Hola Amigos,
Como estas usted?
Quick update. We are in Peru!
Just spent 4 days on the beach at Punta Sal and now can´t remember what happened before... A long and interesting drive from Cuenca. So much variety in landscape. Lunar landscape and all that was missing was tumble weed then lush forest. Vultures circling above the river. Bananas as far as the eye could see as we got onto the flat near the border. 3 minor truck breakdowns all related to the alternator bracket. One in no mans land between the borders of ecuador and peru. Town called green water in no mans land and for good reason as the river running through it was green and stinky. Tough town with lots of multi coloured umbrellas semingly from the same salesman.
Nice beach. Not as good as Australia but the weather was warm and the water was warmish. Reminds me of how life was 30 years ago for beach holidays. Camped next to a guest house on the beach. Beach was relatively protected so was great for kids like us. Only wealthy people in Peru and foreigners get the opportunity to visit this area. There were sooo many birds. The majority were pre historic looking Pelicans and Peruvian boobies (and birds as well). Felt a little stranded in the area as there wasn´t much to do.
We went to Mancora which is about 17km south. This is tourist central with beach umbrellas lining the beach etc. The beach was amasing with the number of pelicans that were either floating around or feeding amongst the swimers and surfers.
Getting there was a bit of a white knuckle experience. There were fours of us and we piled into a tuk tuk. Only room for 3 on the seat so I sat on the baggage tray on the back, facing backwards, wedged in with a foot, legs crossed, holding on, with sweaty palms, to the mudguards. The road was racing by only about a foot below and open wheels just waiting to grab my fingers. 17km seemed like 70km at the time. Tuk Tuks only confortable fit 2 passengers. We were just being tight and saved about 10 soles (pronounced soul es) which is about US$3. Hardly worth it in hindsight.
Wonderful afternoon. Whales breaching for hours. Look at img 111.jpg and there is a whale breaching on the horizon.
Evenings were good. Fires on the beach. One problem. Not enough firewood. We bought some for about 3 soles but that didn´t last. Solution for the first night. There was an abandoned (maybe) place behind the tents with lots of bamboo that looked like it was meant for something. We started by grabbing small bits that looked like offcuts and buy the end of the stay there wasn´t much left. Oooops. The fires each night got larger and larger. On the last night the fire was still going well when we woke up in the morning. Buried it of course before leaving.
Some chose to sleep on the beach. Unlucky for them there was a friendly black dog that liked to lick faces and sit on sleeping bags, with or without people inside, in the mornings. One morning we woke looked out the tent to see Steve on one end of a thermorest mat and another dog pulling on the other end. Quite funny.
Went fishing off shore in a local fishing boat. We didn´t speak much spanish and they not much english but we managed. Getting on and off was fun. Pickup fron the beach on a balsa raft through small breakers. Lots of fun. Caught lots of fish, small fish and pesca diablo, the devils fish, which seemed to be bad and the fishermen kept, but actually turned out to be a nice eating fish, so we found in the local supermarket. Which reminds me. We got two kg of big prawns, no heads, for US$12. Yum.
Wandered up and down the beach. Found a huge dead sea lion along the way.
Was a nice stay.
Drive to next spot down the coast was interesting. A hole the size of a bullet found it´s way into the middle of the spare diesel tank on the truck. Wasn´t there before Chiclayo. Fuel flowing freely. Morgan jokingly said that he gave the finger to one of the police in town and called him a bobo (fool). Don´t think so. Anyway. Tank was fixed by screwing a bolt into the hole with a bit of tape around it.
Adios,
David & Vanessa
