Hotel Chilimasa Tumbes

... supported by 30 men, blaring out what sounds like a crewed up version of a funeral march. This could be a weird night. People are letting off enormous lumps of dinamite on sticks. Maybe these are fireworks.<br><br>11,00pm: The bus arrives and everyone boards, we´re the only Gringo´s on the bus apart from an American girl and her boyfriend who looks Columbian (at a guess). The rest are locals, we hold tight to our bags and drift off into a ...

... but couldn't find a pizza parlour, so we<br>ended up with ham and tomato baguettes followed by a cake that<br>reminded us both of Farley's rusks! We'd had an Almuerzo on the way<br>into Machala so we were happy enough with a snack.<br><br><br><br>The border crossing was straightforward<br>enough, although all the crossings we've done in South America have<br>been a bit hit and miss in the sense that you could easily miss them<br>and either not get stamped out, or ...

... that in Melbourne that place would be at least $150 a night but here it was $16 US. Crazy. <br><br>Such a surprise to walk downstairs from our room after checking in to see Ambross sitting having lunch. He had also just checked in and that night we all went out for Mexican at a jointce that wouldn&#8217;t look out of place in Brunswick St, Melbourne. <br><br>After dinner and an &#8216;Al Pacino&#8217; (jug of beer with whiskey and Amoretto) we went to the Retro Bar next door and ...

... was kind of a no mans land. We said goodbye to Fernando and met our new guide Belge (Bell), We were required to walk our bags over the actual boarder, There were people demonstrating because they were not happy that the president was re-elected in the election. They were burning tyres and it was quite an ueasy feeling standing around all of these protesters. It could have turned ugly at any moment and us ´gringoes´were right in the middle of it. Luckily we got through with ...

... made the first of my school boy errors of the day. After bartering down the taxi drive to take us across the boarder for next to nothing, he askes if we would like him to book us our bus tickets up to Guayaquil. At first I said no, but as we crossed the boarder everything was going so smoothly that when he asked again and he said it was only $20 US, we agreed. First rule of ...

... of the contraband that the rest of the passengers seemed to be attempting to smuggle over the border - in the aisle. Our body guard then walked us through customs procedures, got us back on the bus and then got us to the first town across the border. He then got the bus to wait for him while he took us to another bus company, bought us tickets to our final destination and put us on another bus. From here on in, it appeared we were ...

... then began his story of how he was robbed of all his positions in Peru and was now left stranded. He was going on about how dangerous it is in Tumbes and that you should never get into a vehicle on your own as the drivers often pull out knives and guns and rob you, and that going to the police is useless as they are all in it together. All the while Inge-Marie was trying to buy us tickets for the next bus with very limited Spanish, this guy was going on ...

... visiting Machu Pichu and learning a bit about the Peruvian culture. TUMBES: Crossing the border was NOT easy for me! What a day! I am so happy to be here in Tumbes, which is a rather ugly city with nothing really to do... but I could not be happier to be in my hostel at this point! I know I get lost a lot- but today... well, today was ridiculous!!! I had to change buses twice, which is not really a big deal or out of the ordinary while traveling ...

... Ok, maybe this is going to be alright after all!" WRONG! So, we traveled to the bridge where I stamped out, and we then continued into the Ecuador village of Rhuoquillas, where the bus station is. Only, my taxi driver stopped in the middle of a bazaar, and told me I had to pay 30$ for the police, since he was illegal, all the time telling me how dangerous it is in the ...

... departure time was an hour later...so my stop had saved me time in the airport (or so it seemed at the time). The additional stop was in Piura...no biggee as it would only be a 20-minute hop to Tumbes after dropping off passengers. The first officer came over the intercom on final approach and instructed all Piura passengers to prepare for departure and the rest of us to stay put in our seats and we would be back in the air ...