Bienvenido a Peru!

Hey Party People!
Greetings from the small beach town of Mancora, Peru. I´m currently sitting in a small internet cafe, a tiny bit more tanned (thank God!), covered in sand, and I can´t feel my forearms or fingers because I just played beach volleyball with some Polish peeps. It´s always funny when the only common language you have is Spanish! haha. But I´m very relaxed and content, which is more than I can say for my last couple days in Ecuador.

Let´s see...where did I leave off? Ah, yes...near death in Banos. So to celebrate life, I went out with Tasha, my roomie from the UK. The town of Banos is so small that the only people out were the guides and other suckers we met rafting. I played pool with our guide, Diego, and lucky for me he was just a little worse than I am...which is really really bad. haha. So after 6 or 7 games we finally called it quits and I claimed victory! Not that I´m competitive at all!! Afterward we went to a place called Leprechaun Bar and danced a little. I really have NO rythm when it comes to Salsa, but merengue is a bit easier...I´ll have to work on that!

So, I don´t know if it´s the altitude or what, but everytime I drink anything it kicks my ass. The next day during our 12 hour bus ride on a rented ¨school bus¨ (kill me!), I felt so terrible. I had a fever and chills and all my muscles and joints ached from the crazy biking, rafting, and galloping around. The seats were honestly smaller than most airplane seats and I thought I was going to die. The only positive thing that came out of the experience is that the folks sitting next to me talked about movies for 4 hours and I made a list of about 40 films to see when I get back. Maybe I´ll post my list so you can check out some Aussie and Kiwi films too!

So my time in Cuenca was mostly spent trying to get my temperature down (whoo hoo!), but I did manage to walk to a really nice little restaurant and have a traditional Ecuadorian meal before I left the country. And the city itself had some beautiful colonial architecture, which I enjoyed taking photos of. But our time there was short and then we were off for 12 MORE hours yesterday on public bus to the border, and then a van (which we crammed ALL our luggage and 20 people in. I really didn´t even think it was possible, but if there is a will there really is a way! That is a lesson I´m learning here in South America). Here it is common to see an entire family of 4 (parents and 2 kids) on a single motorcyle. It´s hilarious and scary at the same time. I also got to use the rope that I randomly brought (as suggested on the onebag.com site). My roommate had been making fun of me for having rope, but it came in handy when all our bags were strapped to the top of the van with one small piece of nylon string! And I used my door stop on the bus to stop a rattling window. Just call me Gringa MacGyver! smile.

So last night and today we spent in Mancora. I spent the entire day at the beach (we´re not going to have many beach days on this trip!) and for lunch had my first true Peruvian Ceviche, which is a dish of raw white fish served with red onions and lime juice (and yam and yuca or corn on the side). The fish is really fresh and the acids from the lime juice cook it slightly. I have been looking forward to having this dish for a long time, and it didn´t disappoint! I also tried the local beer, Pilsen, and to top it all off, had a sip of Pisco Sour..you know, just to warm up to Peru. smile. I likey so far and look forward to more! Maybe I´ll try surfing tomorrow...

Chévere! (= cool)

Cara