On The Buses (aka Adios Ecuador)

Hello All. We're now in Peru (as Michelle mentioned) after spending a fair few hours on the buses (more later on the buses). So, this brings the Ecuadorian part of our adventure to a close, so I'll just recap on that for a while. After getting over the initial shock of leaving the US, which really was a holiday for us, posing no problems whatsoever from a travelling point of view, except the huge portions of food which I've already bored you with, we found Ecuador to be an fantastic, diverse, friendly country with some amazing mountain scenery as well as the jungle of course! I think we were both a bit wary of it at first, due to it being one of the fewer travelled countries in S.America as well as there being a few warnings in the guide book about pickpockets, muggers, dodgy taxi drivers, etc. Mind you I'd have to agree with the dodgy taxidrivers; their sanity not their morals!

The people, even though 80% of them live in poverty, are so friendly and helpful. When we pulled up at any bus terminals, obviously standing out like sore thumbs, we were rushed by a variety of bus conductors, drivers, vendors and beggars. Once we'd wrestled the beggars to the floor and dodged the vendors, the bus company staff then tried to sell us all manner of tickets. Once we told them where we going even if it wasn't with their company they would still point us in the right direction of the bus we needed. I can't imagine that happening at home; if you aren't going on their bus most conductors/drivers don't want to know you!

So onto the buses. The last trip from Ecuador into Peru was easily the best and the longest! After leaving Loha the journey up (and then back down and then back up) the Andes starts. At one point we were passing in and out of clouds and there were a handful of condors flying past; the views were superb across the valleys. The edge of the roads aren't always sealed with barriers so the view directly down is interesting too! The border crossing into Peru was stress free too; the border guard gave me 90 days in Peru and Michelle only 60 for some reason. Loha (Ecuador) was uneventful really, the most exciting thing was me falling down the steps of a restaurant after our meal and sliding down a flight of steps on one of my ribs! It still hurts now! The same for Piura in Peru really, uneventful I mean, I managed to stay on my feet there.

The bus journey yesterday to Trujillo, where I'm writing this, however wasn't completely uneventful. We had a flat tire about 5 hours in. We couldn't really see what was happening for a while as the driver(s) wouldn't let us off the bus and it was dark by this point. After a while though, the passengers, including us, started banging on the windows, doors, roof, even the toilet door, and eventually the drivers let us off. Now, you can imagine how difficult it is to change a bus tyre in the daytime let only at night, especially when you have the bus jacked up on a couple of rocks! The drivers only had a little torch which they were passing between them, one of them lying under the bus and one of them p*ssing about with all manner of poles and spanners. Now I knew we had a torch in one of our packs which was locked up in the luggage compartment. So, using my broken Spanish (Michelle has resorted to calling me Manuel) I thought I'd be helpful and tell the driver that I had another torch and would he like to borrow it. "Tengo uno otro Luz" I said. Now, whether this was poor spanish or he just couldn't here me I don't know, but he looked at me as if I'd ask if his Grandmother was for sale. So, I tried again. Same response. So then I started asking the other passengers and got similar responses from them. Anyway, after a while I got bored and we got back on the bus. One other thing, when you change a tyre, not that I ever have, aren't you supposed to lower the vehicle and then tighten the wheel nuts rather than lodge a brick between the ground and the wheel to prevent it slipping? Obviously I didn't try to help the drivers on this either for fear of them trying to tighten MY nuts with their greasy tools! Still, we're here now.

Well I'd best be off now, keep the comments coming.

p.s. We just got a bus from Huanchaco, the beach where we're staying, to Trujillo which is about 15Km away. It was the funniest bus you have ever seen. The drivers seat looked like a deck chair just bolted to the floor and his rearview mirror looked like he'd stolen it from someone's bathroom!