Post 81: Over the border, to Peru

F.A.,

We have made it to Peru, a country we have traveled to before, and our original inspiration for this whole plan. It was not an easy journey, we ended up spending over 22 hours on a bus between Banos and Piura, with may changes and delays along the way.

We started in Banos, then caught a bus to Cuenca when we made it to Ambato. Along the way to Cuenca we rode through beautiful country side, surrounded by rolling hills and farm lands. We were crammed into our seats as the bus was overbooked and I offered half my seat to a little girl, who's mother was sitting next to us. A few hours out of our first destination, we hit some of the deepest fog I have ever seen, the driver didnt slow down of course, and we were on an abysmal ride through areas we could not see. We made it to Cuenca just in time to catch our next bus to the border.

The border crossing was a little confusing, but we managed to get our exit stamps out of Ecuador, board another bus, and then receive our entry stamps into Peru, without much hassle. The border was pretty open, and it seemed as though there was really not much control between these two former warring neighbors.

The landscape started to change after a few hours and we are now in the dessrt like climate of northern Peru. When we finally arrived in Piura, we wandered into some patchy areas of the city while trying to find a place to rest our heads, luckily for us, a local woman explained how we would be shot for our possessions if we didn't leave. Unfortunately we had no Nuevo Soles, and had to walk miles to our hotel., on the other side of the city.

We settled down, ate a good meal and after a few beers, went to sleep early. Now we are awaiting our flight to Lima, from where we will travel to Nasca to see its famous lines, an unfinished goal from the planning of our last trip.

We are sick of bus rides, but have many more hours of them ahead of us before Arequipa.

Gavin (y June)

Update:
We are skipping Nasca and heading straight for Arequipa now. We leave around 6:30 tonight and should be there a good 16 hours later, hopefully we sleep on the bus. I am a little bummed to be missing Nasca, but we have to be cost effective and there are many things ahead for us to see, it was expendable all along and we decided this morning that it would be best to skip. We will see it next time, as we said last time we were in Peru.

Ciao for now.