Ruth Caused an Accident

Trip Start Aug 02, 2007
1
8
22
Trip End Aug 22, 2007


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Flag of Ecuador  ,
Friday, August 10, 2007

Day 8:  Today we have a busy day ahead of us with a lot of travelling.  Mike still feels a little sick, but is much much better (in fact, exponentially better).  Thank goodness for antibiotics and a nice hotel.  So, ahead of us, we have a bus trip to Guayaquil, Ecuador, which is on the coast and then a flight to Lima.  While we were in Cuenca, we decided that if we wanted to enjoy the rest of the trip we would have to fly to Lima and take flights throughout Peru.  We really hadn't realized how big Peru was.  Once we made the decision we were very happy about it.  Long bus rides through the mountains really aren't relaxing.

So, we had a nice breakfast and went outside to get a taxi to the bus station.  I raised my arm (as one does to hail a taxi), a taxi pulled over, and what do you know...the taxi behind him crashed into our taxi!  I guess he didn't see that our taxi was pulling over.  They yelled at each other a bit, a cop started to come over, then we got in the first taxi, and went to the bus station.  We bought our tickets and then went to go wait for the bus.  The weirdest thing was that we had to pay 10 cents to get through a turnstyle to get to the bus.  WTF!  We just paid for a bus ticket...why do we need to pay again to get to the actual bus.  We did not get it, but everyone was paying...and there was no other way to get to the bus.  No medicine sellers on this bus but along the route we picked up guys selling oranges, ice cream, chocolate, and jewelry.  Only the orange seller and ice cream seller didn't have to give a speech convincing the passengers to buy their goods.  It was amazing how the countryside changed as we headed out of the mountains.  Instead of mountains, there were banana trees and it got considerably warmer.  We were very happy to finally reach flat and straight ground.  They drive like maniacs through the mountains. 

We got to Guayaquil in about 4 hours and went to the airport.  It was a nice quick flight to Lima and we were very happy to arrive there, especially after spending days wondering which ridiculously long bus route was the best to take.  We decided to rent a phone at the airport, which turned out to be very helpful.  The guy at the Tourist Information desk was of no help in finding a hotel, but luckily the phone rental girl told us there was a hotel across the street from the airport.  Very convenient since we had an early flight to Arequipa the next day!  We checked in and relaxed.  We also got a welcome drink...our first pisco sour!  And...since Mike wasn't feeling great, I got to drink his welcome drink!  That's a first!
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