Latin America On a Steel Horse: Christmas in Mancora and a Bus Ride through Northern Peru

The Beach at Mancora

I arrived in Peru via night bus from Cuenca to Mancora. I chose to take the bus for two reasons. I had heard from reading blogs that the roads were sometimes difficult south of Cuenca. My bike is not meant to ride on rough road. Also, I had heard there have been robberies of bikes in northern Peru. Not sure if these are recent or a while ago, but given both reasons, I decided not to risk it.

Mancora is a small surf beach town in the very north of Peru. There is not much in Mancora besides beach, bars and hostels. The primary activities are surfing, paddle boarding and kite surfing if the conditions are right. The day I arrived the conditions looked excellent for all three. Unfortunately, I was tired from the bus ride, so I decided to rest. The conditions were not as good for the remaining days I was there. The surf remained good, but as people poured in for the holidays, the break became very crowded. The wind caused a choppiness that would have made it difficult for paddle board; but was not consistent enough for kite surfing. I decided just to wait until reached other beaches. I think this was a mistake though. The water was still warm in Mancora. At other beaches towards the south, surfers needed wet suits (not for me).

I spent Christmas at the hostel in Mancora. I shared Christmas dinner with a mixed group of travelers from US, Germany, Quebec, Colombia, Argentina and Switzerland; good times.

I continued south by bus from Mancora to Trujillo. The risk of robbery was part of the reason, but possibly more important was the distance between towns. There are large stretches of desert. Between Mancora and Trujillo, there are two main towns (Piura and Chiclayo). This was an eight hour bus ride. Besides these towns, you do not see much besides desert. Riding across that much desert is just not worth the risk in my opinion.

Some pictures of the desert in northern Peru: