Ecuador to Peru (Octubre 2005)

Hola!

C and I are now in the 2nd month of our South American Adventure.

We entered Peru yesterday, and what was supposed to be smooth small town crossing turned into a saga.

It started off well. On the Ecuadorian side, in a small town called Macara', we got up, had a nice breakfast, and hopped on the 1pm bus which crosses the border and would take us to Piura, Peru, about 1 hour south off the border.

The bus was a shiny band new executive class bus... really nice seats, clean, with a mini-bar and bathroom.

I thought, wow, nicest bus of our whole trip -- should make for a pleasant ride. HA!

Exit customs in Ecuador was easy. Just a stamp.

Entry customs in Peru was really friendly. Just had to fill out a form. The agent asked everyone how they were, if this was their first visit, etc, mostly in their native languages (he spoke Spanish, Japanise, a little German, and of course excellent English). He actually smiled all the time, and you could tell he ment it.

The bus was pacing us this whole time. We all got back on the bus on the the Peruvian side, and were just waiting to go. Then the yelling started. Some tall fellow was yelling at a small woman on the bus -- neither were part of our little original border crossing group. A little later, the tall fellow shows up again, this time with a border police in tow, followed by more shouting, and the small woman gets off the bus.

Turns out the tall fellow was a taxi cab driver, and he'd noticed she wasn't originally on the bus, and had entered the bus on the Peruvian side of the border. A big NO NO. That is the exclusive purview of the Taxi Union.

Lots of shouting (there were about 10 Taxi drivers, all very upset), a little bit of shoving, and then things got quiet for a while.

Then the annoyed Peruvian border police found the Ecuadorian bus didn't have it's front license plate yet (it *was* BRAND new). Also a big NO NO.

More time passes. I'm hoping the bus just pays a small "fine", and then we'll be on our way. Nope. We have to all exit the bus. Then the Ecuadorian Consul arrives. Things look like they might smooth out. But no, the Peruvian border police don't like being pushed around.

First we're told a replacement bus will arrive soon. Then we're told to get back on the bus... and then it backs up back over the bridge which forms the border crossing.

But hold it ... we've been kidnapped! Our passports already have Ecuadorian exit stamps and only Peruvian entrance stamps -- but we're back in Ecuador. Now we're stuck, and our only hope is to stay with the group, so they (boarder control) treat us "gringos" as the innocent bumpkins we are.

Now back in the town about 10 mintues from the border on the Ecuadorian side, the bus company offers:

a) another bus in 3 hours (we've already wasted 2).

or

b) refund our money, drive us back to the border, and we can walk across, and catch one of those damn taxies.

We all took b). Why couldn't they this when we were all still at the boarder? hrumph.

We get back to the border, walk across the bridge just waiving at all the officials/police we see on both sides (we smile a lot too).

And the taxi ride? Well... first cram 5 people (luckly two were small japanese) plus driver into a small station wagon (the back was alread full of water bottles). Then drive for 10 minutes, stop while the driver does some accounting for his wife's store, pick up another passenger (who sits on the emergency brake between the front seats), pick up some mail to deliver, stop to say hi and shake the hand of many people we pass.

Then every car we see coming at us is flashing their lights or making hand signals at us. Turns out a Police Drug Control Stop is ahead of us. After checking that none of us have drugs with us, we continue on. We get there -- our driver seems to know *everybody* ... after handing out some free bottles of water to the police, we?re back on our way.

We finally get to the next major town, where a bus terminal exists. We get dropped off. Then we find the only buses which take dollars (which Ecuador uses) were going to seriously rip us off.

Since none of us had changed money, we left some folks to watch our bags, and the rest of us piled into a moterized cart to get taken to the nearest money exchange house. After zipping around in a scene that reminded us all more of Bangkok then Latin America, we got our money changed, bordered a bus, and were off for the final half hour leg of that days travel.

What should have taken just 1 hour, took 6.

Most days have actually be very nice here, and we've been having a great time.

Even that day ended with a really scrumpcous dinner, and our cable TV finally had CNN in English!

Cheers,

D & C