After my previous positive Loki hostel experiences in La Paz and Cusco, I decided it was time for another, but this time I would be entering further into the Loki vortex than ever before – I was going to start working at their amazing site in the beautiful beach town of Máncora in North Perú. Sun, sand, sea, surf, sushi and a swimming pool, this place has all a girl needs to tempt her to stay for a while, and after over three weeks there it was very difficult to tear myself away.

Once I got to Máncora I was reunited once more with Tom from my La Paz pool crew as well as spotting many familiar faces from throughout my trip, along with lots of great new ones which meant there was always a good crowd here. Before long I was very pleased with my decision to take a job behind the bar here and enjoy everything Máncora has to offer. Backing onto the beach, with a purpose-built building complex and swimming pool, this is definitely the Loki hostel I would most want to get "trapped" in. Especially as we sold slushies behind the bar, which are just like a slush puppy but at night time there is the added bonus of rum or vodka. Plus we served the most amazing tuna steak I have ever had in my life.

The weather in Máncora was fantastic pretty much every day. I saw about 15 minutes of rain on my first day there, and then absolutely none for the rest of my stay. This meant I got even more tanning in on the days when I was not required behind the bar/needed to have a lie in after the previous night. As much as I love the heat, it is not great to work in, especially when all Loki branded T-Shirts are all quite thick and we only seemed to stock sizes Medium and above. This meant I had to get creative and made some modifications to make them a little bit more my style (ie much smaller), resulting in much more suitable attire for the climate. One girl even asked me if I was a fashion designer back home, and I lost count of the number of people who asked me to customise various T-shirts for them!

Every day there was something going on at the hostel from Loki Olympics to beer pong, from fancy dress parties to BBQs, from table tennis to volleyball, from pub quizzes to poker and so on. Of course I played my fair share of pool, tried my hand at darts, and even took part in my first ever poker tournament. The first week I was at Loki I chickened out of playing poker and promised myself the following week that I would have a go… although the fact that the only two girls in this first tournament were the first two people to be knocked out didn't fill me with a lot of confidence! However, despite not really knowing what I was doing and having to play with a list of the poker hands next to me, I managed to make it to the final table of my tournament, coming eighth out of twenty people which I was quite pleased with.

When I first took to the poker table I was helped out with how to deal, about small blinds, big blinds and other things I had never heard of by a guy called Shane. Therefore when it came to the fancy dress party a couple of days later, it was my chance to repay him as he had no costume for our “Playboy” themed do. I had no idea what I was going to go as, but I had acquired a long length of gift-wrapping ribbon which seemed perfect to dress him in! After a bit of convincing from me and his friend who I had already dressed in some of my most revealing clothes he agreed and the result was possible the best outfit I have ever made. Following this I was drafted in to dress at least three other guys, including two more in some of my clothes and one in a bunny outfit I whipped up. I ended up having to throw an outfit together for myself at the last minute, and after much asking around of the names of famous porn films “Debbie does Dallas” seemed to come up at the top of the list – good job I happen to have a cowboy hat!

Other theme nights that I saw during my stay there were an “ABC party”, to which guests had to wear anything but clothes – I was not feeling very creative for a change and just dressed myself in a plastic carrier bag, but there were some fantastic costumes at this party made from all kinds of materials. Then the final one I was there for was “Ladies’ Night”, which was not so much fun for the girls as it was for the boys who always love to dress up as women at any opportunity despite their initial protests. I was working for this one and spent most of the night being distracted by men in dresses dancing on the bar, not the prettiest sight I’ve ever seen!

For some reason I seemed to get very drunk every Wednesday that I was there. One week we introduced a new Wednesday night activity called “You Be The DJ”, where anyone who wanted to take part could play three songs with the winner getting the chance to play for a further 30 minutes and winning a prize. I took it upon myself to make sure as many people were dancing on the bar as possible – dancing on bars has been something I have really got into on this trip! I spent the whole night dragging everybody up until the bar was two people deep in most places; with absolutely no room whatsoever for anyone else to get up. There were more people dancing on the bar than there were people on the floor by quite a long way, and I was very proud of my achievements when the next day everyone commented they had never seen anywhere near that many people on the bar at once. Unfortunately I do not think the people who had to work that night appreciated my efforts too much!

As much as I hate to admit it I did not leave the confines of the hostel very often at all, certainly not as often as maybe I should have done. However when I did it was always good as the beach was fantastic, with fairly easy surfing on a single slow wave that got pretty crowded at times. I also attended my first ever yoga sessions which were actually a lot more fun than I thought they would be, and it was great to do some exercise that was not hiking! But, the best thing that I found to be available outside of the hostel has to be the sushi. I had heard an awful lot about the sushi in Máncora even before I arrived here and I was not disappointed. Although obviously it did not come close to anything I tried when I was in Japan, it was the best I have had for a long time, mainly thanks to the most amazing fresh tuna available anywhere I have ever known.

After a while in Máncora it did start to become a little bit like Groundhog Day, and more and more people started to leave for new destinations. I decided that although I was still having a lot of fun, I should leave before the fun stopped. Plus there is a whole lot of more of Latin America I need to see, and time is running away from me far more quickly than I would like it to. So I said a quick goodbye to Máncora and all my new friends and co-workers as I left Perú behind me. This all would’ve gone fine if the bus I had bought a ticket for had shown up, but as it happened it didn’t and I had to go back for another 24 hours! This at least meant I got to say a proper goodbye to everyone and enjoy one more day in a paradise I had come to know and love.