Advertisement
Published: September 23rd 2007
Edit Blog Post
Arrived in Loja at 9.30am and got taxi to our prison style hostel! The town has an architectural musical bridge, as apparently the town is often lined with musicians, but no sign as of yet. There is also a very pretty gateway into the town, consisting of a characteristic white-washed church, which we think is now an artisan. We missed this on our first visit, as every single taxi driver has taken us a different route each time. We caught up on some sleep for a while, exhausted after our long journey. We will not miss those bus rides, but they will stick in our memories for some time!
Prepared this time, we chose our restaurants carefully, & fortunately this time it was not Sunday. However the shops and restaurants do still seem to have random closing times, so we decided it was time to take any opportunity available for food! We found a lovely cheap Mexican restaurant for lunch, and sampled the veggie burritos, very nice, but busy. After we wandered down to the square and did a quick tour of the town, trying to find anything we had missed on our previous visit. We found a nice bakery,
so decided to stock up for our journey ahead. We also visited an internet café, and were gutted to discover that many of our blog entries had been lost in a server crash. Determined to enjoy the final remaining days of our RTW trip, we decided to try & put it to the back of our minds!
Then we visited Ruskins, the café that sells delicious assortment of cakes, for a brief snack, some translation problems though. Nice pineapple juice though and managed to discover they had toasted cheese sandwiches on the menu. Then we headed back to our stark prison cell for the night. Sad to leave Ecuador, as only just touched on it, so much more to explore, maybe next time!
We took the 7am Loja International bus, through the border to Macara across to Piura. The journey took 9 hours, including an additional hour as the bus driver kept stopping off for meals on several occasions! It was a long hot journey, with another English tourist constantly digging their knees into Ellie's back. The scenery was very mountainous, lush, tropical on the Ecuador side, lots cotton trees and pretty red flowering trees. Ecuador has amazing
views of snow-capped mountainous scenery and stunning tropical vegetation. Then as we hit Peru it became very arid, dry desert like vegetation. There were lots of market stalls lining the dusty streets and shanty style houses made from bamboo. We even saw a stall that sold the materials to make the shacks! There were many dogs roaming the streets and skeletal horses tied up.
Piura is Peru's oldest city, like a mirage on the horizon! We arrived in Piura at 4pm, and strangely met our taxi driver friend at the terminal bartering for business. He recognised us, so we thought we ought to use his services again. However he had increased his prices slightly this time and was trying to encourage another tourist to tag along too! As we got into his battered white car (almost a death trap - similar to most cars around here), a few tourists looked at us a little concerned, as this was no ordinary taxi! He drove us to the bus terminal to buy yet more bus tickets, and then on to a new hostel.
We had decided to try out a complex that had a small enclosed tropical garden area, however
the pool was no longer there - a little disappointing. However the town was a little cooler this time. When we arrived they had to make up our room on arrival, & then we had to ask for some pillows as none provided. When they arrived without pillowcases we decided to make do! The room was basic, however there was a nice walled compound with a bar and palm trees. We enjoyed a huge meal, after finally translating that we did not wish to have any meat & ended up with a few hidden extras!
Our accommodation was situated near the market area, so we could not venture out safely after dark. We decided to reside & watch TV, but felt as though we were part of a noisy family meal taking place in the courtyard just outside our room! Not long left now…
Got up later, and went for breakfast in the walled tropical garden. The inclusive breakfast was not free in the end, & to begin with we were given ham sandwiches, which we had to send back! We decided to explore a bit of the town, walked past the gated affluent homes and Club Grau health suite, a diversely contrasting area to where we had previously stayed near the square. We struggled to cross the road with tuk tuks speeding in every direction, & found a nice café in a different square - that understood we were vegetarians!
We spent the remaining part of the afternoon in the garden, sipping fresh orange juice. Not a huge amount to do in this town, mainly a stopover town for tourists crossing the border, a transportation hub. Then we had a quick snack before taking an extremely small taxi, to the bus terminal of 'Cruz del Sur'. We caught the 6pm luxury bus to Lima, our final bus journey, just 14 hours. This bus was the most comfortable, with a hostess who serves food - including vegetarian options, and hosts a bingo game! They even had two good films, with English subtitles.
We tried to savour our last views of Latin America, watching as we passed through the dry, dusty Sechura desert. Lots of shacks, football matches taking place along the way. Quite a few bustling markets, dogs on roof tops, which seems to be commonplace over here. As we neared Lima we saw lots of huge sand dunes towering above on both sides of the roadside and the mist was settling in. We won't forget misty Lima, often difficult to see the headland due to the shear amount of compacted mist that seems to accumulate daily at this time of year. Lima has the appearance of a developing world - such a contrast to other towns/cities, with expensive boutique shops, many casinos, glitzy shopping malls, retail parks with familiar brand names and promenades. Not our favourite city, but worth seeing anyway.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.185s; Tpl: 0.022s; cc: 17; qc: 81; dbt: 0.102s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb