Mancora and Montanita: Nice towns on the beach. Did some kiteboarding. Ate some great seafood. Nothing much happened.......

Actually, not strictly true. The last 2 weeks have been mental. This was just for the benefit of family and sensible friends.

Mancora is in Northern Peru and is the first time I had been in the sea in South America. Very much a party town on the beach. Not the most amazing of beaches but the sea was warm, the sand was soft and the surf was good. Not the mention the sunsets - amazing. Lots of fun, met lots of people, some cool, some very cool and some not....... Managed to finally acheive my goal of actually kiteboarding as opposed to just playing with a kite in the sea - 3 days of it. I'm now getting up and surfing everytime and boy is it a rush. I love it. Can't wait for Brazil to carry it on. I also managed my first run since being away, perfect beach for running on but hard on your feet! Stayed in Loki which is a chain of hostels here in Peru and at Mancora it's more like an 18-30 beach resort. On our first day we won the pool volleyball tournament, (helped by a rather tall Swedish guy called Nicolaj and his Norweigan mate Ben) so won free drinks and a free Loki t-shirt which has some very fitting 'quotes' on it. Several slushies and drinking games later and I've met half the hostel and am skinny dipping with a whole bunch of them. Mental note though, never leave your camera in your short pockets whilst your drinking Pisco in the sea trying to find the Sourthern Cross, (constellation.....), with a girl from the Yukon - some local is just waiting for silly gringos to do such a thing........ So, after my second night at Loki I decided to check out for a more chilled out place right on the beach so I could concentrate on getting up in the mornings for kiteboarding, (read no hangover especially after a couple of rounds of the 'Grid' and then challenging a huge Kiwi to a drinking game revolving around how many shots of tequila you can drink). Met a whole bunch of people including Nicole and Jay who we met on the 'WMDR' (TM), and then bumped into again in Cusco, and a bloke from Brighton called John who was kiteboarding too. Also met Reece from Oz who would join Caroline and I in travelling to Montanita. First though we caught up with the Kumuka Crew again and went out drinking with Skip the mad kiteboarding instructor from Oz. Ate possibly the best tuna steak I've ever had and finally put my love affair with Pisco behind me. Not much else to say; Mancora was fun, not the most amazing place but was great to have some beach, some swimming in the sea and some kiteboarding action. Crossed the 'most dangerous border crossing in South America' with no mishap and found ourselves in Montanita.

Montanita is in Ecuador, about 3 hours North of Guayaquil. We had a fairly uneventful journey, apart from the armed guards boarding the bus at 1am and dragging us all off for 'document inspection' and sitting in the huge bus station in Guayaquil, (3 storeys of bus stops, totalling 100 with every shop imaginable there - it's basically a massive shopping arcade on 3 levels with bus stops all around). Great to be in another Country and Ecuador / Montanita immediatley felt like a great place to be. The locals are amazing, so friendly - wanting to bend over backwards for you all the time. And the fresh fruit shakes are just amazing. We'd had about 3 by lunchtime already. They also like to party. Alot. And Montanita is a good place to do this. Despite me getting another very chilled out hostel on the beach out of the centre, and leaving Caro and Reece to go for the cheap central option, Montanita still drew me in and Cocktail Alley spat me back out again. It was the place to meet people and to bump into people you've met before. By lunchtime, (we arrived at 9am in the morning), we had a group of about 6 having bumped into Dallas, (Ozzie guy I met in Mendoza), who then indroduced us to Jana, (Czech girl who lives in Brighton who we actually met in a hostel we were checking out - she was arguing with the owners as she wanted to leave but didn't want to pay, my Spanish helped very little......). By that evening we had Geoff from Vancouver, Dave from Reading, Francine from Calgary, the Canadian lesbians, ('The A-Team') as well as Reece and Caro. Other people turned up over the next few days including Sheri from the Yukon, (from Mancora), and Tom and Nora, (Dutch), who I had met during my first time in Mendoza. By the time I left there was a huge group of us - Dutch, Ozzie, German, Swiss, Irish, Czech, Canadian, English, Swedish, Danish, American and several locals. Everyday consisted of meeting for brunch, dissecting the night before, heading down the beach, swimming / surfing the huge waves, beer for sunset, dinner and then Cocktail Alley - a road leading down to the beach with rows of basic wooden shacks on either side of the road with locals behind each one serving cheap and very strong Cocktails, (cocktels, coktals, coctelles etc), bascially the alcoholic versions of the fruit shakes you have during the day, and blasting out there own idea of decent music which is all so loud it kind of converges into one very loud noise. We favoured one in particular and befriended Sergio who ran it. I ended up having many a free drink for bringing so many people there everynight, (of course I took responsibility......). More late night swimming in the sea, tequila shots, silly games and losing things, (my havaianas this time - very sad having had them for 4 years - has anybody else had a pair last so long?). Again, I met a whole load of amazing people. It was a strange feeling to be out having so much fun so far away from home, in such a random place with such a big group of people you barely knew - very cliche but these guys could of been people I'd known for years not a group of people I met over a Mojito or free Cuba Libre in Hola Ola........ Most of Montanita is a vague memory - two Ozzie girls, (Emily and Kaitlyn), are undecided as to whether I am the funniest or craziest person they have ever met........ I wasn't the only one though, most nights involved everybody losing memory at some point. I remember taking a shine to Dylan's 'Transformers' t-shirt and swapping it for my favourite ever 'checked' shirt most of you will know. I also vaguely remember running up and down the beach in my boxers looking for my havaianas since I did not want to go to bed without finding them. I vaguely remember Raphael persuading me not to go any farther out since the waves were huge and it was pitch black so you couldn't even see them before they hit you. Lilliput, (Irish girl and yes, her real name, or so she told me), having to take Rob home in a bicycle trailer, Honneke having to carry Liam home, Caroline going home to bed at least 10 times in the space of 2 hours only to turn up again 10 minutes later with another cocktail in hand, me putting my foot in it with Marty and Camila. The list goes on and I left one morning before seeing everybody so still have stories to catch up on from my last night I'm sure.

So, not that much actually did happen.

The upshot of all of this is I am now the proud owner of a new pair of havaianas, a new G-Shock watch, (mine which has travelled round the World with me twice now, not to mention many other places, finally died), several new t-shirts, a new camera, (purchased at the afore mentioned huge hus station in Guayaquil), and several mysterious beer bruises including a rather worrying and very painful lump on my collarbone. I also now have, (hopefully have depending on the stories emerging from my last night), a large number of new friends - in fact, Camila lives in London and we'll be meeting up when I get back, Jana lives in Brighton so ditto. Daniel from Oz will be in Brighton in August, Kaitlyn and Emily from Oz will be in Brighton sometime in July and Nicole and Jay should be coming to stay in June. Should be a great summer, I can already smell the Brighton sea air....... But first I need to smell the volcanic and equatorial air of the Galapagos Islands, to dive with Hammerheads and Sea Lions, and to check out the 3 types of boobies unique to the Galapagos Islands. In Guayaquil again now, holed up in my hotel room waiting for my flight there tomorrow morning. Got an 8 day boat cruise booked for tomorrow morning followed by 2 days of diving some of the best sites in the World. After that, I'm off to Quito, then Rio, then home. Sweet sweet home. I'm very much looking forward to returning now, excited about seeing everyone, being able to sleep in my own bed, not having to carry my life around on my back, being able to cook for myself, etc etc. This trip has been epic, I'm sure the next month will be equally epic so I won't wish it away just yet.

To my family, work friends and sensible friends - don't judge this tale of drunkeness in Mancora and Montanita. So, I'm 35 and should know better - but I had a great time and besides, when am home, I will be the model of responsibility and professionalism now I have got this trip out of my system. Plus you can't buy pints of Cairiprinha for $2 in Brighton..........

Seriously though, very much looking forward to seeing my family, getting back to work and earning some money and continuing to build my life in Brighton.

I hope all are well, it's May, Spring is here and I for one am looking forward to the good old British Summer. I've missed you all and am excited about seeing everyone. Home on Sunday 30th May - Bank Holiday weekend if anybody fancies a little get together in Brighton. No worries if not, I'll be sure to have as many 'Welcome Home' parties as I had 'Leaving' parties so hopefully will see you all before too long.

Hasta (muy) pronto!

Matt.