El Angolo Piura

... baggage on the bikes as we're only allowed 20 kgs each. It's a 14 hour journey on a bus with seats that go into a semi bed position. I just hope they have a loo on board.

We stopped off at a little hostal across the road from The Aruba, not only was it grotty but they wanted S/40 for it. Here we have a delightful little room, fan, TV and a parking bay for the bikes (shared bathrooms that are very clean and 2 doors away) for S/25. dave's convinced they ...

... all they had left were mini bread rolls, so I bought 6. We only had a little bit of jam left and a shed load of mayonnaise plus a few sultanas, that would have to do.

The ride began with cross winds but nothing we couldn't manage. The scenery for the first 15 or 20 kms was quite sad, the rubbish that normally sits in piles at the side of the road (despite the numerous signs asking people NOT to throw their rubbish out of car windows) was strewn all over the ...

Well saying goodbye to Equador and hello to Peru! Deceided to take the first crossing inland. The one near the coast is supposed to be a mighty faff with having to get off a bus, which then doesn't stop, taxi across no mans land and then onto the next bus when it comes along. Whereas our crossing was much simplier. A bit of comical value, when Chief rocks up to the guard at the crossing. In response to 'what is your profession' the guard almost fell off his chair with ...

... and we cleared through the immigration and customs procedures all in about a half an hour.

We drove through a terrain that got flatter and flatter and dryer and dryer and we stopped in a small village to have lunch. We had our first Peruvian meal there which was very simple but without any beverages. Water is scarce here. The locals were absolutely fascinated by our motorcycles and again with the stovetop expresso ...

... lady seemed to be wary of gringos who can't speak Spanish, because she didn't ask us a single question besides how long we would like to stay in the country. Again, no one bothered to check our packs, which always speeds up the crossing.

We could tell we were in a new country almost immediately. There were tourists everywhere (it's officially high season, folks), a lack of a good garbage disposal ...

... the bus limped into the next town and had to be abandoned. A German girl and I were put in a private car with three Peruvians and the driver was advised to drive us to Piura. He drove us part way , asked for money which we did not give, and deposited us at a bus station in nearby Sullana. We boarded a bus but had no Peruvian soles to pay the ticket guy on ...

... when crossing from Ecuador to Peru: the incrediby green Andes become a coastal desert, the friendly and smiling population (outside of Quito!) becomes much less nice, the road is lined with illegal trash dumps, everything stinks, and overall we have the impression of really going down in terms of country development. Piura is a huge mess, and the first things you see coming off the bus are first the taxi drivers clustered around ...

... of Peruvian restaurants was of huge portions of carbohydrates and 80īs music - they do seem to like their Rick Astley and Hall & Oates here. Even accounting for my gluttonous appetite the portions of rice and chips so far have been simply enormous - I feel a bit guilty leaving half of it when there are so many persistent beggars on the streets who would appreciate the food. Despite the beggars Piura actually does seem to be ...

... the average year and in the rest of the country it has been all over the place too. This has resulted in lots of landslides and the bus has to leave the road and drive on the verge to avoid the rockfalls at several points. One ''roadblock'' had two boulders each the size of an armchair in the middle of the road - I'm glad I wasn't on the first bus to meet them! We all piled off at 3am with our passports, queued up neatly at ...

... a little change in our plans and will finally not go to Guayaquil to try to book a trip to Galapagos. We know the minimum price will be about USD 1,000 per person and we are not willing to go into that expense at this stage of the trip. We know Galapagos will always be there and it is a well connected destination from Europe...so that one for the future when we come back some day to Venezuela, Colombia, Guyanes and Brazil. So our plan is to cut directly into Ecuador via ...