July 18-22 - Mancora, Peru

Loki Hostel

We caught day bus to Guayaquil from Banos expecting to stay the night in Guayaquil. However when we got to the bus station in Guayaquil we found that there was an overnight bus into Mancora, Peru so we decided to take it. It was about 5 hours to the Peruvian border, where after about 7 years of dreaming about it, I finally got a peruvian stamp in my passport! It was about another 4 hours to Mancora and we arrived at about 5am. Luckily we had made a reservation at one of the hostels there that sounded really nice and they let us lock our bags up there and sleep in the beds by the pool till we could check in at 7am.
Shortly after we checked in we met the two other girls staying in our dorm, Layla and Miranda. That day we hung around the pool and had a few drinks, checked out the beach and wandered around town. That evening we met two Irish guys and an American guy travelling together. The next 3 days basically consisted off the 8 of us lounging around by the pool drinking and joking around. It was an amazing 4 days and it was nice to chill out in a fun place with Sam since she only had 2 weeks total for her trip. It was also really nice to chill out at the beach one last time on this trip since after Mancora I will be heading inland and into the mountains.

Stacy, Miranda, Layla and Sam

July 14-17 - Banos, Ecuador

View point at the Spa

We arrived in Banos after a 4 hour bus ride from Quito. It was Saturday night and the downtown area was really busy. Banos is not only a popular tourist destination for international tourists but also for local Ecuadorians. Because we arrived on a long weekend it was packed and we had to check out a couple of different hostels before we found one that wasn't full. We went to a nearby restaurant and then went to bed early.
The girls really wanted to get a massage, so the next morning we went to a nearby spa and got a mudbath, facial and massage package. Before the mudbath started, we were told to go for a walk around the spa grounds. There were a few different stops, one where we were told to scream at the top of our lungs to release anger and build up bad energy, another overlooking a river to reflect on errors we've made. Basically we just joked around and had some laughs since laughter is always the best medicine :)!

Sam and I canyoning

The mudbath consisted of covering ourselfs with warm mud and dancing around like fools for a half an hour to some ridiculous dance videos. The massage was a really good strong massage which was well needed after two months of sleeping on bad mattresses. The facial was really relaxing and was also badly needed.
We ate at a local burger stand that night and had an amazing burger and then went to book a canyoning tour for the next morning. We bought some liquor and had a few drinks in our room before passing out.
In the morning, Sam and I woke up early for the canyoning tour. The tour consisted of repelling down some waterfalls, sliding down natural waterslides and ziplining. It took about two hours and was very exhilarating! Sam and I were both incredible tired and headed back to the room to meet up with Stace and have a nap. We woke up around 4, went and grabbed some dinner at the local market which costs us $2.50 for a huge plate of food and bought our bus tickets to head to Guayaquil the next morning. The rest of the evening consisted of laughing at silly photos we had taken since Quito and having a few drinks.We went to bed and got up early to make our way to Mancora, Peru.

Market meal for $2.50