Deserts, bananas and Heidi
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2004
1
6
82
Trip End
May 06, 2005
Cuenca,
Ecuador
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Another long day started with another night bus, this time from Trujillo to Tumbes, a town a few kilometers south of the Ecuadorian border. I awoke at about 7am to see nothing but desert all around. This turned into the very enticing looking beach resort of Mancora (from just a bus-eye view, I'd recommend a visit to anyone passing by), which in turn gave way to the lush green of the rice paddies around Tumbes. Rice and potatoes are part of nearly every Peruvian meal but I hadn't really considered where the rice came from as I associate it more with the landscapes of Asia; well, now I know.
1 Potatoes
The border crossing started extremely well as I had spoken briefly with a Peruvian who was crossing to Guayaquil, so as I got off the bus he directed me to a waiting combi heading for Aguas Verdes and Peruvian passport control. I then took a moto-taxi thing over the bridge to Huaquillas on the Ecuadorian side. I had an 'assistant' for this, who seemed intent on scaring me about how likely it was I would be pick-pocketed on the other side as it's extremely busy. I doubt it helped then that the taxi dropped me down a side street which meant I then had to walk through a heaving market to get to the bus station. No doubt my 'assistant' thought I would feel so grateful for arriving safely and for him getting me an alleged student discount on the bus (which I don't believe for one minute) that I'd pay his very reasonable $20 fee for 15 minutes of his time. To put this in context, the entire 5 hour bus ride to Cuenca (with 'student discount', of course) only cost $5. He left looking disappointed with my final tip, but I suspect I was too soft anyway and he probably fair skipped down the street once out of my sight. I think there are buses that make the journey and would strongly recommend waiting for one to anyone else.
The bus up to Cuenca was much more what I had been expecting, as opposed to the luxurious trips so far with video and hostesses serving up food and drink
2 House in small beach town en route
. This one didn't had a few crowing cockerels on board. They were silenced (or drowned out) for a few minutes by a group of street kids who boarded and sang, accompanied by the playing of shells in the percussion section. We had passport control followed by 3 or 4 other passport inspections for reasons I couldn't fathom. One officer inspected my passport and said 'Ah, so you're 31 then'; not sure if that was his cunning trick to try to catch me out or if he just messed up his sums. Anyway, he let me through.The landscape changed again, from endless acres of banana plantations to the mountains of the Andes, which have a soft, green alpine look around here, but if Heidi came skipping round the corner with Peter the goatherd then I missed it.
