Mancora, Monday

0831 At tour place. Got lost on way over naturally. Nothing like starting the day off with a sweaty dash about.

0927 At some beach til 1010. Seems a bit pointless, if you're a beach person what good is 40 mins? I hope whole tour not going to be super rushed, but in reality I had little choice, I think everywhere was offering the same itinerary and probably reselling the same tour.

Was (still am slightly) worried not on tour but some local bus, as no one checked my tkt but fact we are only here til 1010 suggests it is a tour.

0946 Yay. The tour chappie just spoke to me. Apparently there's an optional extra (10 soles) if most people are up for it, or something like that, where we go to the border with Ecuador. It is not clear to me if that's where we have lunch. I said I don't have my passport, because there are hot springs in prospect and consequently I feel fucking naked because with concerns about theft I left all sorts of stuff back at hotel; I don't have any bank cards, for example. Passport is actually being held by hotel at my request, though in reality I think this means it is stapled in an envelope at reception not in a safe. Chap said I don't need passport and made it sound (all this in Spanish) like it's really lax on the frontier. Fuck me, I'm going to Ecuador tomorrow, I neither want nor need to waste time and money lurking around on the frontier and I damn well don't want to get stranded just across the border (it might be US-Mexicoish where I think they don't give a shit about checking one way) with no cards and no passport. I assume the latter isn't likely and if it does happen I guess it would just require enormous amounts of time wasted (days) with embassies and immigration people. But fucking hell, why do we have to add this on to the tour? I didn't actually say 'personally I'd rather not go' so if I understood right and it is sort of 'democratic' I've probably ended up voting to go but fuck it, I suspect it's a standard moneyspinner for the driver or something and in reality it would happen whatever.

I suspect most of the group are Peruvian which might make them less susceptible to border controls on some EU-esque thing. Fucking fucking hell. I don't want to be dicking around with the border like this. It really doesn't help that I don't have any cards on me. You fucking cunts.

1308 On boat waiting to return from visit to slightly dispiriting crocodile zoo on island. Loads of birds en route, that was quite cool, not sure if this is mangrove or not. We don't have lifejackets, another tour group arriving same time did. Meh.

1331 At El Crocodilo restaurant, we get an hour for lunch. Everything is 30 soles, FFS. Will have arroz con mariscos. Still, on plus side haven't been charged for either boat trip or entry to crocodile zoo (and the menu says that costs 15 soles, or 80 for a boat of 10 - whole tour cost 60 btw). They don't have coke zero but I got a 500ml bottle on island, so having just water which is at least a bit cheaper.

Still, it is quite nice here in the shade with breeze and view of `harbour'.

1359 Food OK though far too many little inedible bits which start to make me feel a bit icky about eating seafood. This is at least the third arroz con mariscos I've had recently so I think that's a reasonable thing to say, not me being over picky, as neither of the previous ones suffered this problem. OK as I say but for the money not great.

1427 Yay, toilet doesn't flush and already had a turd floating in it. Not desperate for a shit but fucking hell. Amazingly enough there was running water in the sink.

The sun is fierce. I can feel it burning me, probably not as have put cream on, but still.

1705 Yay. We're at a beach for half an hour. It's a fucking beach, like every other fucking beach. Even if I *liked* beaches, I'd be wondering why we couldn't have 1h10m at one beach instead of 40 mins at one this morning and half an hour here now. Not to mention extra travel time. Surely if you like beaches you want half a day minimum anyway?

Oh, we went to Aguas Verdes on the border. I'm sure that didn't involve loads of extra travel time. The city seems to basically in Ecuador except for a 'lobe' in Peru, judging from map on phone. The border does indeed seem unpoliced there but I refused to follow the group over, it was just not fucking worth it, and I'm sure I'm more likely to be noticed and/or given trouble than a Peruvian (who would probably at least have an official national ID on them) . So I got to stand in the street in the sun for maybe 20-30 mins.

The boat thing and the island was admittedly quite good. But considering I mainly had an interest in the hot springs and we've spent hours driving around doing unrelated shit - FFS, *Mancora* has a beach, WTF is the need to cover two of them on this tour - and not gone there yet and we'll probably get 30 mins there if we're lucky (I imagine we might not go at all) I'm not very happy. I knew the tour had these beaches and shit in, there seemed little choice of tours, but it seems awfully fucking padded. We're also supposed to be back by 1730 and though I'm not complaining there it's a good job I'm not relying on it. Oh, I had to pay PEN10 for the Ecuador border trip. No one is swimming or anything, as if they could with only half an hour anyway, I really fail to see the value in these stops even for a beach lover.

Oh, I misspelled Cocodrilo (prob doing it again) earlier, as if it matters.

I did walk under the 'welcome to Ecuador' sign before I turned back btw, only once it was obvious we were heading on a fucking expedition right into the Ecuadorian part of town did I turn back.

2149 At El Muelle restaurant. Left hotel bit after 9, phone refuses to send email to parents despite rebooting, may be hotel wifi. Wanted beer. Wandered length of main drag. No bars worth of name, two had titchy personal beers only (I asked) and decided not to patronise them. Dithered re food as not mega hungry but will be starving tomorrow. Came here mainly in desperation re food - went to two places with Pollo A La Brasa in huge writing on signs but neither had it on menu - and have lucked out, they do 650ml bottle Cristal and I think it might only be PEN5. Waiter could not understand the word 'cerveza', kept describing how dishes were cooked, fuck knows. I then had a chat in Spanish with some other waiter. How the fuck does that work when I can't say cerveza and be understood? Still, I did get my beer without resorting to English. Maybe it was a context problem.

We did only get 30 mins (usual delays made it 35ish) at hot springs but quite good. Spoke to a Peruvian woman (from Lima) who said she had been told 45 mins at each place and it was cut short because of the unofficial extra of the trip to Ecuador. This all in English. I think she was Peruvian. She said she was but then ten minutes later I was talking to her - I could fucking swear it was the same woman, we weren't a huge group - and she suddenly seemed to have a slight German accent and be talking about flight prices in Euros. I just assumed I must have somehow got mixed up with people or whatever and tried to surf over the difficulty instead of trying to find out if I fucked up.

2215 Definite signs of closing up, was dithering over idea of second beer but obviously won't now. Tis OK. Bill 17, amazingly cheap considering beer 6 or whatever i wrote and that's cheap too, will make it 20.

2230 Back at hotel. Not shut up but door locked as was when got back from tour, rang bell, waiting for few mins now to get in. Some chap - prob a guest - sat in reception. Bit annoying but not worried. Ah, chap coming now.

2234 Chewing coca leaves, been carrying the packet from Colca Canyon round for ages, am fairly sure they are legal in Ecuador - seen mention of drinking coca tea in Quito to help altitude sickness - but as per my usual paranoia (not entirely misplaced, I feel) re international borders I am not going to carry them across, so no point 'saving' them up now, what I don't chew now will have to be thrown away anyway.

0124 Mostly packed, been surfing, finally in bed.