Thirty kilometers south of the Ecuador/Peru border is Tumbes. We had a quick awakening to Peru – we were repeatedly overcharged for food, etc. Ecuador has an efficient bus system, but Peru has an awful, privately owned bus system. Only 1 or 2 bus companies run between many cities. We had some problems travelling because the Peruvians were PROTESTING for a better transportation system.
In the evening a motorcycle taxi drove by and a man tried to grab my Canon camera from me. He pulled so hard that I received scratches on my left leg from being partially pulled into the motorcycle taxi. As always, I had the camera straps around my neck and he could not pull the camera away from me.
At the bus terminal in Tumbes we met a wonderful 86 year old Peruvian gentleman, Juan, who used to be a boxer, so he was wonderfully fit.
That evening we took the night bus from 9pm to 5am to Chiclayo. Juan took us to his small apartment in Chiclayo and introduced us to his son, Oscar, and 40-something girlfriend. Oscar took us to a hotel nearby and then we all went to lunch at a simple stall in the market. Both Juan and Oscar, were absolutely wonderful to us. They helped us very much even though both didn’t speak hardly a word of English. Oscar even helped us by bus tickets to Trujillo.
We have spent three nights in Trujillo, visiting nearby museums of the Pre-Columbian peoples of the North Coast of Peru – Huaca Prieta, Moche, Chimu, etc. They lived in Peru from 3500BC until the Spaniards arrived. Now another 20 hour bus to Lima, then another 25 hours bus to Cuzco.
One of my good friends emailed me the other day and asked how did Ecuadorian people deal with the country’s currency being officially the USA dollar.
