(Dont Want to Leave) Mancora, but Loving Ecuador

After ten hours to Trujillo, we arrived at 6 in the morning. By 1 in the afternoon we were back on a ten hour bus north to Mancora.
Mancora is a small, Gringo friendly town on the beach of the Pacific. It is known for its beautiful beach, warm waters, fresh seafood (cebiche), friendly locals, and for generally being a good time. It exceeded our expectations.
I (Spencer) personally decided that to make the best of my time, I would spend my days surfing. With cold waters and crowded beaches back home, this was a great place to find a change in pace. I spent the three full days we had spending only 7 USD to rent a board, getting beat up on the sharp rocks under the water, getting terribly sunburnt, and falling off of my surfboard. It was perfect. Lizzie on the other hand chose to take the cheaper, safter alternative and enjoyed the sand, sun, and shallow waters... and watching me fall off of my surfboard.
We both enjoyed our time thoroughly while in Mancora, and had strong hesitations upon leaving. We had also met countless other Gringos who had decided to make Mancora their home for weeks/months, but with less than ten days left in the trip, our time for Ecuador was dwindling as we were getting sunburnt. So we left, slowly.
We hopped on a bus on our last day, which was supposed to be an easy 8 hours. The actual time spent moving was that, but the trip was lengthened by first switching busses with a 3 hour break in between, then multiple hour long hold-ups at the Peru/Ecuador boarder. 4 Hours late, we arrived to the beautiful city of Cuenca, Ecuador.
Here we have taken to seeing the city, which is a beautiful cobblestoned colonial city set on a river. It is very nice here, and we would love to stay for more time, but again we have places to be. Another overnight bus tonight, and we will be in Quito, in the north of Ecuador. From there we will be getting picked up by an old family friend of mine who is taking us into her home and giving us a real taste of what its like to be an Ecuadorian. Next update from there, Ibarra.
Thanks for reading!

Huaraz

We got our glacier fix in the Cordilla Blancas on the famous Santa Cruz Trek. It was reccomended that we rent a mule and give ourselves four days so we rented equitment for 3 days and threw our gear on our backs. On the second day we faced, after taking a detour and performing a NOLS river crossing, the hill. So we set up our stove and made some weak soup before we committed trekking sacrilidge-we plugged in to some music. Dancing up to great heights we realized when we reached the top why hikers dont listen to music. It was that perfect mountain quiet distubed only by the cracking of ice.

A whopping 20 hours of bus driving later we are in Mancora, at the beach near Ecuador.

-Lizzie

Machu Picchu!

After five days of stunning trekking we woke up at 330am to join the line of shadows climbing up the stairs. We watched the sun rise over the city in the mountains, wound through the buildings and then climbed the mountain wayna picchu for a better view.

After returning to Aguas Calientes we waited nine hours for our train which was supposed to bring us back to Cusco at about midnight. Unfortunately the Peruvian's ability to protest may even rival the french´s. Frusterated by the private companies like Coca Cola owning all the clean water in the area and then making it so expensive they can't afford it, they blocked all roads to Cusco. By 7am with the curtains pulled so the many drunk protesters wouldnt see us, we had been driving around the city all night trying to find a way in. Finally we hopped out of the bus and decided to walk. We stepped over the newly cut trees blocking the road and walked silently through a crowd of villagers before luckily catching a local van into the city which just barely got out in time before the police closed the road.

By 8am we crawled into our beds!

Lizzie