Mancora Beach and Existentialism

After having been on the road for over a month and with my birthday looming, I decided to check out and head off to a beach for some well-deserved R & R. I’d heard good things about Máncora up in the far north of Peru and booked myself a flight from Arequipa to Piura. It’s all well and good roughing it on overnight buses for a while but every now and then you’ve got to treat yourself to a creature comfort or two.

Arriving in Piura airport in the evening, I took a short taxi ride to the bus terminal and quickly decided to hop on to one of the minivans parked round the corner that drive straight to Máncora. It doesn’t take me long to go from the luxury of flight to roughing it again. Here’s a link to a discussion on how to get from Piura to Máncora that gives you most of the information you need to know… The short of it is that you can either take a taxi direct from the airport (worth it if you have the money and / or the people to share the costs), take a bus from the bus terminal (the cheapest option and is what I did on the way back from Máncora to Piura, and worked out great), or use the crapped-out minivans that ply their trade alongside the bus terminal (what I chose because no bus was leaving for a while but it took about an hour for the driver to find enough passengers before he would set off).

At Máncora, I jumped out in the town centre (it’s a small town, so it’s pretty much right there as soon as you enter) and hopped into a cheap mototaxi to take me to my accommodation, the AquamarInn. I’d found the place the evening before online and wasn’t sure what to expect; it was close to midnight when I arrived and was greeted warmly by the owner who showed me to my room. I don’t know how some places get their reputation but I soon discovered that Máncora itself is not much more than a drive-thru town, with the Pan-American highway as its heaving high street full of bars and restaurants, and one main pedestrian walkway leading to the beachfront, also full of bars and restaurants. There are several hostels in the centre catering to a young party crowd and plenty of other accommodation heading out further along the beach, getting progressively more chilled out the further you go.

AquamarInn was about a 10-15 mins walk along the beachfront from the centre and was run a by a lovely young Russian couple. The rooms are built around a beautifully maintained courtyard / garden, with hammocks and chairs scattered around, and a breakfast area to the side serving a lovely breakfast. It turned out that I’d booked myself a perfect little oasis. The room I had was part of a group of about five rooms adjoining each other built of bamboo, with a raised roof and mosquito netting allowing the heat to escape and the sea breeze to enter. The design was so simple and effective that all that was needed was a small fan to circulate the air and I was able to remain cool even during my siestas in the middle of the day. If noise from the adjoining rooms is something that bothers you, the other side of the courtyard has rooms constructed of more permanent materials. For me, I fell in love with the little space I had, its comfortable single bed with room for a fan at its base; the shower and toilet behind me, separated by a shower curtain. If I were ever to build my own beach shack, I’d copy this design.

Having spent a lot of my childhood on a beach, I’m immediately comfortable by the sea and the big waves crashing in off the Pacific just put an even bigger smile on my face. Máncora beach goes on for kilometres and disappears off into the distance, further than I ever needed to go to find some peace and quiet. Seeing as I also decided to take time off from my camera, I’ve had to grab this screenshot from Lonely Planet to give you some idea of what the beach is like…