Days passing by

My last post ended with us waiting for a bus. Luckily it eventually came. There wasn't enough room for us to sit in seats for we sat in the bus drivers section for the first little while (buses here have a wall and door separating passengers from the driver. I sat in the seat beside the driver, Anik sat on the dash of the bus facing his back to the front, the french lady sat on the steps with her two sons standing with their backs against the dividing wall. We rode like this for almost half an hour until some passengers got off. It was nice to see where we were driving though for a change. We were driving through the clouds.. Quite literally! It was White like fog but it was actually a cloud! Crazy! We eventually got to Cuenca and said goodbye to the french. We only had to wait an hour for our bus to Loja, which was a good amount of downtime after our 4 HR bus ride before another 5 HR one. We got on the bus after dark and I was actually able to sleep a little bit. We didn't get into Loja until about 11:30pm and had thought about taking a night bus to Peru but I wasnt feeling well and knew I would need real sleep. We found a hostel (after waking up the owner) and tucked in for the night. 

We let ourselves sleep in the next day as we knew it'd be a 9 HR bus ride across the border into Peru. We had breakfast but it was greasy and I wasn't a fan. They have meats and seafood in sauce served with rice for breakfast. Not exactly my ideal breakfast. BUT the orange juice was amazing. I actually watches the girl carry in fresh oranges which she squeezed and served. Mmmmm! When we got to the bus station we realised we had three hours to kill before the bus left. A lot of reading but it seemed to go by fairly quickly. One thing I have to say - the bus stop bathrooms are the only ones I've had to pay for and they have been the nastiest. Bleh! But you I have no choice here since most buses have bathrooms but they aren't always useable. One thing I've found hard with all the busing we've done is that you lack food and get dehydrated. We hardly drink fluids before or while busing because a 9 HR bus ride having to pee would not be enjoyable! The buses generally stop in towns quickly but I am not sure they'd wait for me if I took too long. So that leads to dehydration basically everyday traveling plus a lack of food because you don't eat while on the bus and I'm usually too tired by the time we get in to be bothered. The good thing is Anik and I have been good about carrying crackers, water and fruit with us to snack on. Anyways we got on our bus around 1:00pm the next day ready for the long bus ride. This was actually one of the worst rides yet. We went through a long stretch of construction where it was super dusty, meaning we had to close the windows leaving the bus stifling hot, and so bumpy! These conditions weren't conducive to the game of crazy 8s Anik and I were tryin to play! The views were gorgeous though and we've been lucky to see so much of Ecuador. You could see things changing from jungle to desert and it was neat to see. The bumpiness for hours sucked with the driver speedin around the zig zagging corners but it was still beautiful. We got to the Ecuador border where we had to get off the bus to fill out paperwork. We had to walk across the Peru border to fill out paperwork for entering the country and then hopped back on the bus. Didn't even check our bags! Can you imagine?! How different things are here. So far everywhere we've been in Peru has been desert. The first thing I can comment about Peru is that it smells. It smelled so strongly passing through towns I had to put my scarf to my face. What's it smell like you're wondering? Outhouses. Lots of old rotting outhouses.  So nasty. I can't explain it I just know the towns smell. They also have differences here. They use a few different words and actually seem to blur their words together more than in Ecuador. I'm having a harder time understanding here. They also have tuk-tuk looking things that are called mototaxis. Double decker buses are alot more common here and they have more security when loading the buses. Wow what a tangent. Anyways, we made it to Piura, Peru by about 10 pm which was our destination. We let the taxi take us to a hostel where we settled in. We hadn't had Internet for a while so we went to a little Internet cafe to research things for the next leg of our trip. Only 1 sole for an hour, which is less then a dollar! So cheap. 

It was now June 10 so we had decided to stop along the coast since we wouldn't have to be in Cuzco until the 14th. We let ourselves sleep in again before heading out to find food and a bank. We only had American money so we had to get some Peruvian soles before carrying on. We wandered around and found a bank and then a little restaurant where we just said si to the girl, having no clue what she was asking! Back to the bus stop for another 6 HR ride. We tried one place which was sold out except for night buses (another difference in Peru - the separate carriers have their own terminals whereas in Ecuador it would be one big terminal). We tried another one and were in luck that it left in an hour. They rate here for busing is similar to Ecuador - about $1 per HR of travel. We have come all this way for so cheap! We made it from Piura to Trujillo on time and caught a cab. Trujillo is a big city so we decided to stay in a surf town right on the coast called Huanchaco. It was only about 20 mins outside the city so we got in in good time. We went to the hostel we wanted to stay at and got a room. The hostel was really quite cute! We walked the beach and found a place to eat before heading back to the hostel. All this busing is actually very tiring! 

The next morning we had breakfast at the hostel, which was sooo good. Our taxi driver and lonely planet talked about ruins (Chan Chan) near the town so we spent the afternoon roaming them. We hired an English speaking guide for the first one. I'm glad we did so we could explain it all. The ruins were from the Chimu's who lived before the Incas! The palace we walked around sprawled for 14 hectares but of course we never saw it all. Truly impressive though.  The culture of the tribe was for a king to build a palace and when he died they would bury him there and then build another palace for the new king. So the area is actually filled with palaces but theyre still excavating the area. Even the palace we were in wasn't completely uncovered. Some of it was original but some of it had been reconstructed for preservation. This culture believed in sacrifice so the one area we went to was just the area where they did sacrifices. Mostly of women and children for fertility. We wanted to go see the Huanca del Luna and Huanca del Sol which were more ruins well intact with artifacts but we didn't have time. Maybe next time we are here! We had lunch at a little restaurant run by a guy from Holland who moved here three years ago. It was delish! We spent the next hour on the beach but the sun wen away and then it was cold (since it's fall here). We spent time in the hammocks at the hostel and then played with the hostels pet amazon turtle, which wandered into our room. We decided to walk the beach for a place to eat again when we found heaven. Omg. Best food I've had in a long long time and I've had some good food here. They had the BBQ right on the side walk so we watched him cook. We ordered a plate of mixed meat, some of which we couldn't find in my dictionary but it was all unbelievable. Cooked to perfection with so much flavour. We actually considered getting the BBQ guy to marry me so we could bring him to Canada to cook for us. It was THAT good! After stuffing our faces we walked the pier and the beach. The waves here were huge and we both like the sound of the waves. We decided to have dessert at the holland guys place since we'd seen apple pie earlier in the day. We also ordered a fruit dessert dish served with ice cream. What gluttons we are! What a pleasant surprise when mango showed up in the fruit dessert. Anik has been looking for mango but it was out of season in Ecuador. Mmmm. Best food day yet. We were both drunk off the food I think. We spent some time booking our flights from Lima to Cuzco and looking up hostels in Lima and Cuzco and it was bed time. The food put me right to sleep! 

That brings me to today! Wow I'm actually up to date. We got up fairly early this morning to get ready for our trip today. We knew it'd be a 9 HR bus ride from Trujillo to Lima. We had pancakes at the hostel filled with lemon and White sugar. Mmmm so good. We walked to a local supermarket to pick up more snacks and found some amazing fresh fruit. I would bet it was picked yesterday. And mangos! We checked out of the hostel and then waited to catch a cab back to Trujillo. Turns out a local bus came first so we hopped on, backpacks and all. Only cost 3 soles to get to the city although it was an interesting ride. Nonetheless we made it safe and caught a cab to a bus terminal. We knew this one bus company called ittsa advertised comfy seats that recline a long ways so we went there. It cost us double what it would on a shitty bus but I didn't care. Double price was still only about $20. And the washrooms in the terminal were clean and useable. Score! In fact, it seemed to be a ritzy type of bus company. After waiting for an hour we found out I was right! The seats are big enough for almost two of me to fit in, you can stretch your legs out a long ways, they give you a pillow, drinks, lunch and snacks, the ac actually works, and the chairs recline to a lazy boy position plus their leather  This is luxury! We've now been on the bus for 7 hrs and it hardly feels like it. Oh there's also a working bathroom, and we're on the second level so it's quieter with great views  Seems like first class on an airplane. I'm in heaven. This is definitely the way to bus from place to place..