink of an eye life of mine. The swirling mixtures of orange, pink and yellow rage against the blue sky and the sun seems absolutely humungous. When talking about the size of the sun in middle school science classes I never was able to fathom it, I still can't, but these sunsets helped just a touch. I wish so badly that I had a photographic memory because looking at the pictures on my phone and then looking back up at the sky, ugh, not even close. I honestly don't even know what I tried to take them. Anyways, we discovered that night also that the sunset does not end when you can no longer see the sun, it actually lingers and becomes more brilliant as time passes. Jaime and I sat on the beach for over an hour and gazed, it was wonderful. Sidenote: when we first went down there we accidentally went to far along the beach and entered what we named "crab land," about 2 blocks filled with hundreds of crabs coming and going in and out of there holes! What a sight to see, small ones, big ones, white ones, red ones, all crawling horizontally. Jaime and I also started a semi nightly star gazing hour where we laid on our one little laying out chair on the porch and star gazed and chatted. Another sidenote: let me complain about something super silly and materialistic here just for a moment. This is a beach bungalow. People come for the BEACH, that means the sun, which means they want to lay out and get tan. Why oh why would a 4 person house only have one beach chair?? OK, I'm done.
Thursday Jaime and I made the executive decision to go get surfing lessons. An older gentlemen, probably 60 or so (actually ages here are IMPOSSIBLE to guess because men who are 35 look like they are 16 and then men who are 20 look like they are 30) who was ripped out of his mind, named Rocky of all the Peruvian names in the world, was our instructor. Before being able to start our lessons he had to deal with a screaming teenager who was wailing because there was something in his foot. I had heard about a couple of the kids in our groups getting sea urchins in their feet, but I was told they didn't have those in Mancora. LIES. That story is for later. Anyhow, we started off by doing tons of burpies essentially on surfboards that he drew with his finger in the sand. After our training, workout session we hit the water. I was actually incredibly amazed that almost every time I tried to catch a wave I did! However, I seemed to steer my board towards the rocks every time on accident and almost nailed my head on the rocks multiple times, thank goodness I didn't thought! Also, I cut up my foot and when we were walking home it was hurting pretty bad. The pain got worse throughout the day and my foot felt like flaming daggers were being stabbed into it on that night. Sea urchins. These little black balls of torture have long pointy spines on the ends. They hide in the rocky parts of the ocean, and Mallory being Mallory, always hurting myself and having weird nonsense like this happen to me, got sea urchins in her foot. It is Sunday night and I currently still have them in there. They don't hurt anymore, but I need to go see the school nurse to see if they need to be taken out or how I go about his business considering we don't have sea urchins in Nebraska so I know absolutely nothing about them. Anyways, back to surfing. Seriously besides the sea urchins and near death almost head injuries, surfing has been one of my favorite experiences in Peru so far! I think I love it so much because it reminds me of snowboarding which I am deeply saddened about missing out on this year. After catching some waves for an hour the instructor offered for us to come to a bonfire with all of the other surf instructors that night. We ended up going into Mancora instead with the other girls and it started raining so they would not have been able to light the wood anyways. That night we fancied ourselves a nice dinner of coconut shrimp at a French restaurant that was to die for. Mm mm mm! So yummy!
Friday was an early morning (extra early since I was up all night with sea urchin pains), but Jaime and I woke up around 6:15am to get ready for turtle swimming. We got to the port and geared up in our wetsuits. The other people on the tour were a little bit out of place as most of them had never used a snorkel before nor knew how to swim. The instructor basically let Jaime and I do and go as we pleased. We were the first to get in the water and holy moley was that water ICE COLD. Thank goodness we had the wetsuits because without them it would not have been bearable; truly I'm sure there were ice chips floating around somewhere. We spent about an hour and a half swimming with these giant turtles that reminded me of dinosaurs. They were so friendly and willing to be so close to us. Seriously a wonderful and magical experience that I will never forget. We were told not to touch the turtles, but how on earth could I resist when the turtle was inches away from me. The shell was hard and slimy with moss and their hands and feet were scaly. Many had big warts on their skin, too. People always color turtles such a bright green when really they are a soft, greyish green, not bright at all. Their faces were had a soft look on them, like a grandpa who had been watching the cooking channel for 4 hours straight. After the turtles we headed to what the instructor called "pools" where the rocks formed just right so that when the waves rushed in the water shot up into the sky and drenched us! Once back in Los Organos I decided it was time to get a doctor to take the sea urchins out. The first doctor office was a bust as no one offered me assistance and I'm pretty sure it was only for children. The second office was even worse as the 15 year old looking doctor cleaned my foot with rubbing alcohol and claimed that there was nothing in my foot. Ha. False. Then he made me pay him 20 soles to clean my foot with rubbing alcohol! What a scam! Getting robbed by a 15 year old Dr.! Anyways, the pain has subsided, but the needles are obviously in there. Hopefully the school nurse can shed some light on my current situation tomorrow.
Once back at the Bungalow I tanned for a bit and cooked us up some baked potatoes. I then crashed for an hour before getting the wake up call to get ready to go into town for our last randevu in Mancora! The night was a night of ups and downs and all arounds. The man who had done our hair things asked if he and 2 of his friends could join us for dinner because they had made friends with two of the girls in our group. Myself and the other 2 girls opted out just because we didn't know the men very well and rather not have to translate Spanish while on Spring Break haha. After pizza dinner round two we found the most amazing dessert known to man that I sadly don't remember the name of. But it was essentially two thin pita breads cooked with nutella inside them and hot fudge and ice cream on top, amazing. We then hit the Discotecas considering it was a Friday night and he town was hoppin'! We danced the night away and had planned to head back to Los Organos around 3am. A man who had serenaded Anna at lunch the other day was talking with her again (dressed in his pilgrim looking outfit with a man who appeared dressed as Zorro by his side) and explained to us that there were no safe taxis in Mancora at night. Who knew? Obviously not the American girls. So, we grabbed some grub and headed to the bus station to catch the 4am bus. Little did we know a bus would fill up at 4am (and not with other young people who were partying, but with old men and mothers with their toddlers. I couldn't decide if they had just woken up or hadn't gone to bed, yet.) Regardless, the 4am bus was booked so we waited around for the 5am bus. Once we got home around 6am (because we couldn't have the moto-taxi take us up the hill so we had to walk for 30 minutes on the beach once we arrived in Los Organos) the sun was beginning to rise. I finally did it, I finally pulled my first all nighter without ever trying!! Success! After getting to bed around 6:15am, I woke up around noon and had until 3 to pack up, eat breakfast, and leave for Mancora once again. Jaime and I were the only ones taking our bus back since Anna and Rachel had decided to fly. Jaime and I found a café, used the internet, I bought bananas for the trip home because bus food is unbearable, and we listened to Taylor Swift until the bus arrived (a half hour late no worries). Also, as we were sitting waiting a large van full of children pulled up and a little girl, probably 7 or 8, hopped out of the car and in the middle of the street, in the middle of the town of Mancora, drops pants and starts peeing in the street. That's casual. After a while the van of kids loaded back up and the same little girl was watching me mouth the lyrics and bob my head so she started doing the same. I caught her in the act and she giggled and smiled, I waved, she waved, and then the whole big van of kids all started waving at the American girl. I smiled and my heart was happy as I had flashbacks from my time at the orphanage in Costa Rica.
Arriving home today was not exactly the home sweet home feeling I get when coming home to Nebraska. The city is still loud, the streets are still stuffed with people, and the cars still see traffic laws as a mild suggestion not to be followed even when police cars are around. On that note, our taxi driver was asked to pull over when driving us to Mancora one night. We were nervous because we (as well as everyone else in this country) had 4 people in the 3 person back seat. Not to worry, the officer completely neglected this fact and was rather pressing us for our passports. We explained that they were back at our bungalow and he let us continue on. I feel like even though this blog is the longest blog by far that I have written, there are still so many details and thoughts that I missed because I am writing this out of such hazy memory from events that happened up to a week ago. Hopefully some of the funny, vivid memories with return and I will be able to add more detail. But for now this will do.
Yet again, my list of things about Peru I wish to remember:
*KFC has vale parking (insert crying laughing face)
*I have yet to see a Peruvian put their napkin on their lap during a meal
*At restaurants you are given one very thin, small napkin that barely could wipe a milk mustache.
*February is supposed to be the hottest and sunniest month of the year yet there are clouds everyday and it still gets a bit chilly at night
*There are cookies called Alfahor and I have no idea what is inside but I think it is a mix of brown sugar and magic. They are wonderful.
*I wish me surfing regularly in the states could actually be a thing.
*There are an equal amount of times of struggle and times of fun, but the fun is so fun, and the struggles are so good for my personal growth, that I appreciate them both equally.
*I forgot to mention in my blog that when we woke up on Monday morning to go on our random tour the water had shut off and we had no electricity.
*I realized that wifi is not a necessity and that social media needs to be immensely cut from my life.
*I realized that when I spend time with the Lord in the morning rather than at night, my whole day is a billion times better and when the water is shut off I shrug my shoulders and say "could be worse" rather than freaking out that I'm in a deserted bungalow miles away from civilization.
*Brining Kleenex to go packs everywhere you go is a must.
*I highly appreciate bathrooms that are not ratchet and disgusting because they are tough to come by.
*I wish I owned a billion comfort colors bro tanks because they are my favorite thing to wear here even though they make me appear even more American since no Peruvian would ever be caught dead in a t-shirt let along a bro tank.
*The women walk for miles in high heels down rocky, gravel filled hills. Insane.
*I miss sidewalks.
*I'm trying to figure out how Peruvians casually just walk out in front of cars that are zooming down the street and the car stops for them every time! I want to do that...although I never think I will master the art of walking out in front of speeding cars before I leave.
Tis all for now!
Besos! Chau!
Mal