Depart Valladolid, Ecuador on Wednesday at 6pm. Much later in the day than we expected due to delays of busses because of construction. Arrive in Zumba, Ecuador, last major town before the Peruvian border around 9:30pm. A sleepy town at that time of night where no taxis are waiting at the small bus terminal. We hoof it to town and locate a hostal with the help of a taxi passing by that charges us full fare for half the amount of a ride (I discovered this the next morning). A short, and mostly restless night's sleep and we are up at 6:30am to catch a combi-taxi to the border crossing. Combis are generally trucks that require a certain number of passengers before departure. With the help of some patient commuters, we loaded a pick-up and headed to the remote La Balsa fronterra, border crossing. It was fairly self explanatory, which it needed to be because there was hardly anyone there. Unlike any border crossing I had ever seen. There was no customs, no guards, just a wooden pole across the small bridge that led across the river to Peru. We entered the Ecuador offices and the guard was just waking up. He walked out shirtless to collect our information and give us our stamps.
We took the lead of a couple other people we had seen and showed ourselves across the bridge. On the other side we could barely locate the office with a small sign (animal control was the most apparent office) but at least someone was awake and willing to help us fill out our forms. However we had to go to another building, obtain a stamp, and then head back. I was realizing how remote of a border crossing this really was and not common for foreigners to cross here. The main crossings are located along the coast or to the east into the Amazon. We boarded a colectivo, mini-van, with 9 adults, a baby and a young child, and headed to San Ignacio, our next largest town about 2 hours west. Immediately I thought I could see the economic differences as we drove along smooth paved roads, the first we had seen in day it seemed, but that lasted all of about 8 miles and we were back to bumpy, winding roads plagued with construction that had us stopping every 15 minutes or so.
Our driver was kind enough to take us to a bank and show us to the next colectivo, probably after seeing the distressed look on my face when we pulled into a dirt lot with no busses, only taxis and vans. I figured we must just be at another small stop, but then he started unloading our bags. Our next ride we managed to pack 17 adults, a baby, and a chicken onto the van. I started taking advantage of the vendors who come up to windows and onto busses selling their fruits, candy, snacks. It is likely the only way to ensure getting food on long drives and while bus hopping. I also discovered my true love of chickens and babies. Okay, this had probably been brewing for some time, but I seriously am fascinated with both creatures.
Our arrival in Jaen a few hours later brought another fun form of transportation, a moto-car...basically a rickshaw attached to the back of a motorcycle. The fumes and dust were less than pleasant, but zipping around with hundreds of these on the road was super fun. There were hardly any other cars on the road in this town. They remaianed fairly visible in small towns throughout much of northern Peru. We weren't exactly sure of what our next move was. Get to the bus station and see what busses were being offered at that time of day. It was nearly 3pm on Thursday and it was looking slim. We had missed our bus connecting to the next major town, but as our moto-car pulled up, there was an overnight bus departing for Lima, some 19 hours from Jaen. We took a risk and boarded with luckily just enough cash to pay for the ride.
In the hopes of making it to Argentina to meet up with family for the holidays we had considered the option of overnight busses, but just in case, I had spent hours shuffling through our guide book looking for stops along the way, hostals in which to stay, and alternative routes through three countries. The overnight experience to Lima wasn't awful, I imagined that if my dream of being a touring musician had ever panned out, it would have been a way of life to sleep, eat, and write on busses. Huge bonus that they brought us a tasty boxed dinner. I was imagining that I only had junk food and fruit for the next day.
I watched the landscape change from green rolling hills with fast rushing brown rivers, to brown rocky mountains breaking through, back to flat green farmland. The sunset's pink puffy clouds set the backdrop for mountains to drift into the darkness of night. I couldn't tell one apart from the other at times. I let my mind wander as my eyes passed over the changing formations until I drifted off to sleep. Babies crying (19 hours on a bus, I can't even imagine...) and old Latin American musical on the television woke me up early. We arrived in Lima due to get off at a stop called Ventanilla, a dusty stop on the far end of town (because I thought the man at the ticket counter wanted to know if I wanted a window seat...) I managed to catch our driver to ask him where to go to catch our next bus and he took us to the last stop where there was a proper bus station almost resembling a small airport terminal.
Perhaps we were in a daze from travel, or just really excited that the first ride was basically smooth, but we decided to keep on the distance busses (saved money on food and lodging at least) and booked a bus to Santiago where we paid in advance to get to Mendoza. It was quite a bit more expensive than we had bargained for...but considering that it is two border crossings, three countries, and who knows how many hours....we will total at some point, it seemed worth it. We could have maybe saved money shopping around to different bus companies, but they are located all over Lima and this was simple, quick and everyone we encountered was super friendly and helpful. An hour later, some fast food for good measure, and a stroll through the mall (complete with Christmas music, all the decor, consumerism, and comforts of home) and we were back on our butts for the next leg of our trip.
It has been non-stop traveling and everything turned cold overnight as we passed through throngs of very rocky mountains. I slept well until the tight turns and rocking bus woke me up around 2am. I'm not exactly sure if I got much sleep after that. Madagascar 3 was totally a highlight of my evening. It might be more hilarious in Spanish, although I haven't seen it in English. Totally had the 5 year-old inside of me giggling up a storm.
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