Relaxing at a beach house in Punta Sal

So things haven´t really been going as planned for the last few days but luckily all is working out in our favor. We were supposed to check out of the Loki on Friday morning and head down the beach to a couple little bungalow type rooms. Well, on Thursday night, Ben got mugged down near where we were supposed to be moving to while he was running. Three guys surrounded him and stole his iPod and luckily wanted nothing else, but it still shook him up a bit. Then on Friday morning Keri went running and before she could even get near to where were were going to move, a security guard told her not to go farther. So, needless to say, Keri and Ben did not want to move down to that part of the beach but we were feeling a little screwed as it was the busiest day for check-ins in Mancora. Luckily, the managers at the Loki were not too keen on kicking us out and they had been careful not to over book for the holiday weekend and we were able to stay. Really, the reason they weren´t over-booked was that the bus coming in from Ecuador that day had not been able to leave Ecuador due to the driver being completely intoxicated. So we got lucky.

Anyway, we partied on Friday and then unfortunately, I was sick all day Saturday. I don´t know if I ate something bad, if the water just finally got to me or a combination of things, but my stomach revolted and I spent most of Saturday running between my bed and the bathroom. Keri and Ben had gone off to Punta Sal for the day on Saturday and came back on Sunday with a reservation at a beach house for really cheap. We checked out of the Loki in the morning and then headed to Punta Sal. After lounging on the beach and playing in the water -- Punta Sal is much more relaxed and chill than Mancora -- the landlord of the house came by and starting going off on Ben and I because he had agreed to let only Ben and Keri have the house and since more people were there now, he didn´t want us. Obviously there was some communication issues but the guy was being such a jerk that Ben and I decided to go find somewhere else. The guy was such an idiot. Everyone was gone now from the holiday weekend and he would rather not have anyone in the house and make no money versus making the money off of us.

Anyway, Michelle´s friend Gabriel had a friend who rents houses here in Punta Sal so we found this guy and he made a deal with us for a really nice beach house down a ways. It had three bedrooms, a big kitchen and a gorgeous deck with a little pool. We moved our stuff in, cooked dinner and enjoyed the waves crashing in front of us with a couple bottles of wine and good music.

Michelle had to go back to Mancora to catch a bus to Lima and now Ben, Keri and I are figuring out our next move. We are going to stay in the house here one more night and then head up to Ecuador tomorrow. Ben and Keri made friends with two men who work in a really nice hotel near our beach house and struck a deal for a taxi to the border -- only about 2 hours -- and then we will catch a bus to another beach town about 8 hours from the border. We can go fishing, whale watching, surfing, etc in Ecuador. I´ve heard it is a little more expensive but we shall see. Ben will have to leave us around the 10th, but Keri and I still have plenty of time.

We are now researching where we should go and stay in Mantanita -- the beach town we are headed to. So although our time in Mancora was fun in a "I´m in college and on Spring Break" kind of way, there comes a point in a 31 year old´s life where three or so days of this is plenty. We played Loki Olympics on Friday at the hostel and our team did horribly, but one of the other teams was named the Cougar Hunters. They were such young boys that I had to ask what constituted as a cougar in their eyes. Luckily I was not in that category, but the average age at the hostel was probably 22. I did meet a guy from Indianapolis though! Random! He lives in Broad Ripple.

Anyway, we are going to confirm our second night here, find the man that sells fish, buy some fish and then go cook our dinner! We have to be up and out early for our taxi to the border tomorrow.

Hope everyone is well. My tan is coming along nicely but I still would probably prefer other beaches to these ones. And it is hot as all get out. It was 85 degrees as I was trying to sleep last night. Muggy too!