This week brought me back to my happy place — the beach. After two months of past-paced, constant travel and an intense workload of blogging and freelance projects I’ve been teetering towards burnout. I can’t stop meeting deadlines and — let’s face it — I’ve got workaholic American blood in my veins so I wouldn’t want to. However, I can slow down my traveling for a while and so that’s what we’re doing.
Anders and I broke up the long trip north along Peru’s coastline with a three-day stopover in Huanchaco/Trujillo before arriving in Mancora, where we’ll stay for a total of ten days. Afterwards, we’ll move on to yet another beach town in Ecuador, where we’ll spend the holidays and stay put for two weeks. I couldn’t be happier. I am already feeling restored by falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves and waking up to the smell of salt water. I’m ticking things off my to do list, I went diving for the first time in four months, tomorrow we’re going stand up paddleboarding, and next week I want to take a few surfing lessons. Life is good.
Onto this week’s candidates!
Photo A
The famous fishing boats of Huanchaco
Photo B
A religious procession in Trujillo
Photo C
Beach scenes in Mancora
Photo D
Breakfast on the beach
Photo E
A seahorse found diving in Peru! Heartbreakingly, my camera was fogged so badly I barely bothered to takephotos, but Photoshop helped me salvage one.
Which photo is your favorite?
Breakfast for the win! I’m really hungry.
Are you headed to Montanita? I’m headed there in March, if so you’ll have to tell me the best places to go!
Indeed I am! I should have plenty of posts up about it in January 🙂
I like A. Makes me want to see what they look like in the water. E would have been a close contender except for the fogging issues
Sadly I never woke up early enough to get a photo of anyone in one, ha.
Seahorse!!
What a surprise! 😛
This week I am choosing D. Currently cooking my dinner making me hungry.
Food pictures are always pretty popular, eh? Apologies for the mouth watering 🙂
Well, I’m sure this isn’t a surprise but I’m choosing photo E. SEAHORSE IN PERU?! Mind = blown. Where did you go diving? What was it like? Temp? I’m so curious, I would have never thought of diving there.
Mancora! It had the ONLY Padi dive center in all of Peru. There is one dive shop in Lima where you can dive with sea lions, but it was stupid expensive. We did a cheaper “swim with sea lions” trip and the visibility was SO glad we were glad we didn’t dive. Here in Mancora it was better, but it was freezing… down to 17 degrees! I was absolutely devastated by my camera issues but I’ll do a post about it anyway.
I’m gonna have to go with E. It might not be the best if the photos but it reminds me that in less than four weeks I’ll actually be back in the water! Can’t wait 🙂
Congrats, Chris! Are you going back to Koh Tao? If so I am jealous! It felt great to dive again.
No need to be jealous 🙂 I’m going to Tortola which is a part of the British Virgin Islands.
That sounds pretty amazing as well! Still jealous 🙂
E would be my favorite as it’s something I may never see. But breakfast looks real good too. Glad you’re slowing down a bit to play at the beach.
BTW, photo in this link is part of the Grand Canyon trail that reminds me of where you just hiked.
Wow yes that photo does look exactly like part of the Colca trail! Amazing!
While the boats in photo A are a close second, I have to go with your breakfast in photo D. The shot from above is what I think makes it so great!
The waitress definitely looked at me funny when I was standing on the chair to get that shot, but it was worth it 🙂
A all the way! Those boats are awesome.
Thanks Becky — and love your new Gravatar! I just read your Vietnam posts and I can’t seem to comment (?) so I’m doing it here — the place you stayed in An Bang looks AMAZING! Way more charming than any of the prison cells I slept in 🙂
Aw, thanks for reading Alex! An Bang was indeed amazing…one of those places you kind of want to selfishly keep secret so it doesn’t get so popular you’ll never get a room there again. But too good not to share! For some reason, every once in awhile my site likes to disable the comments for a post. Which is charming. I’m in the process of transferring to a new standalone site — stay tuned!
LOL to responding to this comment right now because MY blog did the exact same thing with today’s post. So. Annoying!
I’ll admit, my heart skipped a beat when I read, “Anders and I broke up…” then breathed a sigh of relief when I read the rest of the sentence!! Phew! Well the sea horse is darling, but I have to go with the breakfast shot because it looks so delicious.
Hahaha whoops! I need to be a bit more careful with my sentence structure 🙂 Didn’t even see that before, but now I can’t unsee it!
I had the exact same reaction!! Was very relieved that wasn’t the case.
Lol whoops… I’ll be more careful next time, ha!
Some wonderful shots yet again. Loving A and D this week!!
Can’t wait to be on the road again myself in 11 days time!
Ooops, I meant A and E 😛
D is officially offended now….
Sorry D, we just weren’t meant to be…
Photo E because its a rare shot!
Yup, as most divers will attest, seahorses are an exciting find! Thanks Amanda!
D!!!! i’m so hungry right now i shouldn’t have looked at that. i just frickin love pancakes and i miss them so much. america in 5 months and i’m going to eat stacks of them
Those were actually Anders’, though I did steal a tiny bite 🙂 My dad made pancakes for us almost every Sunday growing up…. they are a very nostalgic breakfast food for me!
Hey! Thats awesome that you are headed up to Ecuador. I’m actually going to be in Montanita just after the holidays. It would be great to see you!
We are actually planning to leave there on January 2nd! Let’s keep in touch and see if our paths cross, though!
My favorites of this week are A and D. I’m not sure I’ve ever picked just one favorite. Is that a lack of commitment on my side or always solid photo choices on your side? 🙂
I’m going to go for a bit of both, if I may flatter myself 🙂
C! Cool filters. Always love good beach photos. Though the seahorse is pretty cool too.
Thanks Cat! I could stare at the water all day, so it’s no surprise I love taking pictures of it.
Those fishing boats are so cool looking! Plus, nothing beats breakfast on the beach.
Great picture of the seahorse, what a find!
Great post Alex!
Thanks Stephen! Much appreciated 🙂
My brain says E, but my stomach says D. Stomach wins (as usual).
I know how that battle goes!