The last few days have been a whirlwind of travel, so today I will attempt to tie it all off with a neat little bow. This could prove to be difficult since I just spent 28 hours on a bus… but I will do my best.

After our stay in Quito we spent the entire day on the bus (10 hours) travelling to Cuenca. The bus was an interesting experience. We boarded at 5:30am thinking that we were going to be able to relax and spread out since there were only 4 other passengers on our bus. Wrong! We proceeded to stop in every city, town, village, and abandoned hut to pick up anyone with a nickel to their name. We ended up on a full bus of interesting characters. I was most entertained by the bus driver´s assistant who collected the money. He looked like he had just stepped out of the movie Grease with slicked back hair, jeans and white T-shirt. Another highlight was the Kung Fu movie dubbed in Spanish that we were subjected to. I don´t even like Kung Fu in English.

Fortunately, Cuenca was worth the trip. We were finally in a city that we could walk around in without having to take taxis all the time. It was a lovely little place and we enjoyed not having to do a whole lot.

Cuenca

Our last stop in Ecuador was Guayaquil. This time around we opted to spend an extra $5 to take an air conditioned van. The three and a half hour drive was easily the most beautiful one of my life. We drove through the Cajas National Park and I wanted to stop every hundred feet to take a picture. We didn´t of course but we definitely didn´t mind the drive.

Once in Guayaquil we were finally back at sea level for the first time since Cartagena. We were greeted by a large, muggy, tropical city. We spent the afternoon wandering around the Malecon 2000 boardwalk that runs along the Guays River. The area was beautiful with many parks and playgrounds for families. We intended to reconnect with our friend Luis who we met in Colombia but we waited and waited and he didn´t show. Knowing us, we probably got the location wrong. We decided to just go out for dinner ourselves. A simple task we thought. We have been successfully feeding ourselves for the past 2 weeks. However, we walked for at least half an hour and could not find one single restaurant in the downtown core. Apparently these people only drink soda.

Guayaquil

We left Guayaquil behind to board the long dreaded overnight, international bus to Peru. We got on the bus at 11:30am and 28 hours later we arrived in Lima. On board we made friends with three American travellers from Colorado and Pennsylvania. The bus was much nicer than we expected but it was not without its quirks. The lights occasionally flickered as if we were in a lightning storm, it sounded like the roof could’ve have flown off at any moment, and the bathroom was wretched.

Our first excitement of the trip occured at our first petrol stop. The girls all rushed off the bus to use a real bathrooms and then I decided to grab a water as well. I was just about to pay, when Laura cried out… “Our bus… it´s leaving!” The water suddenly became insignificant and we ran after the moving vehicle. We were screaming WAIT but considering that the driver didn´t speak English I can understand why he didn´t. We both lept onto the moving vehicle and breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently, this bus waits for no one.

The next major adventure was crossing the border itself. We arrived at the Tumbes crossing and were told to take our passports and get off. We lined up and everyone got through quickly until Laura. The computer system magically stopped working… and we had to wait for about 15 minutes. At least the border official found a use for Laura´s passport, which he used to fan himself while we waited. But, we were not home free yet. This was just permission to exit Ecuador. We still had to go through customs again 3 miles down the road. We continued on and drove through flee market village until we were told to get out again. This time Laura and I were first in line and luckily experienced no technical difficulties. We then got ice cream to celebrate. YEAH PERU!!!

Flee Market Village??

It was getting late and we were watching another movie, when suddenly it stopped and the lights went out. We assumed this meant bed time even though we hadn´t eaten dinner and it wasn´t even 8pm. Then everyone at the back of the bus started getting off… we had no idea what was going on. Were we entering yet another country? We were then told to take all our belongings and get off the bus. So we frantically gathered our stuff and got off. We then walked through a small building and ended up outside again. Then minutes later our bus pulled up and we got back on. Fire drill? We honestly have no idea what that was about. They didn´t even check our bags. Oh South America… good times.

We are finally in Lima, Peru and will happily spend the next week without buses. Our next big adventure is the Amazon!!!