Bus boredom

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- FOOD: Junk food and more junk food - what else is there to buy when you're stuck on a bus all day and night. At least my choc covered nuts and Sublime bar addictions are being fed well.

- AREA: The inside of a bus or a bus terminal. Or a depressing town (I'm sure both Trujillo and Piura are much nicer in the day and away from the bus terminals - I hope so anyway).

- PEOPLE: More people fascinated by Olly but at a time when I did not want the attention. A border man that SMILED amongst all the many at all the MANY police stops we had all through the night.

- WEATHER: Glimpses of grey sky amongst on and off sleep for 2 days.


Wed 29th June: Arrived in Trujillo to find grey sky and taxi hassle. Avoided that and decided to walk to the other bus terminal. Got lost though so got a taxi who took me to the building next door to the original terminal! If only I'd started walking the other way...

Nearly cried when the woman told me there were no tickets to Quito until the following night. There was no way I was waiting nearly 2 days in this depressing town so I bought a ticket as far as I could go (Piura). I then had 3 hours to waste so checked the internet for Galapagos updates - still nothing. Oh god, is all this bus hell going to be for nothing?

I was distraught to see a cage full of packed chicks and a puppy on its own in another cage loaded onto the baggage area of the bus. Poor little things. The bus journey to Piura was ok - the crunchy chocolate covered nuts and Sublime bars (Nestlè but I can't have everything) that I've become addicted to helped.

Arrived at Piura at 7pm - what a horrible place. One long street full of posh banks on one side and scruffy markets on the other. I bought a ticket to Loja (no way I'm staying here - I might be sick to death of buses now but rather that than being stabbed to death). Then I had 3 hours to kill in this dodgy place. Bought some dodgy food in a dodgy cafe with dodgy men who didn't take their eyes off me once. It was the only place not selling street food though.

The markets were obviously doubled up as public toilets from the smell and Olly was attracting the wrong sort of attention so I went back to the 'safety' of the bus terminal where I read about the dangers of travelling by bus in Ecuador at night. Whoops.
I got onto the cramped bus wearing the same clothes I'd been wearing for 2 days now (I could smell myself - yuck), still finding bits of sand on me and having eaten nothing but junk food for the last 3 days. Urrrgghh.
Had weird dreams of a big muscly guy wearing a nuns outfit and singing 'The Sound of Music' and then realised I was actually awake and watching some crap Vin Diesal film.

I had the easiest border crossing in the world compared to the locals who took hours to get through. The border man had a frown deep enough to park a bike in but I got a smile out of him. HOORAY - mission accomplished. Border men seem to like me which is nice although I shouldn't speak too soon - I'll probably get busted at the next one for having drugs planted on me and end up in some stinking prison (oh god, I've just worried myself). We had 2 more police stops in the middle of the night but I wasn't surprised as some of the other passengers seemed suspicious to me - I mean who carries around a huge Sponge Bob with it's wide eyes that looks like it's taken every drug in existence!

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