I was sad to leave Ecuador, I had far preferred it to Peru to date. The scenery was something else, the country just seems a little more advanced and the people happier. We had heard horror stories about the border crossing from Ecuador into Peru and were nervous about crossing at Huaquilles. We spent some time researching it and eventually went with the one that we had heard was dodgy just because it suited our next destination and saved about 5 hours of bus riding.
Travelling with alot of faith, we boarded the bus in Cuenca at 10pm and headed for Mancora. It was one of the smoothest border crossings I have ever been on. Just outside of Cuenca, we were stopped at a road block. Bizarre, the army jumped on board, pulled the men off to go outside to be searched and demanded to see our passports. Ants played the foreigner card and stayed on the bus. It was over painlessly and we were back on the road after 5 minutes. I slept all the way to the border, and apparently there had been more army men aboard but I was oblivious to it all, only waking up at the border.
We were stamped out of Ecuador in about 5 minutes and onto a different bus for the rest of the journey. There is a 2km stretch between border posts and immigration is actually in the Peruvian town. This is where the crossing gets dangerous and complicated if doing it on your own. Customs opened the luggage compartment, had a quick look and we were off again to immigration. There were less forms to fill out than when landing by plane into Peru, again, it was painless and we were off towards the coastal town of Mancora for a two day rest.
I slept all the way to the town and was quite sleepy when we were dumped with our bags at 5:30am at the side of the Pan American highway. Ants had researched accommodation and we headed off to Las Posida.... without a reservation. After a little confusion between Ants and myself, we headed to the hostel to wake up the manager and find a room. Rose showered and then we grabbed some much needed sleep.
The hostel had run out of bread so we walked the 5 minutes into town to have a yummy pancake breakfast at a place called Green Eggs and Ham. We were back on the tourist trail. After organising our bus tickets to Huaraz via Trujillo, we headed back to the hostel to swim as the beach was too windy.
I got pulled into the pool by the bully of the trio and Rose didn´t exactly come to my rescue. Nevertheless, it was refreshing and we sat at the pool. I would like to say lazed but Ants taught us to play chess as we have all bought chess sets (Incas against the Spanish). My attempts were poor but I put it down to the beer we consumed.
Dinner was at a beef house along the Pan American highway. Fascinating eating and watching all the traffic pass. Mancora isn´t all that big and all the shops and restaurants are either on the beach or the Pan American. Dinner was good and while we were there, we overheard a group of Canadians who had gone ziplining over the dessert. It was added onto the to do list.
Next day started early with an early morning swim in the sea or a dunking as mine mostly was. My playground buddy made sure I was wet and I never did anything to antagonise him at all. I am safe from any comments from him, I am sure he won´t be reading this. Breakfast was on the beach at a tiny restaurant and Rose and I proudly showed them how to make capuchinos. The kitchen was pretty basic but we managed to froth the milk with a blender. My mother will be proud. I even poured the froth onto the coffee against the back of a spoon, we made it look professional.
After organising ziplining and paying for bus tickets, we were off to the hot springs. Now coming from Banos, our expections were high, far too high. It took 45 minutes to get to the hot spring, through dessert, across a dry river bed, in a small motor taxi or tuk tuk. We laughed when we arrived. The pool was maybe 3m by 5m max. There was another group of packpackers there at the same time and they said that they had the same reaction. We were expecting bigger and Lonely Planet said there were mud baths too. Anyway, we jumped into the bubbling hot water and found the mud. You can just imagine the mud fights that ensued. I think I did quite well against Rose and Ants but didn´t come away unscathed. Rose put handfuls of the mud down my costume and I was laughing so much that Ants gave me a mouthful of mud. The sulphurous water really didn´t taste very good. Our driver told us to put some on our face and let it dry. We tried for a while but it took too long and the games commenced. Our skin did feel softer afterwards.
Next was ziplining. I was quite nervous, the first line was 880m long and I can´t even begin to guess how high we were, but what an amazing experience. We made sure that Ants went first as he was the least nervous of the three of us. Rose was next and then me. Wow, it was beautiful,we were flying over dessert canyons. We alternated going first over the next three lines to get some photos and the last two were incredibly quick. The experience was over quicker than the 20 minutes it took to walk to the top. This was one of the best things we have done in Peru and very professional. The ziplines are on a farm owned by a Swiss artist, all the equipment is new and the staff well experienced. Some boys never grow up.
Back to the hostel, we showered with the tiny trickle of cold water that had been our showers for the last few days and packed. Dinner was at the same restaurant as it was that good. We thought we were in good time for the bus but the lady who sold us the tickets was waiting for us at her office, frantically gesticulating that we were late and we sped on to the bus. I do not understand Peruvian time, I gave up in the jungle. All was well in the end and we made our way to Trujillo.
