Pelicans at sunset

We flew from Lima to Piura airport, close to the northern border of Peru, on April 17. Brian, as usual, was extremely entertaining while in flight. After we landed it was about a two hour trip by car to Las Pocitas beach, just outside of the town of Mancora.

B’s usual flying position

Sunset at Las Pocitas beach

The last time we planned for a few days at the beach (in Uruguay) we happened to pick Carnaval weekend, when the whole continent has a few days off. This time was no different– it was Semana Santa, or Holy Week, which leads up to Easter Sunday. Although the town of Mancora was overrun with tourists we were pleasantly surprised to see that the beach we’d chosen, Las Pocitas, was much more peaceful in spite of the holiday week. It was only a 10-minute bone-jarring mototaxi ride over a rough approximation of a road to get into town, so we made the trip a few days for dinner, but otherwise we laid low on the beach.

We stayed at Claro de Luna hotel. The place is inexpensive, beachfront, and features great staff and a delicious ceviche that we ate every day for lunch. The beach gets high marks too: For the first time on this trip we encountered warmer ocean water, and although the waves were very calm when we were there, apparently Mancora and its surroundings are a popular surfing destination.

Not much else to report. We ate a lot of mangoes, I played paparazzi with flocks of pelicans, Brian managed to stave off sunburn, and four days later we were on an early morning van/bus adventure across the border into Quito.

Afternoon libations

Beach yoga