From Cuenca we took a 5 hour public bus to the border crossing into Peru. Only where the bus dropped us off apparently wasn't the boarder crossing. Fortunately, Paul from our group took a long time getting his stuff off the bus so by the time we realised we were in the wrong place the bus was still there so we could get back on. The driver dropped us a little distance away from the actual boarder crossing (which was recently changed hence the confusion) and here we queued up outside in the midday heat for what seemed like forever. The hold up was actually the Ecuadorian side and for some bizarre reason they were taking an eternity to stamp our exit forms. The Peruvian side was a whole lot quicker. Anyway eventually we got through and gladly our guide Paula had arranged a private minivan to take us the rest of the way to the seaside town of Mancora.

Since the places we have been so far have mainly been pretty chilly, especially in the evenings, it was a very welcome break to be by the seaside in 30 degree heat. This was made even better by the fact that our room was the "honeymoon" suite! Huge bed in a spacious room with a balcony right over the beach. Of course it didn't take us long to turn this into the party room (much to our annoying neighbours' dismay) and we had drinks and played games on our balcony with the rest of the group. We went out to a restaurant for dinner and I think the size of our group took them by surprise. The food all came out at different times which we are used to now, but some of us had to wait 2 hours for tiny portions of food. When everyone's meal had come apart from mine the waiter decided that would be a good time to tell me there was no chicken left. He offered to cook something else but I declined the offer because I was starving and not prepared to wait there any longer. My plan was to get some fast food when we left the restaurant. However, while we were waiting for the others to finish the waiter had gone out and bought some chicken to make the meal for me free of charge. He was trying his best so it would have been rude not to wait for it. Fortunately it didn't take too long and it was tasty. In the end we didn't even pay for either of our meals because the guy gave us too much change! We called it an early night and went to bed listening to the sounds of the sea (along with the heavy bass of the nearby bars!)

Eating breakfast on our balcony the next morning, overlooking the sea, was amazing. It was great to spend the day on the beach topping up the tan (which seems to be fading rapidly). Some of the boys got a bit bored with sunbathing and managed to find a football from somewhere and had a match - Brits vs (other) Europeans. The Brits won of course with Bryan scoring most of the goals so he decided to change the name to Team Wales! Later on 2 of the boys decided to hire a couple of jet skis and had a lot of fun speeding along the waves for 20 minutes. I didn't even have to move from my prime sunbathing spot to get lunch because a woman came round selling freshly baked sandwiches!

In the afternoon we wanted to go to the mud baths that were about 40 minutes out of town. Paula organised tuk tuks for us (the first place we've seen them since being in South America) and we all squished in as the drove us all of about 10 minutes to the wrong place. Fortunately Paula had been to the baths before and knew it was the wrong place and an argument ensued. The tuk tuks refused to take us to the real place and wanted paying before taking us back to town. It was too late to organise other transport and too far to walk back so the scamming drivers got paid and we got nowhere. We decided to postpone til the next day.

My guidebook says that Mancora is a lively place at night so after getting a bit rowdy on our balcony (eating pizzas and teaching our guide Paula drinking games) and being kicked out of the hotel we decided to check out the nightlife. We had heard all the music the night before so followed that. It turns out they were all just empty clubs playing music really loud. Still there were enough of us out that it didn't really matter if no one else was out and a few other people did turn up eventually. We actually spent most of our time out the front of the bars so we could still hear the music but didn't have to be inside the unatmospheric bars. Paula was trying to teach us her yoga poses and a local woman joined in showing us "the crab". I tried and failed miserably and just ended up with a lot of sand in my hair! A local family had taken a liking to Ian and were trying to marry him off the their daughter at one point! I think he agreed just because they were buying him beers!

The next day we again attempted the mud baths and organised a minibus to to take us there. It was a seriously bumpy ride out into the middle of nowhere. When we arrived it wasn't quite what we were expecting! When you say mud baths you think of some sort of fancy spa with smartly dressed staff on hand to pamper you. Instead we were outdoors in some sort of national park and the mud pools were literally just holes in the ground filled with mud! Paula told us the mud may stain and we didn't want to ruin our swimming suits so most of us went in wearing our underwear which made me a little self conscious! It felt...well...like mud! Squishy, dirty and smelly! We were all a bit tentative at first and the ground was all rocky and gritty but soon we were all in splashing around. We plastered our faces with it because it's supposed to be good for your skin (although I reckon Paula just said this for a laugh to see us covered in mud). When the sun started setting it was time to get out and then we realised there were no showers! They charged us for a bucket of water each which they just took out of another hole in the ground nearby and we had to wash ourselves as best we could from the buckets. It wasn't ideal but at least the water was warm because it was starting to get cold and we got enough mud off of us to put our clothes back on. Of course there was nowhere to change either so we had to just rely on the darkness of the evening to protect our modesty (or prance around naked like Bryan and Kasper)! Unfortunately, because we were taking yet another night bus, we had checked out of our rooms that morning. Paula was the only one who had been able to keep her room as storage for all our backpacks and it was certainly no honeymoon suite! The bathroom was pretty much open plan so we were all crowded in this room changing and showering trying to get the mud off us. I think it's safe to say we've all well and truly bonded as a group! We were finding mud in random places for days afterwards!