Whilst sitting in a resturant on our first night we were waiting or our food when something caught my eye. I spotted someone I thought I knew... Katie thought that it could be someone who just looked the same but I wasn´t so sure.

We went for a drink later and I saw the same person sitting in Mancora surf club bar. I had to go in and find out. I looked at him sitting down and he looked back at me, I was almost sure as he gave me a tentative Hola. I asked the barman if he could explain the happy hour pricing to me and as soon as he opened his mouth it all fell into place. I was being served my drinks by Adam Winch and the guy I saw earlier was Darren Pratt. I used to go to middle school with these two guys and hadn´t really seen them around since. Now I bump into them in a tiny surf town on the Peruvian coast! Small world really...

The next day we decided to hire out some body boards and spend the whole day at the beach trying our best to ride the things. Once we had mastered these we were planning to move up to a surf board with a couple of lessons. After a good few hours with the body boards we had mastered catching the waves and moved and were happy with our progress. We gave the boards back at the end of the day and took our weary carcusses back to our room. Katie said she felt fine but I felt like I had been put through a washing machine on spin cycle and was suffering with a severe case of bruised ribs. Maybe the surf boards would have to wait for another time!

The next day was spent at the beach sans surf boards. We walked round the bay to a secluded beach and hijacked a couple of sun loungers from one of the more expensive hotels and just generally chilled out.

Our final day in Mancora we spent with Adam and Darren at another beach further down the coast where they were going to be surfing. It was Darrens birthday and he wanted to get everyone out on a surfboard and was determined to do it. There were about ten of us in total with a mixed ability from Naomi and her friends who ran the surf bar being the best (of course) to myself Katie and a few of Darren and Adams other friends who were either not going to try, or lasted about 15 minutes before deciding that sitting on the beach and drinking was a more productive way of spending the day!

I lasted about 20 minutes before getting so tired that I could no longer paddle the thing through the waves and Katie lasted about 5 minutes before a huge wave washed her un-ceremoniously onto the shore and filled her bikini with sand. We decided at that point that we would wait until we could have a proper lesson and someone could show us the route through the waves rather than having them crash down on top of us!

We found Mancora to be a lovely relaxed place and can see how easily people could get drawn into staying there a lot longer than they intended. The accomodation there was relatively cheap with us staying in a private room right on the beach front at a hostal with a swimming pool and its own bar for around six pounds a night. The food there was outstanding and we dined out every night with meals such as filet steak, fresh tuna steaks and the most potent garlic bread being top of the list.

So after our thouroughly relaxed days in Mancora, on Thursday night we bid a farewell to the people we had met and boarded another night bus to take us to our final hot destination for a while, Trujillo and Huanchaca... More to follow...