After an early alarm we head to the bus terminal for a 7am bus - after having language issues with the bus ticket lady (I just want a simple si or no - don't keep babbling lady) we decide to only by a bus ticket to the border. We wanting to cross the border on a bus after hearing crap stories about border towns being full of crooks (believable) but am not 100% sure if the bus wil wait for us to clear customs.
We get on for the 5 hour trip to the border and manage to chat to the bus dude about extending our travel plans. He said no problemo and promises to wait with our bags and not leave us. We don't trust him.
We stop at the border town Macara for lunch. We've left the Andes and are now amongst rice paddy fields and it's str¿eamy for the first time. Coming down to sealevel we finally experience the tropics weather. Glad to get back on the moving bus.
We reach a bridge and get motioned off. We head off to the Ecuadorian side and the dude gives us our exit stamps and we watch the bus drive accross. We then walk over the border ourselves to Peru and go through immigration there - no problems and we're then told to go and chat to the cops. The police write down our names, age , profession and where we're planning on going in Peru.
The whole thing lasted 8 minutes thankfully - apparently if we had used the coastal crossing (much more popular than our tiny town crossing) it would've taken close to 3 hours. I love travelling the slow road.
We had plans to pop off at the next town 150kms away, Sullana. As we enter Peru we leave behind the rice paddies and quickly enter a desert. This game contiues for a few hours until the bus pulls up in front of a shanty town and pronounces Sullana. It took us all of 30 seconds to decide to stay on the bus (at this stage we hve no Peruvian money yet) and head to the bigger town beyond. The bus lad grins like he had expected it.
We travel another hour and land in Piura and it's a delightful 34 degrees and muggy.
After a few crap hotels we find a cheap one (that's not too cheap) and hand over our US money (Ecuadors money) he orders us upstairs to our room and shows up 15 kinutes later with our change converted into Soles - we are so excited - we can now run out and buy water and food!!
At the shops I spot a chicken meal for $7 and hit the roof - so much for Peru being cheaper than Ecuador - I wouldn't pay more than $1.50 for a combo chicken meal. Glen gentle points out that $7 is soles and converts to about $1.20. It's gonna take me some time to get use to this conversion thing.
