To Ecuador

Trip Start Nov 30, 2007
1
48
77
Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Ecuador  ,
Saturday, April 5, 2008

We arrived to Aguas Verdes...a border town of Peru and we were immediately hounded by taxi drivers to take us to the Ecuadorian border. We have become quite good at just ignoring the many vendors and others who are trying to sell you this or that or offer you tons of different services, so we just sat down and tried to get setteled. We had just read that this was the most dangerous border crossing in South America for tourists and we weren´t exactly sure on what to do. After deciding on what we thought we would do, we asked the police officer at the station for some guidance to another bus station that offered services across the border. He just pointed us to the throng of taxi drivers that were drooling over a fare. We chose a mototaxi that gave us what seemed to be a fair price and we loaded our bags into his little storage spot in the back. As we made our way, he started talking to us and said that he could get us to the border for a fair price and that it would be cheaper than taking a bus from Peru to Ecuador....we had also read this. We agreed and he stopped and got into a taxi with us.
It seemed a bit strange that he would just abandon his mototaxi and climb in with us, but we just went along with it. He would not stop talking as we made our way to the border (about 20 minutes), and he just started to make me nervous. I grew to distrust this guy the more he spoke, but we were already here and just went with it. When we arrived to the Peruvian side, we got out and got our stamps. The actual crossing does not happen for another few kilometers from the immigration office, so they proceeded to drive. This is the point where we realized why it is called the most dangerous border crossing...the border is absolutely crazy!!! There seems to be security, but all around you, there are people yelling and trying to sell all types of things. From appliances to food to exotic animals to pirated movies, it seems you can get anything. The hectic nature of the place and the crooked cops is what makes this place so crazy and apparently dangerous...niether of us felt very safe at all...even in a car. The driver was refused entry to numerous roads as the police would not let them in. We finally saw the actual bridge that marked the crossing from Peru to Ecuador. Our driver was saying that there was a better way and tried turning down a dirt road that the car could barely fit onto. It looked as though we were about to drive into the midst of a bunch of vendors stalls when I told him that the bridge to cross was right back there...he kind of ignored me and said something like this was a better way, but I insisted that we get out here and that we no longer wanted to be in the cab. He said it was ok and I said that it wasn´t that we would get out here. He finally gave way and then had to disappear to go get change for the money we gave him. We walked across and felt a bit safer while out of the car, but it was apparent that the Ecuadorian side was not going to be any better.

Luckily, there was an information booth on the bridge and they pointed us to the bus station we were looking for for our trip to Quito. After buying our ticket and storing our bags, we were informed that we had to go and get stamped into Ecuador because the bus (Panamericana) would not stop for border formalities. This is quite strange!! The actual immigration checkpoint is about 3km PAST Huaquillas, the first border town of Ecuador and the Peruvian immigration is about 2km BEFORE the last border town of Aguas Verdes! Very wierd, but we managed fine and made our way back to wait for our bus to depart. this crazy place!!
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