Travel update from Mancora, Peru
Hola Amigos,
Greetings (Saludos) to you all. I havent been writing too much lately. I am still travelling around the world as usual, but i have been kind of laying low, here in North West Peru for the last month. Mancora is a small village, famous for its white sand beaches and its soft easy surf breaks. Surfers and wanna be surfers from all over the world come here to surf or learn how from any of a dozen folks who offer lessons and rent boards. to get a visual check out this sight: www.vivamancora.com
So I have been staying in a place called La Posada where my friend Angela has been renting a little apartment. La Posada is a hostal Angela rents her own large bedroom, bathroom,terrace,kitchen dining area. It is nice. The place is clean and usually quiet but not always, and they have a nice swimming pool too. It is only a ten minute walk through la quebrada ( a word that means like a dried valley formed by a river or water run-off) to the Pacific ocean. The main drag of town is also just on the other side of the quedbrada, and it is like a 5 minute walk to there.
I am writing this on her laptop and listening to Beethovens first symphony on her i-tunes thingy and have just finished my second strong black peruian grown coffee. I make my own coffee with a really cool little one-cup-at-a-time maker that I bought in Viet Nam. Perfect little device for making coffee for a backpacker. those of you who have been to VN will know just the device i am talking about.
I got here on the 8th of April, and have not been "doing" much of anything. Walking on the beach. I've read 3 books and am almost done with Brian Greene's brilliant book called "The fabric of the Cosmos...Space,Time, and the texture of Reality" Which is absolutely mind boggling if you are interested in Reality, from a scientific point of view. I have been reading it for more than a month now and I only average about 10 or 12 pages per day. I have read 5 other books while reading this one. it is not easy going but wow! It is so worth it. Enuf of this shiiit.
So sunsets on the Pacific. Walks down the quebrada into the wilderness which is only 2km away, just on yonder side of them thar hills, they aint nothin for a million miles. I have been working on my suntan and I am happy to report...
Well all this changes in 3 days. I have re-charged my backpack and now I am ready to do some of what I do best which is to say ,travel. On the night of cinco de mayo, I will bus my butt down to Chimbote which is by all acounts Perus ugliest and smelliest and most disgusting place. I will stay here long enuf to change buses and go to Huaraz. A journey from Sea Level to 3,400 meters(11,000 feet)asl.
Huaraz is famous for beautiful pristine alpine lakes and the selva alta (high forest) lots of nice hiking trails and also some excellent ancient ruins. From here I will head over the highest part of the Peruian Andes to go to Huanoco on the other side and there to the Amazonas region of tropical rainforest and a maze of mighty rivers. I will visit a bunch of the amazon towns and travel by boat mostly and bus partly. I expect to hang around this part of Peru for a month visiting Pucallpa, Iquitos and Yurimaguas, Moyotambo and Tarapoto and Tingo Maria. Work on my mosquito bite collection.
The plan then is to head back to Mancora by bus from Piura and hang around until I decide to go elsewhere. Mancora is, for me, a great place to linger. i like the vibe most of the time. There have been a lot more problems with street crime here this last 6 months than any time before, but now the police seem to be cracking down and it appears to be getting safer again. Twice during my first week here, people were held up at gun point crossing the quebrada to get to the entrance to our hotel la Posada. An english couple and a few days later a swedish couple. Fumones. Crack-heads. Here a rock of crack cost about 1 sol(Peruian Neuva Sol) or 25 euro cents! I think a rock of crack costs about 10 dollars in my country compared to 40 cents here! So cheap that the locals have started to smoke the paste. Now these crack heads will knock you down for 10 soles and think its a good score. The war on Drugs is destroying the world and Macora is not immune.
Still, I really like this place and will come back to it after the rivers of the amazonas and the jungles of the selva baja y selva alta.
As always here are a couple of quotes to think about before i write again.
"Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world."-Lucille Ball
"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment." Siddhartha Buddha
Peace and Love to all who read these words
Rambling Roberto
Greetings (Saludos) to you all. I havent been writing too much lately. I am still travelling around the world as usual, but i have been kind of laying low, here in North West Peru for the last month. Mancora is a small village, famous for its white sand beaches and its soft easy surf breaks. Surfers and wanna be surfers from all over the world come here to surf or learn how from any of a dozen folks who offer lessons and rent boards. to get a visual check out this sight: www.vivamancora.com
So I have been staying in a place called La Posada where my friend Angela has been renting a little apartment. La Posada is a hostal Angela rents her own large bedroom, bathroom,terrace,kitchen dining area. It is nice. The place is clean and usually quiet but not always, and they have a nice swimming pool too. It is only a ten minute walk through la quebrada ( a word that means like a dried valley formed by a river or water run-off) to the Pacific ocean. The main drag of town is also just on the other side of the quedbrada, and it is like a 5 minute walk to there.
I am writing this on her laptop and listening to Beethovens first symphony on her i-tunes thingy and have just finished my second strong black peruian grown coffee. I make my own coffee with a really cool little one-cup-at-a-time maker that I bought in Viet Nam. Perfect little device for making coffee for a backpacker. those of you who have been to VN will know just the device i am talking about.
I got here on the 8th of April, and have not been "doing" much of anything. Walking on the beach. I've read 3 books and am almost done with Brian Greene's brilliant book called "The fabric of the Cosmos...Space,Time, and the texture of Reality" Which is absolutely mind boggling if you are interested in Reality, from a scientific point of view. I have been reading it for more than a month now and I only average about 10 or 12 pages per day. I have read 5 other books while reading this one. it is not easy going but wow! It is so worth it. Enuf of this shiiit.
So sunsets on the Pacific. Walks down the quebrada into the wilderness which is only 2km away, just on yonder side of them thar hills, they aint nothin for a million miles. I have been working on my suntan and I am happy to report...
Well all this changes in 3 days. I have re-charged my backpack and now I am ready to do some of what I do best which is to say ,travel. On the night of cinco de mayo, I will bus my butt down to Chimbote which is by all acounts Perus ugliest and smelliest and most disgusting place. I will stay here long enuf to change buses and go to Huaraz. A journey from Sea Level to 3,400 meters(11,000 feet)asl.
Huaraz is famous for beautiful pristine alpine lakes and the selva alta (high forest) lots of nice hiking trails and also some excellent ancient ruins. From here I will head over the highest part of the Peruian Andes to go to Huanoco on the other side and there to the Amazonas region of tropical rainforest and a maze of mighty rivers. I will visit a bunch of the amazon towns and travel by boat mostly and bus partly. I expect to hang around this part of Peru for a month visiting Pucallpa, Iquitos and Yurimaguas, Moyotambo and Tarapoto and Tingo Maria. Work on my mosquito bite collection.
The plan then is to head back to Mancora by bus from Piura and hang around until I decide to go elsewhere. Mancora is, for me, a great place to linger. i like the vibe most of the time. There have been a lot more problems with street crime here this last 6 months than any time before, but now the police seem to be cracking down and it appears to be getting safer again. Twice during my first week here, people were held up at gun point crossing the quebrada to get to the entrance to our hotel la Posada. An english couple and a few days later a swedish couple. Fumones. Crack-heads. Here a rock of crack cost about 1 sol(Peruian Neuva Sol) or 25 euro cents! I think a rock of crack costs about 10 dollars in my country compared to 40 cents here! So cheap that the locals have started to smoke the paste. Now these crack heads will knock you down for 10 soles and think its a good score. The war on Drugs is destroying the world and Macora is not immune.
Still, I really like this place and will come back to it after the rivers of the amazonas and the jungles of the selva baja y selva alta.
As always here are a couple of quotes to think about before i write again.
"Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world."-Lucille Ball
"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment." Siddhartha Buddha
Peace and Love to all who read these words
Rambling Roberto
posted by Rambling Robert | 6:55 AM
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