Sandy Cheeks

After a consistent 10 days filled with people, I'm feeling oddly at peace sitting in my room, alone, writing to my fans (hi mom and dad). The past week and a half was filled with some of my favorite days in the history of all of my being. I spent more time in my swimsuit than regular clothes, learned how to surf, maybe.... almost..... got my purse stolen (not so awesome), went scuba diving, read an entire book, and got to hang out with 9 of the chillest girls on this planet Earth.

It all started on a Thursday. I woke up super early to bid my friend Fabi adieu at our CrossFit gym. After that, I spent the morning hustling around to get everything done. I was locked, loaded and ready to take on spring break. A couple of us girls walked to school together with our suitcases, causing quite the spectacle for any onlooker. We arrived at the bus station to take an 18 hour bus ride to a place called Mancora, found in Northern Peru. This bus ride was actually pleasant compared to the previous two, as we decided to upgrade to "first class" where we had bigger seats, complementary movies, and thank the Lord... air conditioning. 

When we landed in Mancora, we immediately felt the difference in latitude as we were now only about 4 degrees south of the equator, the sun was beaming, and it was about 90 degrees outside. The second we stepped off the bus, we were flocked with drivers wanting us to ride in their mototaxis. We finally gave in, not knowing any better, and paid quite a chunk of cash (comparatively speaking) to get to the next town over. We arrived and were welcomed into our beautiful beach house, where we spent a ton of time relaxing, reading, cooking, and swimming in the pool.

The view from our deck.

The following days were long but wonderful.  We had a couple rainy days filled with nothing but good card games and laughter. A lot of my free time was spent reading Harry Potter and lounging around, so I won't fill you in on the day by day details but instead some highlights of the trip.

One of our first nights we decided to hit up the town, and get our discoteca on. Mancora is known for its night life so we were sure we couldn't be disappointed. Most of the girls weren't, however after a close call of getting my bag pulled away from me, (no worries, I had a natural instinct to karate chop the kids hand.... real tough Abby, real tough...), I decided I wasn't going to go back out in Mancora.

On a more exciting, and adventurous note: we went surfing. Yeah we did. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. We showed up bright and early (8 am) to a surf school, and I met my instructor who had probably just woke up from a quick nap, as many of the locals party until about 7 in the morning. Despite my grumpy, possibly hungover instructor, he actually helped me paddle and time the waves accordingly. When I finally got the chance to stand up, I felt free and alive and a little bit awkward because I had no idea how to steer the surfboard. Anyways, I caught about 6 good waves, only crashed into the rocks once, and will absolutely be found surfing again in the future. I can see why people make a life out of being a beach bum. I could honestly surf and bum around all day... but the bills need paid you know?

Another day we went scuba diving. Wow. That was another incredible experience itself. We didn't have to take a prerequisite class or anything. We started by taking a short boat ride out to an old oil rig that hosted several sea lions. They left when we started the dive, where we were guided down a rope into two different "levels". The first, where we began our descend, was fairly green and the visibility wasn't that great. Then all of the sudden the water got cold, blue and clear as we entered the second level. Here we swam through schools of fish, saw an octopus, and our guide even put a live starfish on our hands. It was so incredible, and I only panicked once, when I forgot that I could breath when I was 35 feet underwater. Scuba diving was an amazing experience, one that I would love to happen again.

About to plop into the water to scuba.

One of our last days in Mancora, we decided to take a tour. We weren't really sure what we were getting ourselves into (but are you surprised?). It turned out to be a tour of a couple of beaches and a visit to a crocodile zoo thing that was poorly kept, and quite sad to be honest. We were so far north that we could almost touch Ecuador, and a big alligator tear (hehehe see what I did there?) was shed because I would've loved to say I went to Ecuador (even if just in a bus). I could've done without the excursion, however, but hey it was 10 bucks and I got a nice tan so I guess it wasn't terrible. 

Returning back to Lima was bittersweet. I'm going to miss the sounds of waves crashing along the beach when I go to bed, however I'm happy to have slept through the night without sweating constantly. Speaking of sleeping through the night, last night there was a little temblor (AKA earthquake) which I'm actually kind of bummed I slept right through. More adventures await, and I will try to keep you all informed and up to date.

Until next time... XOXOXO,
Abby

SO happy to have seen a good sunset.