Christmas in Mancora
16/01/2012We have now been in Mancora for about 2 weeks and it has been the most relaxing and lazy time we have had in our whole trip. The town is very relaxed with lots of bars and restaurants serving great food and cheap drinks. The beach is so long we haven't even tried to walk the full length of it yet, and the sea is great fun to be bashed around in by the waves. The weather is perfect and the hotel we are staying in has everything we need except wifi - but that is just a great excuse to occasionally leave and go to other places. We have been filling our days reading, sleeping, watching movies, swimming, eating and drinking. I have also been trying to learn a bit more Spanish but actually using it it is very difficult - I either don't know how to say half the words I need, I remember how to say it too late, or I get the question out well enough to be understood but then don't understand the answer. It is a struggle but we are getting by and so far our lack of Spanish has only slowed things down a little, it hasn't stopped things happening.
Seth has also done a kite surfing lesson which was fun, particularly being dragged out of and through the water at high speed. Unfortunately though the instructor wasn't exactly friendly and the wind hasn't been good enough since to try again with him or any other instructor. We have also both talked about surfing instead but to date we keep getting distracted by how much fun it is just to be thrown around by the waves without the hassle of the board or lots of other people. May be soon though...
Christmas day itself was a great day full of the very British tradition of presents, Champagne and over eating, and the not so traditional amazing sunshine and pizza. It was a lovely day despite the food poisoning that I was suffering from and now we are looking forward to a great New Years Eve party tonight. The town has certainly been getting a lot busier over the last few days and the hotels are all now fully booked (so much so we have been evicted from our room and had to set up our tent in the garden instead - that should be hot!). The bars are filling up and the funny hats and customs are starting to light and hopefully will all make a bit more sense later on. New Years Eve on a beach! How exciting! Happy 2012 to everyone where ever you are, from Amanda and Seth!
...And New Year...
Ok, so in the end we were in Mancora for about 4 weeks. It was a much needed stop and it was great to be able to unpack our things and spend sometime somewhere rather then just rushing through as we have been doing a lot of.
New Year itself was a great night with thousands of people descending on the town and watching fireworks being let off by these thousands of people over the ocean. It was totally disorganised and I have no idea how much damage was done to property or people but it must have been plenty. Seth got pick pocketed in the crowds but luckily we had no money on us by that stage so the thief dropped the wallet and Seth spotted it so all was well. It was obviously a common risk though as a friendly barman we got to know also got pick pocketed that night but was not as lucky as us. It was great to feel in the middle of the party and it was a beautiful setting. Sadly since then our memory card has been damaged so we have no photos of the night.
After New Year we moved house again to a lovely hotel a bit further out of town and away from the beach but with internet access and a swimming pool. It was lovely and peaceful (even with the 14 rescue dogs that the owners had) and we spent many happy relaxing in our hammock or in our room getting a lot of boring things done which had to be done (tax returns, insurance renewals etc etc. It seems life doesn't stop going on back at home just because we go away). We even tried a bit of surfing and boogie boarding which was great fun but very hard work in the big waves. Mancora is a popular spot for surfing so the best place to be is busy with beginners like us, and more experienced surfers showing us how it should be done which all made it quite frightening for me at least but it was fun to have another go after enjoying our surf lesson in New Zealand so much.
Finally we started to get itchy feet again though and so we booked our bus ticket and headed for Cusco for trekking up to Machu Picchu.
