Mancora beach resort in Peru

Mancora is a small town on the Northern coast of Peru, which is becoming popular as a destination for surfing and  those who want to escape to a relaxing beach bungalow.

Mancora is still a relatively undeveloped resort with a population of around 9,000 the main businesses are fishing and tourism. Estimates are that in 2005 there were 340,000 tourists. Although there are hotels with tv and air-conitioning if you want them, there are also small and intimate bungalows with just the basics to let you really relax.

Getting to Mancora involves a long bus trip from Lima along the coastal Pan-American Highway, which takes about 18 hours, so you will have to travel overnight. I would really recommend getting a 1st class reclining seat with either Cruz del Sur or Oltursa.

A faster way to get there is to fly to Tumbes with Lan Peru (about 1 hour 45 minutes) and then get a taxi or a bus to Mancora (approx 1 hour 30 minutes by road) although the flights are quite late so you might have to stay one night in Tumbes.

Las Balsas, Mancora. Pool or the beach...?

There are many different beaches in the Mancora area. Some are better for surfing, some are full of rocks and have many interesting rock pools full of life.

The Pan American Highway running through Mancora

Some people predict that in the future Mancora will be a very busy beach resort, similar to the Costas in Spain but at the moment it’s a quiet place to enjoy a relaxing holiday.

Links:

Iquitos - A gateway to the Amazon

Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest, because of the geography (completely isolated in the Amazon) it can not be reached by road. People used to travel there by boat, but now there are several flights everyday because it’s becoming a popular touris destination. LAN Peru offers four daily flights.

Iquitos is a very interesting place, located on the Amazon river and from the moment the visitor arrives it feels like a very different place to Lima or other tourist spots in Peru. If you fly from Lima to Iquitos you will fly over dry dusty deserts, then the snow covered Andean mountains before seeing forests that become rich green jungle below you. Looking down from the window of your plane you see rivers twisting through the jungle.

The weather is very hot and humid, and it can rain frequently – after all this is a RAINforest! Don’t worry, the rains feels very warm, but when it does rain it can be heavy and sudden. So even if you are very hot it is a good idea to have a waterproof jacket or plastic bag to protect any books, passport, camera, etc.

Iquitos was known for its rubber industry at the beginning of the 20th century that brought wealth to the city and many mansions were built like the Iron House designed by Gustave Eiffel, famous for his Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Iquitos has a famous boulevard with bars and nightclubs and the night life is very vibrant.

There are other very tourist places like the Belen Market where you can find local plants and medicines and liquors made with herbs that people say that have aphrodisiac properties like ‘chuchuhuasi’ or ‘RC’.

Some people go to Iquitos to try Ayahuasca,  a kind of medicinal tea prepared with a jungle vine called Banisteriopsis Caapi and other herbs that have hallucinogenic properties, used by shamen.

My husband tries shooting a blow dart

Iquitos is a good place to start a journey into the Amazon. There are organised tours where you can travel away from the city, deeper into the jungle and stay in Amazon jungle lodges. Some jungle lodges are very basic, perfect if you want a real feel of the Amazon. You can sleep in a wooden hut that is raised on legs, just sleeping under a mosquito net. That is if you can sleep at all, because there will be the sound of the jungle animals, frogs, insects all making their noises! Of course if you need a more comfortable bed there are lodges with more comforts, with beds, showers and three cooked meals.

From these lodges you can take guided walks looking at the trees and whatever animals you might see. Your guide will point out things that are invisible to a visitor, snails, insects frogs, butterflies all camouflaged in their surroundings. Also you can go on fishing trips and catch the famous piranhas, try and see an Amazon river dolphin or do a tree top canopy walk.

You can also visit a local shaman and learn about their traditional healing and visit local indigenous people who will show you a bit of their traditions – and sell you some nice handmade souvenirs! If you buy a traditional blow pipe, it must stay in your suitcase, of you try to take it on any plane it will be confiscated!

My husband and I stayed at the Ceiba Tops Luxury Jungle Lodge – which was very comfortable. The food was very nice (even the vegetarian food was good – better than we get here in UK hotels!). They have a nice pool and jacuzzi, a lounge and bar with live music in the evenings.

We really enjoyed our visit to Iquitos and the jungle and one day we will go back again.

Links:

http://www.explorama.us/ceibatopslodge.shtml

Parque Central De Miraflores in the heart of the Miraflores district of Lima, Peru

Would you like to have a little tour of the Miraflores district of Lima? Miraflores is a very touristic district and there are many hotels. If you are going to stay here as many tourists do on their way in and out of Lima and Peru this is a circular walk from the centre that will show you some interesting scenes.

Parque Central De Miraflores and Parque Kennedy are two parks next to each other in the centre of Miraflores. They are well tended by the park keepers who keep it full of flowers all year.

It is a nice place to sit and ‘people watch’, you will see couples together, kids in the play area, sometimes women coming to feed the stray cats (you can find cats stuck up a tree sometimes). Very early in the morning you can hear the birds morning chorus in the trees, even a few parrots.

Pizza Street in Miraflores, Lima. It is lined with Pizza restaurants!

Just off Parque Kennedy you can find what locals call ‘Calle de las pizzas’, literally Pizza Street! It’s real name is San Ramon, but because it is completely full of Pizza Restaurants from end to end it is batter known by it’s nick name. It is a lively place at night and it has some pubs and night clubs as well and it’s  popular with tourists. They sometimes dress the place up during events like halloween, with fake spider webs all over the place!

Larcomar leisure complex on the cliffs in Miraflores, overlooking the Pacific.

Larcomar can be found by simply follwing Avenue Larco until you come to the coast. It is a complex of shops, bars, restaurants, cinema, theatre and nightclubs. It has amazing views over the Pacific Ocean and the beaches. It also now has a gold museum which claims to now have the best collection (sadly many of the exhibits in the main Gold Museum in Lima were discovered to be fakes, with the real ones smuggled out of Peru).

La Rosa Nautica, a very posh restaurant with seafood and fine Peruvian cuisine

Turning right from Larcomar, you can walk along the costal path on the cliffs, which gives you a great view of the beaches. This is a popular route with many health fanatics who you will see running along. One thing that you cannot miss is the pier from the beaches below. It is a very posh restaurant mainly serving seafood, fine Peruvian dishes and international styles. Very exclusive and expensive by local standards but not out of the price range of many tourists, but you had better look smart or security might not let you in

Parque del Amor, on the Costa Verde cliffs in Miraflores, Lima

Continuing along the costal path you will see a sculpture ahead, just over a bridge that was once a popular suicide bridge for heart broken people! This is Parque Del Amor a nice park dedicated to love. I have more details on the Parque del Amor in Lima here >>

After seeing the park, head away from the coast up MC Balta, a main road just opposite. You can follow this road all the way back up to central Miraflores. Now you can have a rest in Haiti, a cafe popular with local people and have a coffee.

D'Onofrio Tea Room, an interesting Ice Cream Parlour

If you think you have earned a treat you can go to the D’Onofrio Tea Rooms just off Parque Kennedy for one of their delicious ice creams. See more about Peruvian Ice Cream Culture >>

Links to some of these places (opens in a new window):
www.larcomar.com
www.larosanautica.com 
www.heladosdonofrio.com

Sunset in Pocitas, beaches near Macora in the North of Peru

Peru has 1400 miles of coastline and many beaches. I used to live in the South of Peru, where beaches are nice during the Summer but in the Winter the weather can be very gloomy. Some small towns are like ghost towns during the winter months and in the summer they are full of people visiting the beaches.

Beach Lounge at Bungalows Soleil, Los Organos, Mancora

In the north of Peru however there are lovely beaches where even in the Winter the minimun temperature is about 25 C, and in the summer it’s very hot. These places used to be empty desert but some entrepreneurs decided to set up hotels in the 1980’s. They started by planting palm trees, then building the hotels and now there are many hotels along the different beaches (Mancora, Pocitas, Vichayito, Punta Veleros, Punta Sal, etc). Mancora is now a popular resort for surfers (we have some world class surfers like Sofia Mulanovich, a descendant of Croatian immigrants).

Me enjoying the pool at Bungalows Las Balsas, Pocitas, near Mancora

The hotels have all the facilities and lovely swimming pools and are cheaper than going to the Caribbean (especially during low season) and it’s very easy to get there, just get a bus and go. If you are a tourist visiting from Lima it’s about 18 hours by bus to Mancora. There is an airport as well not far from there (Tumbes) which is about two hours to the lovely beaches.

Middle class people from Lima and another parts of Peru can go there all year round and it’s extremely busy during the Summer and holidays like Easter, New Year, etc.

A lake in the Ankash region high in the Andes - rain clouds coming from the Amazon

In Peru the weather depends on where you are, Peru has three geographical regions (the coast, mountains and rainforest),  for some British people it’s difficult to imagine that in one part of the country is sunny and hot and in another there is snow.

Me enjoying a swim in Mancora, on the coast near the equator

In my home city of Arequipa, which is in the south of Peru, it is very dry. Arequipa is in an area between some mountains where it is fertile but does not rain very often. It rains usually from January to March but the rest of the year farmers must irrigate their land with water from the rivers. Once the land is irrigated it is very good for farming.

These differences make living in Peru very interesting, you can travel from place to place and find different climates and different ways of living.