To Peru!

First a word on Loja. We decided to break up the journey south with a stop off there, in southern Ecuador. While it has some pretty enough sights, there really isn't much to do there. Looking at the photos I took now makes me think we got to stay somewhere quite cool for a night. It really didn't seem cool at the time. There just wasn't a great lot to do there. No harm done though - except to my back courtesy of the banana-shaped mattress the hotel gave us!

Our first overnight journey in a long while: I looked forward to seeing if I’d be any better at sleeping on a bus. No, as it turned out. But a bus journey in the Andes is never going to be tranquil. There are far too many twists and turns. The bus itself didn’t have generous legroom and no matter how far the seat reclines, if you can’t move your legs you’re never going to get comfortable.

 So, the first half of the journey to Peru didn’t involve much sleeping. At 3.30 am we came to the border at Macara. Here everybody disembarked to stamp out of Ecuador and stamp into Peru. It was a strange experience. The border crossing was shrouded in darkness and the immigration huts had minimal light, presumably so as not to attract the masses of mosquitoes hanging around in swarms. But nonetheless it was probably one of the smoothest crossings we’ve had.

Back on the bus, the terrain had now changed to desert. But it was pretty flat, which meant I was able to get in a position for twenty minutes sleep or so. Once you accept that you’re not really going to sleep much, the experience is a whole lot less frustrating.

 We arrived early in the morning to the bustling streets of Piura. The air was surprisingly fresh and cool and we were greeted and welcomed to Peru by many a stranger in the street and they pointed us in the direction of the bus station for Chiclayo. Yep, we were hopping onto another bus, but this journey would only be three hours – a piece of cake! Despite the lack of sleep, I found myself enjoying the atmosphere of Peru already.