Negritos is not a little black dress but just as nice

I arrived to Talara dead tired, like nearly always after a night on the bus and took a room in the first cheap hotel I could find. Waking up 4 hours later skies looked a lot brighter and I found a bus to Negritos where my host Vasco was waiting for me. This blond and blue eyed 4th generation Peruvian lives basically at his work, in the housing area of the Savia Peru energy company. A cool flat with daily house keeping, a nice car and all the daily meals in the company club are part of his pay, and I was lucky enough to get to share part of it.

The idea was actually to visit Máncora, a beachy gringo hangout 1,5h from Talara but Vasco's CS profile made me change my plans and on his advise I also ended up spending my time getting to know the small village of Negritos instead of searching for hot spring somewhere near Máncora. It seems to be good to go these places which no-one has ever heard about, 'cause with zero expectations you're nearly always in for a positive surprise.

So this is the beach I had to myself. Vasco told me to walk across the first beach, climb into the light house for the views and then walk across the second beach to get to a cliff where I'd see sea lions. So that was my mission. Time: 3 hours.

I soon found out, I wasn't totally alone (I'm pretending that the fishermen whistling at me didn't even exist) - there was this guy too. He wasn't too much into making friends but posed nicely for the camera.

Until he got bored of the superficial life of a model and took off. You go, girl! (Why I'm assuming that he was a guy and gay, I can't quite tell you. You know my little imigination has to have something to do.)

Sorry,if you don't want to see this. I'm not sure if I did either, but when I did, I had to get closer, didn't I? There were quite a few dead sea lions on the first beach and also some on the second. Apparently they come there to die - or, well, are brought there by the tide when they get too weak to fight it. Birdies do the cleaning, but there was quite a bit of that still to do.

This sweety looked like a new comer and hadn't been sampled by anyone yet. On the background you see the village light house. I climbed all the way there to see the beautiful view from the top but unfortunately the light house was closed for some reason. I chatted with a bloke that had climbed up the hill just before me and even though he didn´t actually speak, he pointed at things and made sounds that gave answers to my questions. Whether he could hear me or if he was reading lips, I don´t know. He seemed to be going the same way I was, so we walked together and he was being a nice 'guide' telling things about the area and its wildlife and showing the easiest path up and down the cliffs.

The next beach was a total ghost crab model hangout. I was first all excited about seeing a group of about 20 of them and played tourist by taking pics even though I knew showing my camera to a stranger in an isolated place wasn't probably the smartest thing to do.

And then I noticed these orange monsters were just EVERYWHERE. I thought it was a tiny bit creepy as they ran just past my feet to get to their holes but my local 'guide' didn't seem to care much for them.

Now, these black crabs aren't really easy to see (click the pic to enlarge it!) and I didn't even notice them before we got closer and they started moving. First they looked like a herd of big black spiders but I was happy to see they weren't. For some reason, my 'guide' advised me not to get too close though. Any ideas why, anyone?

After climbing up the second cliff we got to these sea lions chilling out in the sun. I was told they weren't the biggest ones but they were big enough for me and seeing them without 50 other tourists competing for the best photo angle was pretty cool.

The views were kind of nice too. Here you can see the both beaches and Negritos vaguely on the background.

This is me looking particularly sexy (which explains what happened next) with the wind in my unwashed hair in my old jeans, tightly wrapped cardigan and a big scarf to cover the rest. It was sunny and warm but extremely windy. I don't know if you can zoom these but there are actually quite a few people on this third beach, collecting white seashells that can only be found in Negritos and are in the danger of extinction.

When we got back to the light house and I was about to head back to Negritos for my lunch date with Vasco, my 'guide' started insinuating something. He started licking his lips which I just tried to ignore, thanked him for the tour and started going. At this point he didn't go for the more subtle kissing signs or something but wrapped his hand around his wrist and moved it up and down a few times. I obviously got pissed off, told him that that was really offensive and walked away a bit faster. He came behind and crabbed my butt - and I ran like hell down the dynes on to the first beach and for about 5 minutes before I turned to make sure he hadn't followed me. So if you ever bumb into this dude, feel free to kick his ass.

I was a bit shaken but in a hurry to get back and only stopped by a small pond on the beach to wash my feet before putting my sneakers back on. And just as I did a big wave soaked me, my jeans, socks and shoes completely and covered my clothes with big sand marks. I walked home shoeless just wanting to hop into the warm shower quickly before lunch - only to find out that Vasco wasn't home and all my stuff had disappeared. Later I found out a cleaning lady had just locked them up in one of the cupboards but waiting hungry, soaked, sandy and shaken wasn't too much fun. But a couple of tears and that hot shower made it all better and my scarf made a great dress until I got my backpacks back a couple of hours later.

Vasco told me not to be friendly to any Peruvian guys. They have the idea that gringas are easy and a casual conversation is enough to give the wrong idea. So I'll continue being as bitchy as I have been to all non-CS males trying to talk to my during this trip.


The next day, from 7am to 8pm, went to sitting in buses: Negritos -Talara (1s) –Máncora (5,5s) –Tumbes (8s) –Machala (4$) –Cuenca (6$). All buses left about 2 minutes after I had arrived to the terminal so I didn´t have much time to search for anything to eat so breakfast and lunch consisted of water biscuits, chocolate biscuits, a peach juice and an apple. Great diet.

It seems strange how the landscape can change so much when you just cross over a border; from the deserts and beaches of Peru to tropical Ecuador with flowers and bananas growing everywhere. Me like. The last leg of the trip between Machala and Cuenca offered some awesome scenery, but taking pics wasn’t easy with the bus shaking like crazy on the dirt road following the sides of the steep hills.





The road was way too narrow for any two cars to pass each other, but the traffic pretty dense so the bus had to stop every two minutes on the wider spots to let the cars and buses coming from the opposite direction pass.






Since it was dark (read: not safe for gringas with big backpacks to be wondering around) when we arrived I just took a taxi to a random hotel that sounded nice on Lonely Planet. The room cost 17$ which is way more than I was looking forward to spending and 8$ more than my LP said, but it was REALLY nice. Good wifi, the best shower, fluffy towels, a pretty balcony, a cable TV and a huge double bed with big duvets. Free drinking water and breakfast with eggs were just bonuses. So if it´s okay with your budget stay in Hotel Miami in Cuenca.

In the morning, by lowering my standards about 95%, I found a new room in the same block for 6$, and after I had checked in and paid I even discovered a pretty nice place with tv and private bathroom a few blocks away on Beningo Malo for 8$.

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Oh, I almost forgot. My flights to Mexico city and to London have been cancelled, so I´m heading north now and trying to figure out how to get home. Hopefully I´ll find an affordable flight from Columbia or Venezuela.