Mancora deserves a blog post on it’s own. And this blog post will be dedicated to explaining why.
I spent one week on a solo trip in the northern part of Peru in the state of Piura. There is a beach party town called Mancora.
How did I get there?
I took a flight for free from Lima to Talara using my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card points. Then I took a taxi from Talara airport to Mancora (1.5 hours, 150 soles).
How was the Internet?
I’ll be honest – most of the places in Mancora in November 2022 had poor internet, but I stayed at the Selina and had no issues in my ~15 hours of Zoom meetings over a span of three working days. I had a risk mitigation plan and bought a local SIM card for my back up cell phone in case I needed to hot spot it. As time goes on, I expect the quality of the internet and overall technology to improve for all areas in Mancora.
Why did I like it?
Because I like to surf, I like the beach, I like safe towns/cities, and I enjoy meeting new people and going out to parties.
I also really like hidden gems where it is not overly hyped nor saturated with gringos everywhere.
Why I’m on a Journey to Find More Mancoras
As I mentioned in my Brazil blog post, I stopped giving a sh*t about country count (I’m at 47 as of Nov 2022). Because if you’re focused on increasing country count, two days in Prague is the same thing as spending one year across 11 states in Brazil and learning Portuguese. Which IMO is not the right way to enjoy traveling.
Speaking of Brazil… (I promise I’ll stfu about Brazil someday…) when people think of Brazil, they think Rio and Sao Paulo. But my favorite memories of Brazil have been in places like Fernando de Noronha, Pipa, Jericoacoara, and Itacare. These are party beach towns where there are a ton of water sport activities you can do and are not (yet) saturated with gringos. These are the hidden gems that I want to keep finding in the world, because I admittedly had never heard of Mancora until a few months ago.
Is It Dangerous?
Nope. That’s why I love these party beach towns, because crime typically exists in big cities.
Is it Hard to get by without Spanish?
Sort of, but not really, because there are a lot of foreigners who don’t speak Spanish. Many of the hotels and hostels have staff who speak English. And of course, Google Translate is always a winner.
Mancora Sounded Cool. So What’s Next?
I’ve got a few trips lined up, but most notably I will travel around Europe early 2023 and then tentatively make the move to New York late spring of 2023.
When it gets cold in New York late 2023, I’d like to find more Mancoras in the southern hemisphere. So if you know of any, please let me know. Thanks for reading, and until the next hidden gem.
