Before
setting off on our 2-day trip to Ecuador we watched some more football; well it
might be our last chance. For once we
were glad we did as both City and Liverpool racked up away wins and we
discovered later that day that Man U lost at home – joy. Anyway it was time to bid Peru farewell and
add another country to our ever expanding list.
We knew we were on the road less travelled so anticipated all manner of
modes of transport and potentially lots of sitting around waiting for
connections.
The
first involved a shared taxi (Soles18 each) from Chachapoyas to Bagua Grande
which on the now tarmacked road took 2 hours and the car contained the standard
driver and 4 passengers. From there we
were straight into another shared taxi bound for Jean only an hour away at a
cost of Soles10 a head. When I say
immediately from one car to the next I’m not joking – I didn’t even have to
carry my bag it was swapped from vehicle to vehicle for me. I never once felt that I was in danger of
losing my bag even though our Lonely Planet had made us a little wary to say
the least. Admittedly our LP is out of
date but before reaching Peru it led us to believe that we’d be robbed, raped
and pillaged on every street corner. The
truth is far from it and every major town and city has a significant police
presence. We’ve been sensibly cautious
with our belongings but we’ve never once felt in danger and in fact we’ve found
people very helpful and friendly.
Especially when tracking down transport hence my digression here.
Anyway
the car we were now in was a little older but that didn’t stop the driver
cramming in 5 customers (Steve and I had to share the front passenger seat) and
picking up a 6th person who had to sit in the boot. I should point out that it was a hatchback
with the parcel shelf removed but still it can’t have been comfy. Just to highlight how unsafe all of this was
the driver put on his seat belt – the rest of us had no chance and / or no belt!
We
arrived in Jean without mishap and the ever helpful folk of Peru called a
mototaxi (motorbike tuc tuc type contraption) for us to take us to the minivan
station we needed. So following a Soles2
ride across town we were instantly ushered into a vehicle heading to San Ignacio. This was going to be the longest leg of
today’s journey so it was a pleasure to be in a minivan and have a seat
each. This section of the journey cost
us Soles20 each with the first half being on tarmac and then a rough surface
all the way to town. To be honest we’d
expected the road conditions to deteriorate well before this point and in the
end the journey didn’t take as long as anticipated.
We
found ourselves in a van with a most amiable driver and friendly fellow
passengers who clearly knew each other. It
was at this point that we realised / wished we’d learnt more Spanish along the
way as conversation was very limited and we’d have loved to have chatted to
them more. We’ve been so much on the
gringo trail in Peru that we’ve rarely needed to use Spanish and have promptly
forgotten a lot of that we learnt in Bolivia.
Let’s hope we reverse this trend in Ecuador and gain more confidence to
expand on the basics we’ve picked up. We’ve
a feeling the van was on the last run of the day as we actually stopped at a
pineapple plantation. These vehicles are
more renowned for getting from A to B and back again as quickly as possible
with as many passengers as possible to maximise takings. Luckily for us they felt like some fresh
pineapple so shared a massive one with us and incredibly juicy and tasty it was
too.
We
reached San Ignacio 2 ½ hours after leaving Jean and the sun was on its final
descent so we checked into the first hostal we saw directly over the roundabout
from the van terminus. It was functional
but clean enough and at Soles20 a night (shared facilities only) what can you
expect. We’d read that there was very
little accommodation in town so were just happy that we had a bed for the
night; mind you what they classed as a double proved to just be a generous
single. As we wandered round town
looking for somewhere to change dollars (the 30 odd Soles we had left wasn’t
going to be quite enough to get us to the border, Millenium Electronics on the
main street change cash) we spotted at least 5 more places to stay. They all looked better than ours! Plus there were loads of places to eat and
again we’d read there was nowhere so had taken a picnic supplies with us from
Chachapoyas. In fact San Ignacio is a
sizeable town and obvious serves a large catchment area as all the shops were
fully stocked with a substantial variety of items on sale. Although the border with Ecuador was still a
long way off it had a slight feel of a border town as it’s the last place of
any significant size.
That’s
the hard facts but what about the journey itself? The road down from Chachapoyas followed a
river and we travelled down a narrow, extremely steeply sided canyon. Then it seemed to suddenly open out into a
huge, flat valley where we were astounded to see paddy fields. It was noticeably warmer with the rice fields
lined with banana and coconut palms.
However, the hills forming the backdrop to all of this were back to
being desert cactus studded slopes. So
the initial illusion that we’d stumbled back into Asia was soon shattered.
Not
surprisingly, considering we weren’t in the most salubrious of digs, we were up
early, breakfasted and ready to start day 2 of the overland trip to
Ecuador. First of all we jumped in a
mototaxi (Soles3) to take us to the top end of town where the northern bound
shared taxis hang out. Again there was
minimal waiting around and we were soon on the road to La Balsa at a cost of
Soles17 each. This time we only had 4
adult passengers but unfortunately the other couple we were with were
accompanied by a toddler and a baby.
They were well behaved but I didn’t relish sitting next to a suckling
mother.
Did
I say we were going to be using the road less travelled? Change that to the road least made! They are doing extensive road works along
this stretch and once completed will challenge the Panamericana for best
made. The various holdups for road works
meant for the first time a journey took a bit longer than expected but it
turned out to not make an apeth of difference.
The border post consists of a couple of restaurants cum shops cum money
changers, a police post, the immigration office and a bridge joining the two
countries. Now we’d heard this was a
quiet crossing point and that very few foreigners use this route but we thought
there’d be a gaggle of locals going back and forth. In fact there were very few people around and
not a vehicle in sight. First we had to
go and get a police check stamp of some description and this meant disturbing
the plod’s mid-morning snack. Then Steve
and I walk a few yards down the road to the immigration office where we formed
a queue of two and were promptly stamped out of Peru.
We
then ducked under the barrier, walked across the bridge and placed our first
steps on Ecuadorian soil only to discover that their side of La Balsa had even
less going on! It took seconds to work
out which one of the 5 buildings we could see was the police/immigration post so
stepped inside. Unbelievably this turned
out to be a 2-man operation and they seemed delighted that one of them had some
genuine work to do that morning. Our man
took his time having a good look at all the stamps and visas we’ve amassed
using the pretence that he couldn’t track down the Peruvian exit stamp! That step completed it was time to think
about the filling in of the arrival card – he did it for us. Have you ever had your immigration card
completed for you before? He then asked
us how long we would like to stay for so we weren’t greedy and said we planned
to stay for a month but it might be longer.
Response: “Will 90 days be okay?”
That’ll do just nicely thank you.
Formalities
over and not once did anyone ask to look in our bags; as for scanners / metal detectors / x-ray
machines – they belong in science fiction films in this neck of the woods. This is by far and away the most isolated and
informal border crossing we’ve ever encountered and I’d love to know if there
is one anywhere in the world to challenge that status. Obviously it was lovely and relaxed and
peaceful but we wanted to get into Ecuador proper and preferable reach
Vilcabamba by the day’s end. So we asked
our new found police friends about transport out of La Balsa. Well:
they could phone for a taxi but that would take an hour to arrive and
would cost us US$20 to get to us to Zumba a mere 20kms away. Or: we could wait 2 hours for the rancheras
that would cost US$1.75; we decided to sit it out and watch the world go
by. Oh yeah, nothing was moving so we
read our books instead! In case you didn’t
know Ecuador uses American dollars so I’ll be ditching the US bit from now on
when quoting prices.
The
rancheras dully turned up, emptied out and then parked up until midday when it
was time for us to jump aboard for its return trip. It was a rather bumpy ride to say the least
where we had to continually check that the rucksacks hadn’t bounced out. A rancheras is basically a wooden, side less,
flatbed truck with bench seats fitted across.
Good fun initially but we were glad the journey was only 1 ½ hours or
some may say how long to go only 20kms?!
Once in Zumba we jumped down at the brand spanking new bus terminal and within
10mins were on a bus bound for Loja but we would be getting down in Vilcabamba. It was a pleasure to be on a proper bus with
leg room and enough suspension to cushion much of the uneven road surface. The 5 ½ hour journey cost us just $6.50 each
and from what we’ve gleaned so far it seems travel here will be cheaper than
Peru.
Within
a few years this route will be much easier on the bum as on both sides of the
border the roads are undergoing extensive improvements. Unfortunately for us on the Ecuadorian side
we had to deal with it actually being made worse before they manage to make it
better. Or to put it another way; we’d be trundling along for about 4 hours
before the driver got into 3rd gear!
On the whole the 2-day trip was smooth going with people always pointing
us in the right direction and only having to wait any length of time for a
connection in La Balsa. Plus we went
through yet more stunning scenery with it being the largest green area we’ve
seen so far outside Manu National Park.
Our Lonely Planet tells us that Ecuador is one of the most densely populated
South American countries but coming in via the back door you certainly find the
empty bit.
We
reached Vilcabamba after dark, soon found a room for the night, grabbed
something to eat and crashed out. More
details and tales from Ecuador will begin in the next instalment.
