We just sat on a bus for almost 26 hours…
….and it was definitely not cool. Actually, it wasn’t that bad, but I bet if you ask Steve the same question, he’ll tell you it was a lot worse!
Anyway, we finally left ERcuador and are now in Peru! We left Montanita and the Kamala Hosteria behind and went to Guayaquil on Wednesday. Silly us, we had imagined that we would be able to hop on the bus to Lima Thursday morning, but nope, it was full. Who would’ve thought it—the ride is a full 26 hours and leaves every day, but somehow, it is full EVERY DAY!!! Anyway, we ended up spending the day in Guayaquil, which was the first mini-America we have found since arriving in South America. I’m talking McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, and Burger King. It was a big deal, and of course, we indulged.
So, let me actually tell you about this bus ride. We had heard a lot of horror stories about the Ecuador-Peru border, so we were a little nervous about it. You arrive in Huaquillas, go through the Ecuadorian immigration to get an exit stamp on your passport, and then travel another 10 minutes or so to the town of Tumbes–I think–to get an entrance stamp for Peru. Now, there are common passenger busses that will take you to Huaquillas and they don’t cost very much money, but they apparently don’t wait for you in Huaquillas, so you end up dragging your luggage around looking for a taxi to take you to Peru, and then you have to do it all over again to find one to take you to customs, and then you have to hang out and wait for another bus to get you actually into Peru. Of course, you have to do all this while trying not to get ripped off, dealing with a few corrupt law enforcement officials, and if changing money, watching out for fraudulent bills. It sounded like too much work for us. We paid the extra money–which ended up being $65 a person–and took a “luxury” bus direct from Guayaquil to Lima, and they stopped at all the appropriate places and helped you out if needed. It was wonderful. I even got excited cause the bus was a double decker bus and our seats were on the top level–somehow, I’ve never ridden on a double decker bus in my life, so I got to indulge in this experience for an entire 26 hours. Wonderful.
All in all, the bus ride wasn’t that bad, although, like I said, Steve will tell you different. He had this bigger guy sitting in front of him that reclined the seat ALL the way back, almost onto Steve’s knees, and to make it even worse, he snored really loudly the entire time. And even better—he did this the entire ride. He didn’t just sleep at night like the rest of the bus–oh no, he fell asleep 15 minutes after we got on at 11.30 in the morning, and didn’t wake up until 1 am when he got off in Chiclayo. Kinda annoying, and Steve was definitely steamed. Que sera, sera, right
So, the first half of the Peruvian coast is pretty nuts, by the way. It was just sand after sand after sand, followed by more sand dunes, and then more sand. It was kind of like what I imagine Saudi Arabia to look like. It was also pretty interesting to see the tiny pueblos that dot the sides of the dunes. Literally, they consist of four surfaces tied together to make walls, and a few leaves or scraps of metal as a type of roof. I think they may have been the most primitive homes that I have seen thus far, and the image of all of them covering the sides of abandones sand dunes was pretty surreal.
So yeah. We are now in Lima, and will probably stay here for a few days, although not too long. We’re staying in the wealthier–and safer–part of the city known as Miraflores, and it is pretty nice. We just got back from wandering around, and it is always nice to know you can walk around at night and feel safe. We even had a conversation with an artist in the park who simply liked talking to foreigners, so that was a good way to get the Spanish juices flowing!
So this is really long, and I’m pretty much done typing now. I’ll try to get some pictures on there tomorrow or the next day—hasta luego!
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