Beach time

Mancora, Peru: 19 July 2010

Exhausted from so many overnight bus journeys, I’ve barely closed my eyes for a catnap when an uber-excited Meg and Hunter bounce into our room. It's only been a few days since we saw them but I’ve missed them.

They take us to their favourite beachfront cafe, Green Eggs and Ham, and we eat the best food we’ve had in months on the deck. I’m still chewing the last mouthful when I decide a swim can’t wait any longer.

I am so content.

Later that day, we take a tuk tuk into town. I’m so busy watching the street go by that I barely notice a tuk tuk coming in the opposite direction which smashes into ours and swipes the door off barely an inch away from my arm. An ugly fight erupts between the drivers, and when Meg and Hunter pull up behind us we dive into their car and get the hell out of there.

After a spectacular sunset on the beach, I leave my friends on the balcony and lie in bed listening to the ocean.

I wonder if it's wrong to have skipped through the north of Peru to get here. Surely if it gives me this much peace, it's a good thing.

The next few days are a haze of beer, beach and late night on the balcony. One night we sit up until dawn, watching the sunrise, drinking and talking shit. Despite having spent the last two months solid with each other, the conversation between the four of us is so easy. We bare our souls.

Reluctantly, eventually, we leave our paradise and leave Peru. We have spent six weeks in this glorious country so rich in culture and dotted with landscapes that have literally made my jaw drop.

But it's time to move on.

So we cross the border into Ecuador, eager to organise our next adventure. Sailing around the Galapagos Islands for Hunter’s 30^th birthday.