Mancora & The Beach (Tour day 11)

We were planning on going to the beach for the day and having a lazy day sunbathing, so I got up early to go and see the town - there wasn't much to see, just lots of restaurants and the typical beach-type shops. I stopped off at a cafe on the way back for breakfast though - a massive bowl of fresh Banana, Pineapple, Mango, Papaya and Melon and yoghurt, with a fruit smoothis and a cheese and ham toastie for 10 Soles - thats about 2 quid.

At 10am the sand was already scorching beneath our feet, so I walked along - about 20 minutes - in the waves. We eventually found a nice spot to sit but I've never been a fan of sunbathing and went for a swim before too long.

Later, we went down to a seaside restaurant for lunch, where I had Ceviche de Ostion (according to the phrase book it was scallops - it wasn't!) It was pretty tasty, although it was completely different to Ecuadorian Ceviche, where it was almost a tomato and lime soup, whereas here it's simply seafood cured with loads of chilli and lime juice.

Much of the rest of the afternoon I spent in a hammock, dozing and reading Shantaram (Excellent book, I'd recommend it to anyone.)

That evening, we went to a mexcian restaurant where the colossal owner had a tattoo on his arm saying "Tattoo". Nevertheless, the food was absolutely brilliant. I gorged on homemade nachos with loads of cheese, guacamole, an excellent lime and coriander salsa, followed by amazing Fajitas Langostinos (King Prawn Fajitas), with more guacamole and salse - accompanied by a couple of brilliant Mojitos and 2-for-1.

<-- Mancora "Town Centre"