Gypsy Dayz

 

 

 

Saturday, March 02

When we woke up in Cusco, Peru after our 4 day crazy jungle tour we were still completely demolished. Our muscles were aching so much we could barely walk down the stairs with our backpacks to check out of our hostel. We spent the morning trying to find an easy way out of Peru and into Ecuador, unfortunately we had no such luck. Flights were super expensive and buses looked like they were going to take several days. We obviously opted for the long and inexpensive bussing route. On the taxi ride to the terminal, the streets were packed with people and traffic was bumper to bumper, but we didn't mind because all the street ladies were out selling there marketable items so we had a lot to look at.

The incredible (and nauseating ) view from the bus

At the terminal we managed to find a bus leaving at 4pm and heading to Lima (the capital of Peru). While we were waiting we ran into Philipp, one our friends from our Machu Picchu tour. He was also looking for a way to Ecuador and decided to join us on our trek.

The entire bus ride went in, out and through beautiful mountain and valleys. As usual though, along with the stunning views came that nauseating feeling in the pit of our bellies. The only way we can describe the ride in detail is that it felt like the bus was doing figure eight after figure eight for 25 straight hours. Thankfully we were lucky enough to have "healthy" neighbours and Gravol.

Before the sun came up the next day we woke up abruptly from a loud 'POP' we found out quickly that we had gotten a flat tire. The driver and crew quickly changed the tires, and we quickly fell right back asleep and we were right back on the road in no time.

Sunday, March 03

By 5:30 in the evening we arrived in Lima. The bus dropped us off in a whole in the wall in the middle of a place that we could automatically tell we didn't want to be in after dark. Philipp offered to walk down the street and ask around about where we could find an on going bus ticket. We were sure we weren't interested in staying in Lima overnight as we had heard that it was just another busy city with nothing too exciting to see. After almost an hour of waiting, we were starting to get worried about Philipp, but sure enough he made it back and quickly urged us to grab out things and get going as it was starting to get dark and someone on the street told him the area we were in was indeed considered dangerous. We sped walked to a mini terminal about 15 minutes away and bought tickets for the next bus leaving for city named Trujillo, which was the only available city North of where we were and on the way to the Ecuadorian border.

We found out that our 9:30 bus was overbooked and just as we were putting our bags on the bus, we were asked if we wouldn't mind switching to the super luxurious 11pm bus. We were more than happy to wait as this bus was considered VIP with leather seats that reclined back 160 degrees, which was a big step up from our usual "semi-cama's".

Monday, March 04

We woke up on day 2 of bus sleeping in Trujillo, Peru at 7am. The next bus to Tumbes (border town) wasn't until 8pm, so our taxi driver offered to be our private driver for the day for 30 solas per person which sounded pretty enticing for 12 hours of service. We accepted his offer as surprisingly there was a lot to see. The town was on the coast, so naturally there was a beach. In addition there were two touristic sights with indigenous ruins that were very recently discovered.

It was a cloudy day so we decided to have our driver take us to the touristic centre for breakfast and a place where we could drop off our big bags of laundry after the big hike. Our next stop was at "Huaca dela Luna" one of the archeological sites. They had found out that it dated back to 200 - 500 AC. At first when we pulled up it just looked like we were in the middle of the desert. However, as soon as we started on our tour we began to see the remains of the village between the sand hills. We were very impressed by the detail of the carvings in the sand. We learned about the culture and their rituals and even met two of their incredibly rare, hairless dogs!

After the first site we headed to "Chan Chan" another similar site that was 10 times larger than the first. We opted out of the tour for this one as we had already learned about the culture at the last, but we were able to walk around the main grounds on our own and read the information bubbles along the way. The village was massive with corridors leading to areas where these people had their prayers, met for festivals in the market areas, and even where they buried their dead.

By the time we got through the second site we were beginning to run out of energy, so we got our driver Armando to take us to a local Peruvian restaurant for lunch and then back to the touristic square where we could sit at a café and have some internet time.

We were hoping the clouds would subside at some point during the day so we could get a couple hours of beach time after so many weeks of being up in high altitudes.

We took a walk down the main street, and when we got to the main square we saw that they had a big festival going on to celebrate their annual book fair. We stuck around to watch the costume show for a bit and then settled down at a local café.

 

By 8pm we were on our 3rd night bus in a row in true gypsy fashion. Although this bus was nothing like the last, is was good enough for us to sleep somewhat peacefully into the morning.

 

Tuesday, March 05

 

 

 

Our arrival in Tumbes was right on schedule and as expected the city was over populated, crazy, and hectic. We had heard that border towns were somewhat grimy and dangerous, and this seemed to be the perfect example.  As soon as we got off the bus we got hit by the heat and harassed by taxi and motor taxi’s for rides to the frontier (border). We picked up another fellow backpacker from Slovenia, named Primoz, and the 4 of us jumped into a cab for 1 sol each to yet another bus company. Luckily there was a bus leaving for a city called Guayaquil, Ecuador, in less than 10 minutes and it cost us less than $10 per person. We barely had enough money left over between the 4 us as none of us wanted to take out Peruvian money right before crossing into Ecuador (where their currency was American dollars). Thus we were left with no money and no time for breakfast, and we opened up our snack bags to eat the last of our animal crackers and chocolate to hold us over.

 

The bus was a little rickety, but we had the front 4 seats which meant extra leg room and a great view. As soon as we crossed the border the landscape went from dry and empty to lush dense greenery. The first couple of hours we drove by banana plantation after banana plantation with a great view of a volcano in the background.

 

Four hours into the trip we started picking up random people off the street including countless guys selling anything from coconut water to meat on a stick. We managed to fill our bellies with fruit, meat, potatoes and cookies for only $2 each! It was definitely the best bus lunch we’d had since the 15 cent “taco de pollo” in Nicaragua nearly 3 months earlier.

 

By 5pm we entered Guayaquil, a city that to our surprise was pretty modern and definitely in the 1st world. The Terminal was HUGE and filled with brand name stores and restaurants. Upon arrival, we had no plan, nor the energy to make one. We eventually parked ourselves in the food court and took turns going to the bank, (we tried 5 different ones until we could finally withdraw some cash) and doing research at the internet hub.

 

Philipp had arranged a place for himself through a website called couchsurfing, which is basically a place where travellers open up their homes to other travellers to make exploring a new city or country easier and cheaper. His host’s name was Diego, and when he arrived to pick him up we kindly asked him if he wouldn’t mind driving us to the backpackers district. He graciously agreed, and even drove us around the town to show us a few things on the way. It was already dark out, so we couldn’t see much, but we were very thankful and thoroughly enjoyed his hospitality. The hostel he drove us to was in a safe and wealthy area, and the hostel itself was originally a big house with an awesome outdoor pool!

 

After we checked in, we went to pick up some take-out and ate dinner by the pool while Diego filled us in on everything there was to know about himself and Ecuador. At last, that night we were able to have long overdue showers and a comfy sleep in a real bed while listening to the pouring rain.

 

Wednesday, March 06

 

Diego and Philipp came to pick us up at 12:45 and we all went to the downtown core by the docks for lunch. The docks overlooked the river and the big bridge that brought us into the city.  On the far left was an old poor town that was transformed into a touristy hill to climb to get a great view of the whole city. We climbed all 420 steps (not without getting flashbacks of Machu Picchu) to the top, and indeed enjoyed the great view in spite of the cloudy weather.

 

Later that afternoon, Diego took us to a poshy dessert place (Diego was definitely one of the wealthier Ecuadorians) on the ritzy side of town where we sat outside in the blazing humidity for coffee and pastries. The place looked like a high end resort full of security and expensive stores. Diego had told us that one of the stores was owned by the former “Miss Ecuador”, and a belt in there would cost no less than $200. Even the bathrooms were impressive with marble counters, tiles and walls, and was all in all a huge step up from the holes in the ground in Bolivia!

 

We spent the evening at our hostel by the pool again sipping  beers and having a relaxing fiesta that brought us into the wee hours of the morning. Before we went to bed we said a HUGE goodbye to Philipp as he was heading straight to the bus terminal to hop on a bus to Quito for 5am, and we had become very close over the recent days of gypsy-ism.

 

Thursday, March 07

 

We woke up super late and did absolutely nothing all afternoon besides hanging out at the hostel watching TV, checking our emails, and relaxing.

 

 

 

At 7pm Diego came to pick us up and took us out to try Ecuador’s famous crabs for dinner. It was definitely an interesting experience even though it gave us huge stomach aches after.

 

By 11:30 we back on a bus (sigh) and headed for Quito to meet Dave’s old friend Ivan from Canyon Creek. Naturally, we hoped that would be the last overnight bus for a little while, unfortunately though, it wouldn’t be.

 

Thanks for reading along,
With love from the mountains in Quito

D'alice