Against all odds crossing over to Ecuador

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  Zumba, Ecuador
Friday, March 21, 2008

Going against advice from the mini tourist office lady in town we decided to try the inland border crossing into Ecuador. Mainly because it was the most direct route, and the added challenge of actually getting across despite warnings of constant landslides and the difficult logistics of getting so many different forms of transport made it a challenge Jamie and I could not resist. The only info we had found on how to get across was on someone else's travel blog, the border crossing is not even mentioned in the guidebooks!  

We set off from Chachapoyas at 4.30am to get the first collectivo (a Peruvian clapped out taxi where the squeeze as many people in as possible, the norm is 4 in the back, 1 in the boot and 2 people in the passenger seat - we were just thankful they didnīt have 2 in the drivers seat like they do in Cambodia!). The only problem was Jamie and I were the 2 mugs The early we left the more chance there was of getting across the border that day.

3hrs later we arrived in Bagua Grande, we left my travel buddy the old lady with chickens there and we got a little mototaxi (tuk tuk) to the station for an auto collectivo onward to Jaen.

Relived to arrive in Jaen 2 and a quarter hours later, Jamieīs legs took a while to recover after my fat arse had been sat on them all the way, as we were the 2 mugs squeezed into the passengers seat this time! Got a mototaxi to the station as quickly as we could, holding onto as bags as tightly as we could as the town was a complete dump and didnīt look that safe. From there we caught another collectivo to San Ignacio. Leaving the town I saw a vulture tucking into a dead dog on side the street - that pretty much sums the town up. As we drove through the villages and countryside it felt like we were back in Asia. Paddy fields surrounding us, farmers out picking the rice and using their cows to plough the fields. Although the hundreds of vultures were a new thing. We became quite familiar with our fellow passengers, all tightly packed in the car. We shared our lolly pops with them while they stopped off and bought us huge bean things that tasted good ( across between a broad bean and lychee).

After 2.5 hrs of very bumpy dirt road we arrived San Igancio, got a moto uphill to the Plaza for 1 Sole to the collectivo stop. Stopping to get lunch and more money out things stopped going our way - I couldnīt get money out using my cards and Jamie realised he didnīt have his card on him. After much discussion, I got the blame for leaving it in the last hostel. This was a time when a little space would have been good between us, however being forced to sit on top of each other in the passengers seat meant we didnīt really get it!

I had the silent treatment all the way to the point where the huge landslide stopped us in our tracks. As always the locals have a way around these problems. We picked out our bags and got fairly muddy walking over the landslide, over the little bridge into the next village where we picked up another collectivo to the border. We had our own personal taxi this time as it had started to rain heavily and even though we were told the border wasnīt far (we didnīt trust our broken spanish and we had no idea what they said) we couldnīt see it so there was no way we were going to try and walk 10 miles.
While driving through the tiny village of La Balsa we sat and watched a street brawl between 2 amigos (apparently, although I donīt think they are friends now). I have never seen anything like it, all the locals stood round watching the fight while the 2 fighters knocked each others lights out. When our driver was satisfied he had seen enough we drove on with me prompting him about actually getting the border crossing. Arrived at the border in the middle of nowhere. We got out walked to the border post and got stamped out. We found the bridge with roads as wide as a dual carriage way amusing as 2hrs either side was mud track covered in landslides. 
Getting everything stamped was very straightforward. Next potential major stumbling block was transport out of this place as there was virtually nothing just a few little cafes and shops and nothing else but countryside. We had been told there was a ranchero (open sided truck thingy) leaving in a couple hours so we sat and waited. We had already decided there was no way we were going to make to our destination Vilcabamba that day so we chilled and read our books. Jamie meanwhile, still dwelling the whole losing his card issue, felt obliged to just check his bag in case he had misplaced it and low and behold there it was!!!! I got a big kiss and apology!

A couple hours later after a fantastic ride on the ranchero, along the edge of hills and through the spectacular countryside we arrived at Zumba. Looking around to realise we didnīt have a clue where we really where or where we were staying, our nice ranchero driver spotted us looking lost and gave us a lift up to his mates hotel.

Relieved to be safe, we walked round and found the only place offering food. The lady served us a basic 2 course meal (menu) as it is called out here, no idea what it was we tucked in, starving after the days activities. It didnīt take us long to realise Zumba is a army town with no much going on, so it was an early night in our very basic hotel ( in fact we were the only guests).

The next day we jumped on a bus that took us 6 hrs to get to Vilcabamba - at last we made it to the hippy hangout, and hangout is exactly what we plan on doing after a few weeks of hard travelling.

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