Hot sand on toes

The final stop on our tour of Peru was the town of Mancora in the North. Known mainly for tourism, nightlife, surf and beaches, it did not disappoint. We arrived on the first of June, and stayed for the whole month! The Kokopelli hostel had been recommended to us by many people, and we applied to work there as bar staff. For the first week we were there they had no need for staff, so we were guests, and we were met there by our two wonderful friends, Aled and Caroline (both individually of Parque Machia and Cusco fame) and also Rinku who Aled had met in Montanita. We all instantly got along, and the five days and nights we spent together were spent relaxing by the beaach or pool, splashing about and being silly, eating delicious seafood and cakes, and drinking and dancing the nights away. It was hard to say goodbye to them when the time came - but plans were made to meet up in the UK (hopefully for a New Years reunion!)

After they left, Dave and I moved in to the staff dorm and started working at the Kokopelli bar. Here we began to experience the real Mancora, and if we thought we'd partied the previous week, we were blown out of the water for the next three.  It was one of those times where everyone working and living together instantly clicked, and we formed a hilarious family. Eating, sleeping, working and playing together, and having a bar to create our own concoctions was the perfect recipe for a good time - though I still feel sick imagining the tabasco cocktail creation. We can now make some mean Mojitos!

The bar staff put on different nights each evening, ranging from Poker nights, Ping Pong tournaments (that got so epic - the rivalry between Dave and Manu was extremely tense), party nights and 'shot competition' nights (each of us took it in turns judging this, 10 plus shots made by guests of the hostel - our job was great!). 

The party nights were themed each week, and we went all out decorating the bar and pool area, and in true girl fashion, Yesh and I decorated ourselves! We all worked hard until the bar closed, and then partied hard at the beach, or wherever the night took us (normally one place, unless it was Saturday...).

After one Saturday night dancing through the sunrise, we were winding down back at the hostel when Manu woke up for his morning reception shift. He then took the time to educate Dave and I about the traditional Argentine tea, Maté, which is made of brewed herbs and served in a special vessel, with a silver straw  (which you are not meant to touch unless you own it!) The tea was very hot and quite tasty, I think one of those that the more you drink the more you enjoy it. We were especially honoured because it was actually the last of Manu's Maté and he chose to share it with us! I returned the favour by making Manu a builders brew using my PG tips, which I think he appreciated.

We ate delicious food, the sushi was a particular favourite of ours - incredible to watch being made, to see the finish product, and to taste...unbelievable. Before we left David our bar manager went to loads of effort to cook a giant barbeque for us, with rolled meat, ribs, steaks, mashed potato and loads of salad, which was delicious and felt like a family meal! One night we even caught our own crabs... Having spent the day at the beach, we came back to find Yesh and Manu cutting up old mosquito nets. They refused to tell us what they were doing, but insisted we went with them to the beach at sunset. As a group of us made our way towards the rocks it became clear - we were crab hunting! Manu showed his skills by procuring the biggest and best crabs, and when we were satisfied (and it was getting dark) we made our way back, boiled them in a kettle and ate them. 

The time spent in Mancora felt like a montage of music videos, happy healthy people having great times in beautiful weather, and going wild when the sun went down. We saw so many beautiful sunsets across the ocean, and laughed all day every day. The memories and friends made will never be forgotton (they made sure of that with the parting gift of Kokopelli t-shirts and little notes!).