march 18- piura and colán, peru
we'd taken a night bus from loja, ecuador, taking advantage of the very low-key border crossing into peru... but not getting much in the way of sleep!
we arrived in piura, the oldest colonial city in peru, to rainfall and scenes that reminded us both of india-- bussling market activity, swamped roads packed with motorized jitneys, and extremely assertive, vocal vendors. we were pretty cranky (not to mention tired and dirty), but things improved once the sun came out (90º the entire time in peru!), we made it to the city center, and grabbed a bite to eat. we had coca tea along with breakfast. coca tea, of course, is perfectly legal in peru, but supposed to give you quite a buzz-- perhaps this is a testament to our fatigue, but it didn't do a thing to us! it was tasty though, as was the rest of the meal.
we saw the old cathedral after breakfast, then bused and taxied to remote colan, peru, an area of beach resorts and site of the oldest church in peru (1536). the town itself was a shantytown, which stood in marked contrast to the large colonial church. we stayed at bocatoma resort. we were literally the only people there (so much for everyone heading to the beaches on semana santa!). we'd planned for two nights; we decided to cut this to one when we saw that the place was nowhere near as nice as it looked online (go figure). on a positive, the beach was quite nice and located just steps from our bungalow. it ended up being our private beach; other than crabs (of which there were a *ton*), we saw only 4 other people along the beach for the duration of our stay.
after checking in, we explored colan and the old church. we were unable to find any food in the town itself, so we headed to the beach, finding a sandy street flanked by tiny restaurants/ cafés/ bars-- again, we had it to ourselves! we ate some amazing ceviche (best of the trip; very spicy), a rice dish, and had a beer. kate bought a bathing suit, then we headed back to the beach for the rest of a relaxing day.march 19- paita and catacaos, peru
we woke up early and took a taxi to paita, an impoverished port city and terminus for transportes dora, our ticket back to piura. we stopped for some breakfast and caught our bus to piura, taking the time then to buy our tickets to mancora, peru, the main beach area in the region. we then took a cab to spend the afternoon in catacaos, paying our driver a couple dollars extra to wait for us (and, more importantly, keep our backpack in his trunk!). he was happy to do so, and sat in a bar the entire time!
there were so many high points on our trip-- honestly, every single day, save for a half day in guayaquil, was wonderful. regardless, catacaos was one of our best stops, and all the more surprising because i'd included it only as an afterthought: if we had enough time to spare, we could do a quick trip. catacaos is a "craft" city 12km from piura. it's known for its quality pottery and filigree jewelry, and for good reason-- we had trouble carrying back all that we bought! we wandered around for an hour and a half, trailed by two local boys who chattered away, never quite realizing that i didn't speak any spanish... we lost them only when we went into a restaurant that served beer (and played loud jam band music... oof).
back in piura, we caught our "el dorado" bus to mancora. one hour in, the bus died! when it became apparent that we were stuck, everyone unloaded. our inconvenience was the ice cream man's good fortune-- he and a shaved ice seller made a killing while we waited an hour and a half for another bus. we made it in to mancora around 8 pm, after nightfall and too late to hit the beach.mancora is a small, bustling place-- it was immediately much more crowded than colan. this was also the first place we'd seen fellow "gringos" since cuenca, ecuador. we'd truly been off the beaten trail. the town stretched for 6-7 blocks along the panamericano. we shook off some aggressive taxi drivers and found a good deal on a small hotel (and a less good deal on dinner, a block down). we played some cards and turned in for the night.
march 20- mancora, peru
this was our last day in peru and another great one. we woke early (this is a theme!), had some fantastic juice (as always), coca tea (again, no effects), and breakfast and hit the beach for the day, taking breaks to buy more things at the craft market (amazing selections of pearls). the beach was nice and populated, but not too crowded. we certainly got a bit burned by the intense equatorial sun!lunch was another round of ceviche and a chicken dish, along with another local beer. in the end, we tried 5 peruvian beers-- cristal, pilsen, cusquenos, trujillo, and brahma-- and they all tasted about the same! light pilsners, all, but not unpleasant given the heat and sun. after lunch, we bought a bit more ceviche, which gave us the excuse to sit under a tent on the beach and relax. a perfect day.
that evening, after a beautiful sunset on the beach, we grabbed our cifa line night bus to guayaquil, ecuador. i'll write about what an... experience... that was in the next (and final) travel blog.
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