Blogs from Piura, Peru, South America - page 13

Once I got to Guayaquil on the 25th we saw Molly off on her flight back to the UK and then Liam and me spent the night in Guayaquil before heading down the next day to Peru. We decided to go down to a little beach town called Mancora, right near the Ecuadorian border across which we had an eventful but not problematic crossing. There were two irritating immigration checks, then a traffic jam consisting of loads of trucks carrying animal skins and finally two customs/random checks. Apparently you are NOT ALLOWED to carry potatoes or citrus fruits from Ecuador into Peru. Luckily for us Liam and I hid all our ´tatoes in "special places", and fooled the customs guards. Liam also told them he was Italian just to throw them off our scent. The next ... read more

We last wrote to you from the mountains of Cajamarca - we were definitely off the tourist beaten track there and were the only gringos walking around, which was great!! However, with small out-of-the-way villages comes a very inadequate transport system and the only way to go further east was to Celendin and then Chachapoyas... the views from our cramped, bone shattering bus seats made the trip worthwhile though. We weaved over and down a whole mountain range, through spectacular passes at incredible heights with sensational panoramic views... but it took forever (five hours!!) for a 98km journey! Eventually, the bus pulled in to Celendin which was another quaint, quiet Wild West type town. Every other week of the year, it seemed, nothing happens here, but fortunately we had landed right in the middle of their ... read more

My next few days were spent in Mancora, a coastal holiday resort and party town with one of Peru´s finest beaches. Here a multitude of backpackers rub shoulders with the Peruvian jet-set. I had come here to fufill a major desire of mine, to learn a very cool activity which I had lusted after for years. KITESURFING! For those of you not familiar with kitesurfing, you are firmly attached by a harness to an enormous kite the size of a parachute, and then pulled along the water on a board at ludicrous speeds. Unfortunately my travel insurance did not cover me for this. I had specifically asked and they wouldn´t. Why oh why?? I am insured for mountain climbing, abseiling, snowboarding, parachuting, bungee jumping, rafting and a myriad of other things which involve falling, jumping, flying ... read more

It was time to leave Ecuador and enter Peru, across what the Lonely Planet guide calls “South America´s worst border crossing”. One of the problems is the border guards charging you an exit or entry fee which doesn´t exist. The simple solution is to ask for a receipt. Suddenly you will get through without any charge! But the trickiest and most ridiculous thing is the oficial exit requirements from Ecuador.In an ideal world, a border crossing goes like this: 1. Leave Ecuador, get an exit stamp 2. Enter Peru, get an entry stamp Simple,yes? But for Ecuador you also need to fill out a “T-3 Immigration” card when you leave the country. Common sense would have these available at the border. But noooooooo, that would be far too easy. You can only get this form at ... read more

Arrived at Mancora yesterday in scorching heat which hasn't let up at all. No idea why everyone was telling us Peru would be cold, all my jumpers are currently residing at the bottom of my bag and look like they'll be staying there for quite some time! Caught a rickshaw taxi the 400 metres to our chosen hostal as it was far too hot to be lugging bags anywhere. We had a day on the beach although we didn't quite have the energy to join the surfers (and would probably die a horrible death on the rocks if we had tried!). I managed to step on a crab which decided to crawl up out of the sand right under my foot! Kind of off-putting! Also got invited by a very friendly Colombian guy to 'come ... read more