How Am I Going to Get to Guayaquil?

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That is the question I´ve been considering all night and morning. I woke up around 8 to start figuring out my route north. Every bus and bus driver I saw I asked if they were going to Tumbes, all said No Passe, No passe. So I headed to the internet cafe to call Aunt B for a credit card number to book a flight somewhere...I have no plastic on me and she´s my go-to person while my mom is indisposed. I checked the flights from Piura to Tumbes and they are 500-600 bucks...REDICULES! I also checked into a bus to Lima and then a flight from Lima to Guayaquil and that was 350 bucks...CRAZY. So before I booked anything I headed to the bus place to see if the busses were going again and the woman said YES!! WOO HOO...I may make it to the Galapagos after all.

I grabbed lunch with the Canadians at the birdhouse one last time...they are on the 530pm bus to Lima so today is our final day together. After lunch I headed downstairs to the couches near the bar to just nap the day away. I mentally checked out of the beach last night so I´m not down for too much beach action today...just biding my time until my bus tonight. While I napped on the couches for a few hours I ordered a few frozen lemonades which are sooooo delicious. At one point in my nap I felt my camelback move and I opened my eyes to see some little girl playing with the blue water line...I said "Es Mio...vamanos"...she quickly hightailed it out of there.

Around 3 I headed to join Braeden and Raya on the beach for drinks and to watch the beginner surfers...they are so funny! After our drinks we headed to the internet cafe where we parted ways around 5. I wanted to watch some shows I was missing and waste some time before my bus tonight. Needless to say the internet was TOO SLOW so I wasn´t watching much of anything. I hung out as much as I could until about 6 and then decided to get some lasagne at the place we ate at a few nights ago...very good 3 course meail for 16 soles. After dinner I headed back to the hostel to get my stuff and headed to the place where I bought my bus tickets. I dropped my stuff down and headed to the internet cafe to waste some more time...2 hours to go!

Around 9 I headed back to the place to wait with my stuff...at that point the guy told me the bus was not stopping at that location, it was stopping at the CIFA bus station which was a 3 min taxi ride up the road a bit. So I flagged one down and headed up to the bus stop. I hopped out, paid the guy and sat around with everyone else on my bus waiting for it to arrive. I knew there was going to be some kind of mixup because my ticket was originally for yesterday and all these people were riding today...I specifically paid for a bed (a reclining chair that goes back 160 degrees) in the bottom of a double decker bus. Sure enough when it was time to board, I was told my ticket was for upstairs...I told the woman I paid for 50 soles for a bed so she let me get a bed (I almost negotiated for 45 soles when I bought my ticket which would have surely screwed me out of the bed and I would have been stuck upstairs with the regular chairs). I got one of the final beds on the bus and some of the people I was waiting with didn´t get a bed they paid for...I felt kinda bad but after the strike I dealt with the night before and being a day late to the Galapagos...I didn´t think twice about laying down and going to sleep. I hopped in, threw my ipod in and thought it was smooth sailing until the border crossing and then onto Guayaquil (it´s suppose to be a direct bus)...key word....THOUGHT!

Not an hour into our drive we stopped about 3 times letting people on. Around midnight I was woken up by the bus hostes...I had to pry my eyes open since I was sooo dead asleep...we finally made it to Peruvian emmigration...a different place than the one I checked into Peru 2 weeks ago. The whole bus was in and out in 20 minutes...VERY expedient and awesome...I couldn´t ask for better in the middle of the night at an overland border crossing. We hopped back on the bus and headed to Ecuadorean immigration...about a 5-10 minute ride. We showed up and there was already a couple busses there and 2 lines (one exit, one entrance)...I of course wasn´t paying attention to the signs and went to the line that was shortest. After filling out my customs immigration form and waiting around for 10 minutes I realized the lines weren´t moving...How can this be? I looked up and sure enough there were no agents at the windows!!!!!! I guess they took their lunch break at the same time. After about 20 more minutes they returned and started stamping passports and doing their border agent thing. I was working my way to the window one person at a time...when there were only 3 people ahead of me, a woman from my bus was turned away and pointed to the other long line which was ENTRANCE...immigration...oh man! So I along with everyone else moved to the other long line and then waited some more. By the time we all got our stamps and were allowed entrance it was nearly 2:15...almost 2 hours at Ecuadorean immigration...I´ve never waited in such a long line! So we all hopped back on the bus and again thought it was smooth sailing until we reached Guayaquil at 6am...at this point I know it´s going to be more like 7am.

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Comments

[braeden]

told you so
now do you believe me that overland borders can suck a@#. We made lima no prob, pretty cool city. peace.

[Diveferfun]

I guess I had to experience it myself!!! One of those things that you don´t believe until it happens to you!!!!!!!