25!

Bikini. Sunset. Beach. Champagne. Nailed it.

After my somewhat dramatic and very stressful return to Peru from medevac, for my birthday all I wanted to do was spend a relaxing day on the beach with a few close friends. I doubted whether or not that would actually be possible given my state of my anxiety, but with a lot of love and support I got my birthday wish.

My very good PCV friend, Jah, has talked about nothing else for the past year than how great Piura is. Piura is a northern department which boasts warm weather year round and the best beaches in Peru. Jah never misses an opportunity to rub it in my face that Lima is cold and gray for most of the year, while he never has to wear so much as a sweater in Piura. I have been scheming for over a year of how I was going to get to Piura and take full advantage of those beautiful beaches I'd heard so much about. I was very surprised when I found out that our IST would not only be in Piura, but it would end on my birthday. The best part about it was that since it was a Peace Corps Sponsored event, they paid for my transportation to and from the northern desert. Not just that, but since the training ended on birthday I not only got a free vacation day but got to see many of my PCV friends on the actual day.

My mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday. Realistically, I should have said nothing since both my parents were incredibly generous to me when I was home on medevac for 6 weeks. But there had been something I had wanted from them for my birthday for a long time: a paid stay in a nice hotel in the beach resort town of Mancora. Luckily, nice hotels right on the beach don't cost as much in Peru as they do else where, so I didn't feel too greedy asking for this present.

The problem with Mancora is that Piura has one of the largest concentrations of PCVs in Peru and whenever one person plans a trip to Mancora, half of Piura shows up for the party. Normally, I would be down for a huge fiesta with lots of people, but I really had my heart set on a small, intimate vacation with no partying and lots of resting. I didn't invite any of my PCV friends and instead invited just a few close friends from Lima. Tania and Dave have a project in Piura that they were able to swing it so they could be in Piura and take a few days off to go to the beach with me. These two probably needed the vacation more than I did so I was extra happy to provide them with a stay in a hotel we wouldn't normally splurge on (by the way mom, they say THANKS!!!!!). There they are taking full advantage of not having to work on a mondy with an afternoon nap outside our room after a long day of playing in the sun.

After lots of Birthday hugs and farewells from the volunteers at the IST, the 3 of us were off. It was just over a two hour ride from Piura city to Mancora. My goal was to make it in time for the sunset and we got there in the late afternoon with plenty of time to settle in and get cozy for the sun to go down. I'm so happy I opted with staying in a nice place as opposed to the hostel where all the PCVs always stay when they go. The actual town of Mancora isn't anything special. It's very small but busy, dirty and has the feeling of a run down spring break destination. Our resort was 2 miles down the road on a private beach. Even though it is set in the desert, the place was manicured with lots of green grass and palm trees. It had two pools and even a water slide. Since we were there on a random sunday in september, the place was practically empty and we had the whole resort to ourselves.

Tania, Dave and I get along really well. We spent our whole trip playing in the sand, the ocean and the pool. We went for for a walk under the stars after the sun went down and noted the difference between the constellations in the northern hemisphere and the southern. Then we went and sat next to a big bon fire the resort had lit and played cards. I had a birthday Pisco Sour and from the moment I arrived, all my stress had melted away.

It was really the prefect birthday. No trip to the beach in Peru is complete without fresh ceviche and a cold beer enjoyed with your feet in the sand. I soaked up all the sun shine I possibly could and was sad to say goodbye to it. But I knew that after two months of being out of site, it was time to return and restart my life. Since Tania and Dave have real jobs, they were able to fly back to Lima while I, the PCV, took an overnight bus. Since Peace Corps was paying, I chose the super nice, expensive bus and slept even better than I slept on the ride coming to Piura. I slept so well, that I even slept through the drama of our bus breaking down in the middle of the night. Some one had to tap my shoulder to tell me we had to switch buses.

A new goal for the next 10 months of my service is to go back to Mancora. I don't know if I'll be able to stay in as nice a place as this, but my parents can always give me a christmas present......

The warm thoughts of the view from our room will have to keep me warm until then.