Last night I had
quite a headache from the car ride to Huascarán, and I was delighted to find
Fleur and Kuwait at the hotel, ready to chat, sympathize, and eat. We went to a
local restaurant where chicken and fries were the “in” thing, and we again
chatted about our respective days.
Today I leave
Huaraz at 9:10pm to get to Trujillo Sunday morning; immediately upon arrival
I’m going to be on the hunt for a bus from Trujillo to Tumbes to hopefully
arrive in Tumbes Monday morning, and then I need to cross into Ecuador and get
to the place that can get me an overnight bus to Quito. All things going
according to plan, I’ll get to Quito Tuesday morning. Fingers crossed.
Saturday: Huaraz
Saturday night:
travel to Trujillo
Sunday: Trujillo
Sunday night:
travel to Tumbes
Monday: Tumbes,
cross boarder; get to Loja/Guayaquil/Cuenca?
Monday night: bus
to Quito
Tuesday: Quito!
…fingies crossed
This adds up to,
if things go “well”, overnighting in bus for the next three nights, which is
great savings. I took a super thorough shower in anticipation of all this bussing
and night-traveling.
Today I’m taking
a short tour to the neighboring town of Monterray. I mostly took the tour since
it is so short (4 hours) which will give me internetting time today before
catching my bus. I’m the only one going, so apparently we’ll be going by taxi
with a guide. All for s/40.
* * *
30 minutes until
go-time! (which according to urban dictionary is a gang term?)
I’m about to
embark on the long journey of Huaraz to Trujillo (8 hours), Trujilllo to Tumbes
(11 hours), Tumbes to Quito (12 hours), and if all goes well I’ll be in Quito
by Tuesday. Right now I’m just praying I get the Trujillo à Tumbes bus for tomorrow night because
then I am “home” free in Ecuador.
I read some rather shady things about boarder-crossing – right down to the taxi
drivers! But I’m trying to turn any fear into thankfulness that I have been
“pre-warned” and I’ll definitely be more on my toes. Most blogs seem to have
been written around 2007, so perhaps things have improved. But still on my toes.
Eyes wide open.
The tour through
the company Lulo was no good, but it
ended up being ok because I ended up using the “tour” more as a glorified taxi
service, more-or-less station-hopping to make sure I could not indeed
buy tickets from Trujillo to Tumbes from here. After lunch I got online and 4
soles later I was on my way to Movil
Tours, where I am right now. I’ve heard many good things about this
company, so I hope to get a good night’s sleep and see where tomorrow takes me!
