Mancora is a dream. Before setting foot in Peru, I had never heard of this tiny beach town situated on the Pacific coastline. About two hours south of Ecuador, Mancora offered a warm escape from the beautiful, but often cold cobblestone streets of Cusco.
At first, my plan was to head to the Galapagos Islands with a few friends over Memorial Day weekend. We’re in South America, so why not? Unfortunately, we waited until ticket prices were a little too unreasonable and searched frantically for somewhere else to spend the long weekend. We settled on Mancora -- another friend happened to be getting his dive certification there (for the aforementioned Galapagos trip) and sent word that we would love it.
Love it we did! We arrived on a hot Wednesday afternoon to sunshine and blue skies, which were a welcome departure from the gray winter clouds that blanket Lima this time of year (we had spent the past few days there for “Remote Nation”, the first ever meet-up of all three Remote Year programs that were in South America at the time). As we drove from the airport, we were all surprised at how desert-like the landscape was, but once we made it to the beach, quickly forgot about the dry, clay-colored mountains we had just driven through.
In Mancora, our hotel, K!chic, sat right on the ocean in an area known as Las Pocitas. We holed up at K!chic for the next few days, taking this whole “digital nomad” thing seriously and working from their open air living room, taking lunch breaks at the pool directly overlooking the quiet beach, and eating some of the best food I had during the past four months in South America.
When the weekend rolled around, we were ready for a slight change in scenery and had planned to transfer to a hotel closer to the heart of Mancora where we could go out on the weekend. Enter Eco Lodge. At first, we were wary of our decision to leave the comforts of K!ichic behind when our tuk-tuk turned off of the main road and down a dirt path, driving past an empty lot and a few stray dogs. Our fears only increased when the guy at the front desk welcomed us and told us that there was no power in Mancora –- we did not realize that we’d signed up for another weekend in Cabo Polonio! In reality, it was a scheduled power outage and he assured us that the power would return by 5 pm.
So, we headed out to explore Mancora and spend the afternoon at the beach. The difference from Las Pocitas was noticeable immediately. We walked up the dirt path, baking in the sun, and turned onto the main street, where tuk-tuks and motorcycles zoomed by a surprising array of street art and people hung out at all the restaurants lining the street.
We turned toward the beach and were surprised at the number of people we saw compared to the nearly empty beach we’d spent the last few days on, a mere 10 minutes up the road. Mancora is primarily a vacation destination for Peruvians and other South Americans, and everyone could be found at the beach. People rode 4x4s and horses up and down the sand, others played soccer and sat around with friends, while vendors walked back and forth, selling juice, fresh fruit and ice cream (I couldn’t drown out the sound of the ice cream lady shouting “helados” and honking a little horn attached to her cart long enough to nap or read).
While this certainly wasn’t the tranquil beach we had left behind at K!chic, it was great to hangout and perfect for people watching. Shortly after 5 pm when the power returned, the beach bars behind us began blaring music, alternating between two Calvin Harris songs and trying to see which could play their music the loudest. We headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and then ended the night back at the beach bars, which had not given up on their quest to see whose speakers were most powerful.
On Sunday, we met up with a non-Remote Year friend we met while traveling who also happened to be in Mancora. After a lunch of ceviche, octopus and grilled fish, we spent the day hanging out in Los Organos, another tiny town outside of Mancora. We ended the day with a beautiful sunset over the Pacific. Watching it, I couldn’t help but reflect on the other beautiful sunsets I’ve witnessed during my four months in South America and feel a tinge of sadness at the thought of flying to London to begin the European leg of Remote Year the following week.
