So, my bug didn't go away as soon as I'd hoped, so the next few days were spent doing much the same in Huanchaco. Joel, having done nothing with me (except he did a bit of surfing), decided to get something done and headed south to Huaraz to do some trekking, and we agreed to meet in Mancora. I spent 2 more days in Huanchaco, in which time I got well into Treasure Island, before forgetting to pick it up when I left to get my taxi to the bus station. Got an overnight bus up to Mancora, which left half an hour late, and arrived over an hour early, at quarter to 5 in the morning.

Next day I wondered around Mancora, which is a pretty simple place. The road which goes through the town (the Panamericana Highway, from Ecuador, down the Peruvian Coast all the way down to Chile) is the only road in Mancora and everything lies along there. Other than that, all there really is is beach, and restaurants along the beach. I worked this out slowly, then deaded to the beach where I did not a lot, other than bump into quite a few people who I'd met at earlier points in my trip. The food here was similar to Huanchaco - really really good seafood - which I again missed out on because of my stomach. The next day, I decided to go to the doctor because it had been 8 days without improvement and I was starting to get bored of doing nothing (and even my replacement for Treasure Island - Carol Vorderman's guide to becoming a Sudoku Master - wasn't enough). The doctor, after a good questioning/examining concluded I had another parasite - great - which had resulted in an inflammation of my stomach which meant my brain thought I was full as my stomach was bigger, and so I didn't think I was hungry. He told me to go and buy a load of medicine for it. I then went to the beach with a Spanish guy called Xavi, who lent me his surfboard for about 5 minutes, until I realised I couldn't even get out from shore because the waves we too big and strong for me. I resorted to mere swimming after that. Gussy arrived later that day from Lima with her entourage of men, so I spent some time with them after that.

Joel arrived the next morning and we moved hostels to somewhere whose price wasn't going up for the weekend's Independence Day fiestas. I showed Joel the sights, as we spent all day on the beach again, playing a 2 on 2 football game against some Israelis who beat us, and also kicked a lot of sand in my eyes. I found myself starting to eat more as time went on, which was nice, and so me and Joel managed to do a few more things. That evening we went out with Gussy and her friends as at midnight it turned Joel's birthday.

The next day we woke up, I woke joel up with a birthday hug/lying on top of him, and headed out for breakfast. We had a surprisingly relaxed day, doing not much other than sitting on the beach. But I did treat Joel to a few things along the way, and he treated himself a bit too, so we got some pretty good food inside us. Gussy had left to go to Ecuador that day, so it was just me and Joel, and the people we'd made friends with in Mancora that evening. We had a good night, but the police continued to shut everything down at 2, and there was nothing else going on so we got a load of people down to the beach, where some others were having a fire and so we spent some time there.

The next day, we got buses to Ecuador ourselves, Joel heading into the jungle, as he hadn't seen any jungle, and wanted to, whilst I, still not feeling too good, decided to head to the city Gussy was in - Cuenca. I am now there, having arrived after a 11 hour jounrey which should have taken 8, at midnight last night. Today I met up with Gussy, but as Lonely Planet says, absolutely everything shuts down on Sundays, so there really isn't much to do. I have wondered about a bit with some girls who are third year medicine students at Manchester, and then headed with Gussy and the others to a cafe with pool tables. I am awaiting news from Joel on what he's doing, but he should catch me up tomorrow before we head to catch a train up to Riobamba and then probably head back to the coast. 2 weeks left today so not much time to fit in a whole country!