Ecuador is beautiful!
I don’t know what sort of great geographical difference there is, but it seems
greener and cleaner than Peru; and the Andes….toujours impressionant (always
impressive).
* * *
We are
approaching hour-12 of this bus ride. I got into Loja at 6pm and immediately
searched for buses and everything was full full full. The prospect of another
terminal-night was less-than-pleasing, and I desperately searched for other
options. I ended up taking a bus to Cuenca that, if over 25 people needed to go
to Quito, it would continue onto Quito. We hit the 25-people-mark, the news to
which I responded with a “yoo hoo!”, and we were on our way.
…well not quite.
After the police got on to make sure there weren’t extra people in the aisle,
we stopped to pick up extra people who packed into the aisle. There was a young
mom and a young dad with three kids, and the mom quickly took up the gracious
offer from a random man sitting down to hold her baby. Soon after, the oldest
child, perhaps 4 years old, started vomiting, and the smell of fries and
salchicha filled the air. I turned in the direction of the old man sitting next
to me though he, I suppose much like myself, was no breath of fresh air, and I
sat back. Just 12 hours.
The ride to
Cuenca was four hours which was fairly calm as a few people got off leaving
just 3 or 4 standing in what was left of aisle space. Everyone else took to
sleeping in the aisle, including the two older kids (baby now sleeping on the
random guy). I woke up at one point and saw a guy who, I thought at the time,
was the bus driver, running back with his recent purchase of 2 bottles of beer.
Great. In the end, he was just the helper-guy, in which case I hope he drank
both and wasn’t “cheers”ing with the bus driver.
We got to Cuenca
and dropped off the few Cuenca-bound passengers and continued on in decreasing
temperatures. Hat pulled down to my nose, scarf over my nose, blanket over all of me, and wearing all my warm
clothing, I was a lump of trying-to-get-warm-ness. At about 4:30am the guy next
to me had to get off the bus so I had to shift a bit out of my comfy-cozy
position and I realized just.how.cold.it.was!
At about 5am we,
without explanation, were made to move to another bus, which was newer,
comfier, bigger, cleaner, and much colder. I resumed my previous position,
appearing little more than a respiring red blanket.
By 8:30am we
arrived in Quito.
=)
Sat night, Huaraz
– Trujillo: 10 ½ hours
Sun night,
Trujillo – Piura: 6 ½ hours
Sunday, Piura –
Loja: 8 ½ hours
Sunday night,
Loja – Cuenca: 4 hours
Monday early morning,
Cuenca – Quito: 8 ½ hours
Of the 60 hours:
38 hours en bus
9 hours in terminals
13 hours in Trujillo
About $48 for all busses
Que viaje.
