Mancora's a small little surf town close to the Ecuadorian border, with a long and fairly empty beach and extremely friendly people. Ended up staying for 6 days and really didnt want to leave...

Day 78 - Tuesday 18th May

I signed into The Point as a Nuclear Physicist and prompty bumped into Meg (who was travelling with Lloyd) and Anders (Charlie's doppelgänger from Arequipa). Dee and I headed into town and made good friends with some teenagers who waited the tables along the beach front (Jhonathon (sic) and Enrique) along with their surf instructor amigo Gustav and a handicrafts guy called Manuel. Everyone will come up to you and start talking and it's such a friendly place. And as it's so small everybody knows everyone else and you see everyone all the time everywhere. We also met an awesome hippy called Alejandro who russled up some phenomenal empañadas on the spot. The Point was equally was good and we ended up playing some very competitive beer pong into the night.

Day 79 - Wednesday 19th May

Spent the morning renting cheap surf boards and surfing the short left-hand break, with moderate success but generally dominated by the pros. Also managed to rip open my toe on some rocks underfoot...unpleasant and difficult to heal!! Hung out with the guys on the beach, got some more bracelets and finally got the tattoo I've always wanted of a cross with twin eagles on each shoulder (in henna of course) and pretty much completed the ultimate surfer look. And of course over the two hours it took to do ('mucho concentration, muy bueno tattoo') got to meet pretty much everyone else in town. And it meant they just chatted to us in future rather than trying to sell the usual tat...

Day 80 - Thursday 20th May

Spent pretty much the whole day on the beach learning and practising Spanish with the locals. Found a good fruit stall run by Fat Juan and had the best Pad Thai of my life.

Day 81 - Friday 21st May

A huge storm brewed up, the weather was only overcast but the sea was furious. The waves was insane and pretty much ripped up the beach leaving a sand cliff the whole way along. More Spanish and taught the locals some English in return. For the evening got some more empanadas with Alejandro and met his two embarassingly cute Labrador puppies. The others from the beach strolled by (Enrique bizarrely on a pink girl's bike) and we ended up riding down the beach front, myself on the back and Dee on the tiny handlebars with Jhonathon pushing. I was too busy holding on so told Dee to sort out the brakes to find that neither worked. Luckily the sand works just as well.

Day 82 - Saturday 22nd May

Spent the morning on the beach with the fisherman trying to push out their rafts. Ended up getting a surfing lesson and rode some really good waves, well worth it. The surfing's not that hard, it's just knowing where exactly to be...Watched the Champions League Final, had more Pad Thai and had a HUGE night out with Dee and Felix and got far too drunk but thoroughly enjoyed the Saturday night beach party.

Day 83 - Sunday 23rd May

Felt awful. All day. But did much the same, a little more Spanish, siesta and had an amazing Barbeque at The Point before sadly saying goodbye to everyone on the overnight bus to Ecuador. It ended up being a very local bus but friendly enough, packing people into the aisles. Arrived at 4 into Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil and caught a bus at 6 to Montañita on the coast.