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After arriving in Lima on an overnight bus from Cusco, we had planned on spending one night in the city before flying to Guatemala the next day. After trekking through the Andes for the past week we had not heard about the recent volcanic eruption that closed the airport in Guatemala city. Thanks to our friend Maria who sent us an email stating her concern for our safety, we called the airlines only to find out our flight had been canceled. At that time no one was sure when the airport would reopen and since we had limited time in Guatemala to begin with, we made the decision to cut out that portion of the trip. Instead, we booked an overnight bus to the beachfront town of Mancora in northern Peru.

 

 Our friend Jill had been working at Loki del Mar, which is a fancy hostel with a huge pool right next to the ocean. We worked with Jill at Opah in Australia and she had left for South America a few weeks before us and had remained just a step ahead of us the whole time. We thought we had finally caught up with her only to find out that she had left two days before we arrived. We didn’t get to hang out with her, but we got the next best thing…her friends who quickly became our friends too. The hostel felt more like a resort and all the backpackers were there to have a good time creating a really fun atmosphere. The managers planned daily activities for all of us while we made use of the bar in the evenings resulting in 24 hours of fun. Every morning we would claim our lounge chairs around the pool and then spend the day relaxing and playing in the sun. To break up the day, we participated in pool volleyball and a full day of Loki Olympics. We joined up with a group of girls from Canada and England, named ourselves “The Bitches”, and did our best to compete against the other teams full of guys. Every day a group of us would leave the comfort of the Loki walls and venture for lunch or dinner in town. The restaurants were amazing compared to what we’ve been eating and the Mexican restaurant and Sushi restaurant fulfilled what we’ve been craving for months. At night everyone would gather around the bar for happy hour and competitive games of beer pong. People gradually arrived throughout the week and as we all got to know each other we looked forward to the theme party on Saturday night.

 

Loki throws a different theme party each week and we took part in the “P-party”. Everyone had to come dressed as something that starts with the letter P and as backpackers with limited items available, we had to be extra creative. People came as parrots, pirates, periods, presents, princesses, plastic bags, peanut butter, pandas, players, polygamists, prostitutes, priests, ponchos, peligroso (danger in Spanish), panthers, and party poopers – no costume at all! But the winners of the costume contest were the Globalizers dressed as preschoolers along with our friend dressed as a pedophile. We wore kiddy stickers on our shirts, pigtails with barrettes, and toted miniature Barbie backpacks. The pedophile tempted us along the bar swinging candy on a string while we crawled behind. The competition earned us free beers but cost us our dignity! As with the other nights, once the Loki bar closed everyone headed to the beach where the party continued at one of the dance clubs facing the ocean. On one of our last nights of the trip we found it ironic to be dressed the same way we were when we met over 20 years ago!

We enjoyed a couple more days in the sun before catching our last overnight bus of the trip that took us to Lima. We met back up with Rich and Chris who we traveled with in Bolivia for a night full of laughs. We came up with the idea but never got around to it so when Rich mentioned buying a cake for dinner, we all jumped at the opportunity. These boys love their cake and we bought a large chocolate cake which we devoured with spoons. What little cake was not eaten was smeared on Chris’s face after Rich forced his head onto the platter. Feeling kind of sick we positioned ourselves in front of the TV and watched movies while trying to digest the obscene amount of chocolate. We had a goodbye lunch with the boys the following day before they left for the airport to fly back to England. We spent the last few days shopping, walking around the city, and catching up with friends from Mancora. We have shared nearly everything for the last year and it was a sad moment as we divided up our belongings into our separate bags in preparation to go home. We celebrated our last night of the trip with dinner, cocktails, and Sex and the City 2.

We are currently waiting for our taxi to the airport where we will fly to Miami and then on towards Denver. Home sweet home!

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