Welcomed to Peru by Winnie the Pool (sic)

After five weeks it was finally time to say goodbye to Ecuador. We woke at 6am to catch our 7am bus across the border to Piura, Peru. There we would catch a flight to Lima. But first we had an eight hour bus ride. Surprisingly, the eight hours didn`t seem so long. I got a lot of reading done, slept a bit, and, during our breakfast stop, tried tree tomato juice. I didn`t like it.

I had read that the border crossing closer to the coast was a real pain, with lots of hassles from people trying to take advantage of the confusion of a border crossing three kilometers from the actual border. Mark had gone that route and said he felt like a target. An Austrian on our bus said she had done it a few months earlier and the whole process took her more than three hours. This is why we chose to cross further inland. I`m glad we did. Both sides of the border crossing were easy. We (the six foreigners on the bus) finished the whole process in less than 30 minutes. But I did get a small customs form that I was told I needed to hold on to until I leave the country. That`ll be a challenge. How many things have I lost so far?

We arrived in the busy city of Piura around 3ish. Bus stations in Ecuador were centralized with each company operating from one main building. Peru is different: each bus company has it`s own building. And they don`t have all the services the big stations have. So we couldn`t immediately get Peruvian soles from an ATM to pay a taxi. Fortunately the only taxi at the station offered to drive us for a dollar (U.S.). Driving through the city I was reminded of my time in Kenya. Taxis were much smaller and several were motorbikes with a carriage attached. We noticed a large, dusty outdoor market that looked similar to one in Mombassa. People were walking every where and there was a lot of trash as well. We left all of this behind when we turned into the posher neighborhood where our hostal was.

The hostal was really nice. We got a large, sun-lit room with two beds and cable TV. The bathroom was big too. And spotless! All for $9 each. After settling in and putting on clean clothes for the first time in three days, we went out in search of an airline office to buy our Lima tickets and find a phone shop to get new cards for the new country. The airline offices were closed. The large mall, quite open. And packed well into the night. We asked the clerk at the phone stall if the next day was a holiday. At 10pm, the central plaza, mall, and streets were busy with families checking out this and that. She said people just take advantage of their day off.

Dinner options here were limited. We found a place that advertised ceviche and ordered a large plate of it. It was made of soy. Almost everything on the menu was. I finished it anyway. Then we walked next door for some coffee. The central plaza was our view and it was hopping. There was even a man dressed in a Winnie the Pooh costume posing for pics and handing out toys. But wait, his red shirt didn`t say Pooh. It said Pool. Huh? And he wasn`t wearing the torso part of the costume. This made his butt look way out of proportion. And was that an indigenous handbag around his shoulder? It`s ethnic Pooh! Where was Chanchito and Tigre?? We rushed our coffee so we could go out and get a picture with Pool. But by the time we got out there, Pool had moved on and was replaced by Barry, a Barney look-a-like. Not the same effect.

We made our way back to the hostal where we had the receptionist get our phones working (we couldn`t understand the spanish instructions) and finished the night with Talladega Nights on HBO. Certainly not as funny as Pool.