Getting to Mancora and being left by the side of the road at a godforsaken hour!

So lets see my last blog entry left off with us arriving to Lima. We loved Lima, I think not so much because it was Lima but more because it wasn't Puerto Maldonado. It was big and the area we stayed in called Miraflores was very modern and you could even buy English newspapers (Anna almost fainted with joy, especially over the combination of English news papers and good coffee). So we spent the first day just chilling out in our new hood enjoying the finer things in life, like chocolate mouse. The second day we were set to head on into the centre of town. We thought this was going to be easier than it was and it ended up involving a lot of yelling at buses asking them if they went to the centre and then a lot of people on buses shaking their fingers at us. It is a thing here, only north of Cuzco I think, but it is as if you are almost too stupid of a no or a shake of the head so you receive a wag of the finger as if we had been very naughty indeed to even ask. We finally found our bus, climbed on and spent the next 45 mins watching the driver veer dangerously in and out of traffic alike a maniac on some sort of caffeine rush, I witnessed about a dozen almost accidents. Finally making it down town we happily exited the bus and found our way into the centre of town. Being that it was Anna and I, we scoped out the first food joint we found, which turned out to be basically an old parking lot converted into more than a dozen food stands. At the very back we found this place that served fried calamari so we ordered ourselves up a plate and I don't even know how to describe the joy that exploded within us at what we received. It was the hugest plate of fried calamari and fish that I have ever had and man o man was it AMAZING! And I am not even a huge seafood person but I now consider myself a convert to the ways of the sea! There was this dipping sauce as well, I cant even describe it! Anyway we polished it off pretty quickly and then talked about how great it was for the next 12 blocks, and all for the low low price of 10 soles. I know I know much of this blog has been a long description of different foods I have eaten but you know what, it´s what makes me happy. They also have another delightful seafood dish here called Ceviche which is raw or hardly cooked fish in this citrus sauce, also amazing. Ok so moving on. . . . . We looking around the down town for the next couple of hours, finally finding ourselves in some crazy warehouse district where you can by any cloths and shoes that you want for super cheap in these enormous air hanger like buildings. After shopping for a bit we headed back to get more calamari (yes I know we have one track minds) and ended up running into our old friend Kaye who was only in town for a day, so we had some coffee and chilled out and then headed back to our hostel together (minus the calamari they had closed for the day). The next day Anna was not well. She had spent the night with a high fever and throwing up, it was terrible. So after making her as comfy as possible I headed back down town to do a little exploring by my self. I ended up some what rashly deciding to get a tattoo since I had little else to do! I love it! It says ¨I have everything that I need¨ in Spanish on the side of my foot. The idea came from this book I read while down here, which included Taoist teachings and one of them included this idea that we all already possess all that we need, anyway I feel that idea really symbolizes much of what I have learned and been through on this trip so now it is on my foot, cheesy I know but I never confessed to be otherwise. After the tattoo (and some more calamari, shit I know I am like a broken record) I headed back to Anna who was doing no better. She had another feverish night during which I had to put wet towels on her to keep her cool. The next day she was a might bit better and I had to leave to travel up the coast, yet i was starting to feel a little unwell myself. Saying our goodbyes after all this time was hard and then I headed off to catch my bus. I ended up meeting up with this girl I had met before named Sophie and we spent a pleasant 10 hr bus ride chatting and making fun of the terrible movies they decided to show us. At about 10pm we rolled into Trujillo a town about halfway up the northern coast. I was feeling pretty shitty by our arrival and was very happy to lay my head down when we had found a hostel. The next day we slept in, got breakfast and then headed out to some ruins near town called Chan Chan. It is the ruins of a great city (the capital of a northern Peruvian civilization) that was conquered by the Incas. We got dropped off at the road in but really it only looked like some abandoned building site with piles of dirt and half destroyed adobe walls everywhere. After walking about 2 km into the site we bought out tickets and looked around. It actually turned out to be pretty interesting and the site was pretty well preserved with intricate carvings in the wall and this one enclosure in a mud and sand landscape that held a big lagoon. After that we headed to the Chan Chan museum and then on to a smaller surf town in the area where Sophie was looking to volunteer for a month. I started to feel shitty again so after a walk down the beach I headed back and started the epic mission to by a bus ticket up the coast. The first two companies I went to had nothing, or didn't go up the coast so after a slight bit of panic that I would have to wait days and days to leave town the third company had seats for that night, so I booked. It really makes little to no sense to me but they only have buses that do the trip up at night so you start your journey at about 8:30pm have a shitty restless night and then roll into town at 5:30 am which it is a stupid time to arrive anywhere. So I get to the bus station a half an hour before I am supposed to and soon start to realize that perhaps I have chosen the shady bus company which would explain why they still had room on their bus. Checking in I not only noticed a whole row of pictures of criminals to watch out for behind the clerk´s desk but I also had to give them my finger print as part of the check in process and then before the bus left someone came around the bus and filmed every ones faces, this was for robbers the girl next to be explained. Great, just great! I thought. So not only was it a terrible uncomfortable, hot as hell, drive during which my sickness returned but I was also super worried that something was going to get stolen. I finally fell asleep on and off and woke up just as we were about to pull out of Mancora, my destination. So stumbling out of sleep I made my way off the bus, gathered my bag and was tossed unceremoniously onto a dark and deserted street alone at 5:30am. What Now? I asked myself so I pulled out my lonely planet page on Mancora which didn't include any sort of map and decided that I should just start walking since I was attracting the attention of some very unsavory characters. A motor cab slowly pulled by me loaded with 4 creepy dudes, shit I thought I might get mugged but I have found that it is best just to start moving and look like you know what you are supposed to be doing. A minute later another motocab pulled up and I got him to take me to the first hostel on the lonely planet list, I just wanted to be off the dark and sketchy street! Well of course no one was awake at the hostel since it was so god damn early in the morning but some dude staying there let me in and I slept in one of their hammocks until one of the staff woke up and put me in a room with some German guy. Thankful that I made it and had not been mugged I fell asleep happy. Now I am just wandering the town. Which is pretty deserted, I thought I would be able to surf but it is the wrong time of year I will have to go further north, although I did learn how lucky I was last night since only yesterday at dusk this girl near my hostel was mugged at gun point and that was only at dusk not in the middle of the night! I think I might travel on pretty soon, even tomorrow. I think my shitty arrival has really ruined me on this town. And I seem to have ants in my pants and a need to keep moving on, despite the continued state of sickness. So wish me luck since I have no idea the best way to get to Ecuador and it is suppose to be the worse most corrupt border crossing in South America, weeeeee!!! I just have to remember I have everything that I need!!!!!