Day 393 – Mancora

Night Bus to Beach Town of Mancora

Our ITTSA bus had a quick announcement in Spanish, which mentioned the word Mancora before stopping. It was 5:20am. I felt super tired, but only in my left eye. We got off the bus and walked down the stairs. The bus had stopped on the side of the road outside the ITTSA office. Motortaxi drivers swarmed around everyone. We managed to get our bags and as we were working out what to do, we noticed that there were seats inside the ITTSA office. To get some shelter and stay away from the drivers, we decided to wait here until sunrise. 

As the bus had departed, we were given a small breakfast bag (juice and 2 breakfast bars). In a bathroom mirror, I noticed that my left eye was swollen like crazy, from yesterdays fly attack (Day 392)! 

Just after 7am, we walked down the main street towards our hotel, Casamar. The roads were very quiet in the morning, but there were locals setting up shops. As we got closer to the hotel, we noticed that most of the restaurants were closed and seemed to cater for tourists. There were literally hundreds of pizza shops…not hundreds but heaps. 

• 

• 

• 

At the hotel, the owner allowed us to drop the bags off in the room. He said, if we want to use the room, we could pay an extra 10 PEN ($4.42 AUD) and use it now. We said, no, as we would walk around town and have some breakfast. He changed his tone, and told us we could use the room straight away without any extra charge. We still had to go out for breakfast.

We walked to the beach (Playa Mancora) and chilled. The sea was very calm with a handful of locals. There were council workers digging up sand and pouring it into the ocean, which was interesting.

• 

• 

• 

• 

We had a tasty breakfast at one of the restaurants next to the beach, Cevicheria Los Delfines. The dishes were however small. Following this, we were still feeling peckish, so we had coffee and crepes at Cafe del Mundo.

• 

After chilling for a while, we headed back to the hotel room. The owner gave us heaps of useful recommendations for eating and activities.

One of the things recommended was whale watching. So we walked around town looking for a tour. Pricing ranged from 90 to 130 PEN ($39.80 to $57.49 AUD) per person. We went with the 90 PEN option from Turismo Zacaleta. They called later that night, and after much difficulty we chatted via Whatsapp and Google translate. Turns out that they wanted to confirm the hotel’s address.