Mancora is a busy surf beach with lots of beach bars all competiting against each other with loud music. After midnight the bars get packed and its a real party town. Our 1st night we bought 3 beers for 10Soles and sat on the beach to watch the sun set. Then we went for dinner, followed by a short pub crawl from one happy hour to the next. 6hours lated we`d run out of money so popped back to get some more from the hostal. Next thing we know we wake up on the bed in the early hours of the morning with the light on and fully clothed! Those cocktails must have been stronger than we thought!

Next day we met Alex (the manager of Mama Cocha, the charity we will be working at). The following day we started work. In order to get here we have to catch a collectivo (which is an old fashioned Big square american car which has one long bench as its front seat so you can fit 3 people in the front and 4 squeeze in the back). it costs about 50p to go 11km away to the next village. The village is v, basic, and there are plastic bags decorating all the trees and rubbish everywhere.

The charity is so understaffed, it has a lady who lives there 24/7 to care for 4 live-in children who have downs or mutiple scorosis. Then there`s a 9yr old girl called Fatima comes in daily and she has the educational ability of a 5 yr old and has major attention deficit and behavioural issues. Her older sister is at the centre (she`s 23 and doesn`t talk) she was found in the family garden living with the chickens (she has mental and physical issues which is not accepted and seen as an embarrassment to the family) so they just ignored her and left her to live outside. Really sad!

Stu designed a sand pit area with seating and a shelter (to give shade from the sun) and i`ve been painting it all brightly to make look nice for the kids. I`ve also been working with Fatima giving her 1 on 1 education and interacting with the downs kids doing painting, or playing volleyball or what ever with them. There is a volunteer who comes in 3 mornings a week to teach but she has no teaching exp so i sit with her for a bit and give advise re teaching.

So all in all, theres lots to keep us busy and Alex is so pleased to have us and is making us feel really valued. The poor guy has been here 5months and has 7months left, he`s got so much to deal with with so little support, it sounds like all the support goes to the other centres near Cusco. They`re the bigger more established centres that have more kids.

In our free time we`ve been hanging out with an English guy (Ross, or Ian as the locals call him. They can`t get their heads around the name Ross and call him Rosa so he tells them his 2nd name Liam, which they then pronounce as Ian). This guy talks more than me, yep I know that sounds impossible, but its true!! He and Stu are similar age and get on really well, so its nice for Stu to have another English guy around. It was his b-day last nite and so we ended up drinking from about 6-5am!! We had to call in sick for work today, whoops! Oh well, the project is ahead of schedule.

We have nice accomodation 4mins walk from the beach (it has its own kitchen and pool) Last nite we had avocado stuffed with 3 scallops cooked in garlic and butter). The scallops were about 10p each !! We love going to the market and stocking up on fruit and veg and being able to eat pineapples, mangos, melons for so cheap.

On Sat nite we went to a Full moon party on the beach, we went to be bed with our ears ringing at 5:30, woke up around 12, feeling pretty ropey and lacked energy all day (i`m not q. as good the next day as i use to be.)

So we will be happy to leave Mancora when we finish the project, it´s a cool place, but as its peak season its pretty dirty and the main street run along the Pan American highway that runs through the whole of S.America. It´s very surfs up dude! Also there is a very peculiar breed of dog only from Mancora. They are completley hairless thus look like something out of a zombie movie and they have Hyena like mannerisms needless to say even as dog lovers, we hate them! They are just freakie.

Next stop Equador.