Mancora, Peru

For the last week, we have been relaxing in Mancora, Peru!  It is a small beach town in northern Peru, about 2 hours from Ecuador.  It has been a great week full of wave playing, beach walking, and trying all the interesting food they have to offer.  The surf season is not until Novemeber (silly us, I don't know how we missed that...), so we didn't get a chance to surf.  The one surf shop we stopped by and asked for prices, was $300 for 3 days.  A bit out of our budget, so we passed.  But other than that, we have had a great time being beach bums.  And our hostel has a pool, so it is great to lay by the pool!

The hostel we are staying at is called The Point.  It is pretty low key, but the only down side is they play American top 40 music OVER and OVER again - literally the same songs all day and into the night.  We are talking, 1 or 2 am.  And blasting it.  Some nights, the only people in the bar area are the workers - everyone else is trying to sleep! So that got a little irritation after about night 2 of staying here, but it is one of the cheapest hostels in this area, and if we stay here 7 nights, we only pay for 6.  Yay for money saving!

We friended an British couple who is doing just about the same trip we are - traveling to Peru, Chile, and Argentina.  It was great swapping stories and meeting a new set of friends!  

Throughout the week, we have been researching more volunteer opportunities, and it is slim pickings!  Our goal is to not pay for housing and food while volunteering (they should provide these things, given we are giving our time for work...) and we are finding not a lot of organizations feel the same way.  Paying $200 for your first week, or paying $20 a day for everything included is not what we want!  We are still set on volunteering in Iquitos, and unfortunately learned we have to pay for our housing (20 soles, or about $7 per day). but this includes meals with the host family - looking forward to that.  In the mean time, we are still reseaching for volunteer places.  If we find something in Uruguay, or Bolivia, that includes accomodations, we might be making a detour.  We are open for anything.  Last night, we were talking to the girls from Belgium who are also staying in our room and they said internet sites will want your money, but once you get to know people, they will hook you up with free volunteering.  Networking is important everywhere in the world!

Tomorrow, we are on a bus back to Lima.  We will get there Friday afternoon, find a hostel, then early Saturday morning we take a plane to Iquitos for our volunteering!  We were going to take a boat down the Amazon River, but it would take about 5 days and it just wasn't working with our schedule.  Plus the plane ride is super cheap!

We will do our best to blog in Iquitos and share our volunteer experience, but are unsure of the internet accessibility.  If anything, look for a quick Facebook post from either one of us :)

Maddy and Nate