Punta Sal

Wednesday was another long drive day, with a border crossing chucked in for good measure, so there was the potential for a very long day. We left at 8am and breakfast was egg based once again. The drive out of Cuenca was interesting though as there were lots of roadworks. Outside of the city they were constructing lots of new roads as tunnels which meant there were effectively off road diversions which were one way. The scenery was still amazing though as we were basically decending from 2600m down to sea level.

We stopped for lunch about 20km off the border in Santa Rosa where I had ribs. I wanted the goat meat but they didn't have it. We then eased our way through the border compared to the last one. It was literally stamp out, stamp in, and drive off. Shortly after crossing the border we stopped in Tumbes to get money although everyone ended up with big notes which was not ideal. We ended up arriving in Punta Sal and our campsite by like 5.

Located right on the beach, our campsite was literally in the middle of nowhere. We pitched up our tents right by the sea under these umbrellas and soon after had this amazing sunset. Dinner in the evening was this fish bbq with salad which was really good. We then made a campfire and it was a really good evening. We could even see Venus, Mars, and Jupiter in the sky. It ended up being quite a late night.

Come morning we had 3 options for the day. We could either stay at Punta Sal and relax on nti the beach all day, drive to the town of Mancora and spend the day there, or visit some turtles and spend the afternoon in Mancora. I went for the turtles. Breakfast in the morning was pancakes, and we left at 9. The place where we visited the turtles was a commercial place where they basically fed wild turtles to aid their tourism. Some people were a little skeptical but I still swam with them and it was an amazing experience.

After the turtles we drove into Mancora where we headed straight down to the beach for lunch where I had the burger. I then went and found a sunbed a short some wifi and just spent the afternoon relaxing, before getting up and looking round the shops and markets of Mancora. We spent most of the afternoon here and ended up arriving back in Punta Sal at like 5. When getting back I went straight in the sea, although the waves were so strong. They could literally knock you off your feet. Dinner in the evening was spaghetti bolognese, and after dinner we had another campfire, including marshmallows this time, before having an earlier night due to an early start the next morning.