Mancora is famous for three things: Surfing, Partying and Wildlife. My main reason was to watch one of the most beautiful creatures on this blue planet: the playful humpback whale which is famous for its acrobatic jumps off the water. I felt in love with this animal since my time along the coastal highway in Australia. Today I should…
witness the mighty creature from a much closer distance. Arriving the evening before in the highly touristy town (it reminded me unfortunately of Faliraki or El Arenal, both places I disliked because of the many tourists and crappy souvenir shops) we were looking for the Kontiki bungalows which got recommended from the owner of the hostel in Huanchaco. Beautifully located on top of the hillside we found cute little bungalows overseeing the bay of Mancora. Actually pretty nice… UNTIL…
we found out that the town was a hotspot for night lovers which we painfully had to experience over our two night stays. Loud music with heavy base until 4 am in the morning made a recovering sleep almost impossible.
Ben on the other hand side was sleeping so tight that he could have even slept inside the club without any issues. Me on the contrary was struggling to find peace especially since I had to get up the first day at 6 am. 2 hours after the clubs were reducing the volume of the music, lol.
The tour operator I was booking my tour with was 20 minutes outside of Mancora in a small fisherman village called Las Organicos. The research organization “Pacifico Adventures” is run by biologists who are combining on field marine research programs with whale watching for tourists. The perfect choice for people who are interested in more background information on nature and wildlife instead of joining a “tourist tour”.
In contrary to a peaceful sea in the morning we experience rather rough waters later on in the day especially with the upcoming wind further outside offshore. I was happy to have had some seasickness pills from New Zealand with me and did not have any issues compared to other people on the boat who kissed the sea more than once.
However, before setting off to the sea there was already a lot of traffic at the pier with the many fishermen boats which were unloading their catch of the day. Where there is fish, there is a pelican… or in this case dozens of them, lol. When I was super excited to see my first one a couple of days ago I got already used to the big bird since so many of them were basically everywhere. Nevertheless, I still love those birds, lol.
When leaving the pier we first approached an old industrial offshore oil-drilling platform which provided a home to hundreds of different bird species (including the amazing blue feet booby which can be found also on the Galapagos islands) and a family of Peruvian sea lions in the meantime. Funnily, the animals did not bother the bird poo which of course followed the laws of nature: Always following a top – down approach, lol.
