Mancora, Peru is a popular beach resort in northern Peru and the stop for our late night bus from Cuenca, Ecuador. Looking to get off the beaten track a little we stayed about a 30 minute taxi ride from Mancora in a small town called Los Organos. Our accommodation was amazing, simple but very “beachy”, and right on the beach. There were a few other guests during the week, but we had plenty of space to hang out.
We’re not really beach people, but it’s always nice to take a dip in the water or walk barefoot along the sand. Indeed, the center of Los Organos, and all the restaurants, were only a short barefoot walk along the beach. I’ll take that over driving any day!
Beaches and kids go well together. The boys had a great time playing in the sand between some school work.
It wasn’t all fun and games, however! We had whales to see and waves to conquer. Wait, that’s still fun and games? Oh well, don’t judge us! We booked a whale watching tour with a local company and they had a ‘taxi’ (modified motorbike with seats behind it like a tuk tuk that all five, yes five, of us had to somehow squeeze into) pick us up very early.
We then boarded the boat with several other tourists and set off.
Our first stop was an abandoned oil rig, which had become a reef of sorts and was home to several hundred birds and some sea lions.
After circling the oil rig we set off to find whales. There are strict rules around whale watching – you can’t get too close to the whales, you can’t follow them for too long – so we were pleased when our tour respected those rules. We soon saw some humpback whales making their surprisingly slow migration. It was definitely a great experience and they were very impressive and acrobatic, but we were in their territory and we were quite glad to leave them alone after 15 minutes of following them.
For the final stop in the tour, we had the opportunity to swim with sea turtles. The boat dropped anchor and we were invited to jump in, which C and A did. The rest of the family did not because of fear, cold, and fear of cold. We were told to just jump in and stay near the boat and the turtles would come to us. Sure enough, after a few seconds we were surrounded. These friendly animals had no fear of humans and came close enough to brush by us, which was quite unnerving!
After the tour, we still had a few days to kill at the beach so C and A took a surf lesson. It was the first time for both of them.
On his very first turn, A stood up and rode the wave in almost perfectly. C…did not…let’s just leave it at that. Oh to be young again! L and N watched on the first time and decided they wanted to do it themselves for the second lot of surf lessons.
After another good and relaxing stop for just under one week, we were ready to move on. Next stop…Cusco and the Sacred Valley!
