Trapped in Trujillo!

Hi!

Another blog post so soon I know! Lucky you guys! SO! I´ll just pick up from where I left off but I´m pretty confident I can catch you up allllll the way! So! From Vilcabamba came a major trek to Peru. We had to back track an hour to a town called Loja and then catch our first overnighter bus to Piura. The seats reclined quite a ways but unfortunately that left you with ZERO leg room. It was about the most cramped quarters I´ve ever had to travel in and I think I would choose leg room over recline anytime. Despite this hardship we managed to get a few hours of shut eye before unloading in Peru and heading back north to Mancora. 16 hours after departing Vilcabamba we made it!

Mancora is a tourist hotspot in Peru. Its only 1 street big but everything there caters towards us gringos. The hostel we stayed at was a Loki - a chain of party hostels in Peru. It had a great patio and pool area but the rooms left a LOT to be desired. We could see little ants crawling all over the beds so out came the sleep sheets for the first time in the trip! The windows of our room also opened directly into the bar which rages day and night! The first night there we were pretty much zombies (blame it on the overnight bus) so we managed to pass out despite the rager next door.

Our days in Mancora consisted mostly of lounging by the pool, walking on the beach, eating and drinking. Its a tough life really. The weather was amazing all four days we were there - about 30 degrees with not a single cloud and a slight breeze! Saturday there was a full moon party at a rival hostel so after going out for dinner with three lovely scottish girls and a crazy irish guy we predrank and headed to that. It was a big night out and hours and hours after dancing to nothing but electronica we headed home!

Sunday morning we made it out for a surf lesson which was really great. It was my first time back on a board since my summer in Tofino and it felt amazing to be back! The water was SOOO nice and warm and we all managed to stand up and ride some waves. I had a really interesting/awkward moment with my surf instructor when he asked my name. I said ¨Heather¨ and he said ¨Eder?¨, ¨close enough and you?¨ I say. ¨Eder¨, he replies. ¨No Im Heather your who?¨. ¨Eder!¨ Anyways after about 5 minutes of this we figured out that his name was Eder and my name was Heather and that they both sounded the same with a thick spanish accent. ahhhhh travelling!

Our last night in Mancora there was a pub quiz at the Loki! We teamed up with the scottish girls and prepared to dominate. We came close to having a perfect trivia streak in South America but were ousted by a couple of old trivia gurus. We were still proud of our silvers though!

Yesterday we left Mancora with the hope of making it to Huaraz by the next morning. It was going to be a marathon day - 9 hours to Trujillo and then 9 hours to Huaraz from there. Unfortunately for us the travel gods had other plans. It didn´t start out well at all. Steph and I had jumped in a tuk tuk to go to the bus station and we saw Allison and Leslie hail one right behind us. After about 5 minutes of waiting at the station and not seeing the other girls we knew something was wrong. 5 minutes later they showed up and it turns out that their tuk tuk had been involved in some kind of EXPLOSION! Allison´s bag was totally damaged. Her one belt strap was completely gone and her one backpack strap was flapping freely having nothing to clip on to. R.I.P Allison´s bag. (We did manage to rebuild a pseudostrap later in the day so thankfully she can still sport the two strap look. Her belt was beyond repair though). At the station we could only book our ticket as far as Trujillo and from there we were going to race to a different bus station and make the night bus an hour after arriving. Unlucky for us though it just happened to be Peruvian Independance day and Trujillo was wild. The streets were plugged with people and by the time we made it to the other bus station there were no more tickets for that night. We did run into our French friends though and will hopefully meet up with them when we make it to Huaraz!

We did manage to find a hostel room though and secure tickets to Huaraz for the following evening so it didn´t work out all that bad. Its giving us a chance to walk around Trujillo and catch up on some chores. We might sneak another movies in this afternoon (don´t judge) and then jump on our bus later this evening! Huaraz is in the middle of the cordillera mountain range and is a trekking meca! Were hoping after a few days of acclimatization to hop on the Santa Cruz trek.

PHEWPH! there you go - officially caught up on our whole vacay! We miss you guys lots and lots but will see most of you soon enough!

xxox HALS