Pigging Out in Punta Sal

Camping on the Beach
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Crossed the border today into Peru - not too much problems at the border for anyone and as we were making pretty good time the plan was to head through Punta Sal to Mancora for money changing.  Greg started the competition of the best tat buying at the border purchasing two straw Christmas brooms!  Pete tried to compete by trying to buy some woman's hair and at one point she was racing the truck keen to sell!

The scenery changes dramatically when entering Peru and is a mixture of desert mountains, sand and greenery.  Very beautiful and totally different from Ecuador.  Helen asked the classic question of the night's accomodation by the beach of 'What is the altitude at the beach' and won herself the muppet of the moment medal.  This is going to be passed around for silly behaviour or comments by people on the truck.

Roasting the Pig
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Money changing didn't go as smoothly as planned when Matt's card was swallowed and those without ATM use couldn't change any money.  Mancora, itself is a small surfing town with only one street, but great stalls.  Punta Sal, is about 20 minutes outside and is a quiet village but we were camping on the beach so was great.  We learnt how to put the tents up and Sam and I choose a spot under the shelter and then headed to the bar.  Later on we had a buffet meal provided by the restaurant which was lovely - great food and then it was late night drinks around the campfire.  This lasted until about 2:30 with "never ever' getting rid of people throughout the game.

Next morning was quiet and was spent sunbathing and swimming and just chilling out.  This was very relaxed and great to do nothing again.  Had to re-erect the tent as it feel over in the wind. 

Andy, the driver, had ordered a pig earlier and spent all day spit roasting this over a fire - still with its head and feet on.  Dinner later also included Stuffed Peppers, Pig Roast, and Salad as well as some lethal punch and toasting marshmallows later on.  It was a drunken night and I decided to take a walk along the beach, and later fell asleep behind a fishing boat.  On waking, I walked about to find a search party looking for me, hadn't realised this and apparently there had been shifts.  Felt very bad that I caused that much trouble although it was nice to know that people cared.

Got up late with a collapsed tent (Sam had kicked the posts on the way out) on me which we left until later that day.  Spent the day sunbathing, preparing lunch, and relaxing.  Helen, saw people from Dragoman (another overland tour company) washing their laundry in the sink and commented that they were on the wrong tour as we had a washing machine on our truck!  Total lie but was our truck is more luxurious it was believed!  Tried to re-erect the tent again later with no success - Sam and I decided that we would sleep on the tent that night rather than bother butAndy put it up for us for the cost of a beer.  Bargain!  Fairly early night in all, with Paella made from the fishing catch that morning by some of the tour group (and chicken for the non-fish eaters).