5-31
I took a bus early in the morning from Puerta Ayora to the north of Santa Cruz, then the ferry to Baltra Island and then a bus to the airport where I caught my flight to Guayaquil. The flight wasn't too bad on the ears until we started to descend and then the pain was pretty excruciating. But the ears were feeling better after having been at the airport for a bit. From the airport, I took a taxi to the terminal terrestre where I caught a bus to Huaquillas which is an Ecuadorian town on the border with Peru. Elisha and I had worked out how to try and meet up. She had suggested a couple of Hostals, and the first one that I tried, I found her there. I told the people at the front desk "Estoy buscano para mi novia" (I am looking for my girlfriend). They didn't seem to know. Then I said "La Chica muy alta" (The very tall girl). And then they knew right away and happily showed me where she was.
6-1
In the morning, Elisha and I walked across the border, which was a bridge, into Peru and into the town of Agua Verde. Unfortunately the immigration offices are located on the Panamerican Hwy, so we had to take a taxi out to the Panamerican where we could get officially stamped out of Ecuador and stamped into Peru. We then took a taxi to Tumbes. We wanted to go to Trujillo from here, but they only had night buses, so we took a busfrom Tumbes to Piura. They also only had night buses to Trujillo, so we killed a bunch of time getting some food, eating icecream, and hitting up some internet before taking a nice luxury overnight bus to Trujillo. Trujillo is a bit of a dangerous city, which is part of the reason we took a luxury bus. The bus had x-ray security like at the airport and also took each passengers fingerprints. When we arrived at 5:30am into Trujillo we took one fo the bus companies taxis (regular taxis can kidnap you and take you to an ATM where they force you to withdraw money) to another bus company where we took a bus to Chimbote. Chimbote smelled terribly bad of fish as it was an area with major fish processing. We had to wait there a couple of hours until taking a bus to Huaraz up in the mountains. The ride up was interesting. First we went along the coast where we could see the ocean and where there were some large sand dunes. Then we turned inland where we wenth through incredibly dry desert; no plants, just dirt and sand. As we drove higher up there started to be cacti and then eventually it turned into high andean agriculture. As we descended into Huaraz, there were beautiful views of the high snowcapped Andes of the Cordillera Blanca (white mountain range). Huaraz sits at 10,013ft above sea level. In Huaraz, we checked into our hostel, went out for food, and when we arrived back at the hostel our Antarctic friend Dacre and his friend Kim (from Australia) were there.
I took a bus early in the morning from Puerta Ayora to the north of Santa Cruz, then the ferry to Baltra Island and then a bus to the airport where I caught my flight to Guayaquil. The flight wasn't too bad on the ears until we started to descend and then the pain was pretty excruciating. But the ears were feeling better after having been at the airport for a bit. From the airport, I took a taxi to the terminal terrestre where I caught a bus to Huaquillas which is an Ecuadorian town on the border with Peru. Elisha and I had worked out how to try and meet up. She had suggested a couple of Hostals, and the first one that I tried, I found her there. I told the people at the front desk "Estoy buscano para mi novia" (I am looking for my girlfriend). They didn't seem to know. Then I said "La Chica muy alta" (The very tall girl). And then they knew right away and happily showed me where she was.
6-1
In the morning, Elisha and I walked across the border, which was a bridge, into Peru and into the town of Agua Verde. Unfortunately the immigration offices are located on the Panamerican Hwy, so we had to take a taxi out to the Panamerican where we could get officially stamped out of Ecuador and stamped into Peru. We then took a taxi to Tumbes. We wanted to go to Trujillo from here, but they only had night buses, so we took a busfrom Tumbes to Piura. They also only had night buses to Trujillo, so we killed a bunch of time getting some food, eating icecream, and hitting up some internet before taking a nice luxury overnight bus to Trujillo. Trujillo is a bit of a dangerous city, which is part of the reason we took a luxury bus. The bus had x-ray security like at the airport and also took each passengers fingerprints. When we arrived at 5:30am into Trujillo we took one fo the bus companies taxis (regular taxis can kidnap you and take you to an ATM where they force you to withdraw money) to another bus company where we took a bus to Chimbote. Chimbote smelled terribly bad of fish as it was an area with major fish processing. We had to wait there a couple of hours until taking a bus to Huaraz up in the mountains. The ride up was interesting. First we went along the coast where we could see the ocean and where there were some large sand dunes. Then we turned inland where we wenth through incredibly dry desert; no plants, just dirt and sand. As we drove higher up there started to be cacti and then eventually it turned into high andean agriculture. As we descended into Huaraz, there were beautiful views of the high snowcapped Andes of the Cordillera Blanca (white mountain range). Huaraz sits at 10,013ft above sea level. In Huaraz, we checked into our hostel, went out for food, and when we arrived back at the hostel our Antarctic friend Dacre and his friend Kim (from Australia) were there.
5 comments:
Happy 30th birthday Travis! Cannot believe that little kid who used to live up the road is 30. Sure enjoy reading about your adventures online -- keep it up. And stay healthy.
Carleen
Thanks Carleen! I was just talking about Montrose because the guy I am traveling with at the moment grew up in Junction.
While Travis was diving the Galapagos, I set out on my own for 9 days. This was my first real solo travelling. I was a little nervois setting out not able to spaek spanish and not having my translator by my side. But, I did ok with my few words of broken spanish. I went tothe Colonial town of Cuenca for a few days. This town had some nice markets that I enjoyed having breakfast at along with all the locals with loads of nice fruits and veggies. Cuenca had so many beautiful Cathedral churches that were nice to walk around and look at. From Cuenca I took a day trip to some Incan ruins called Ingapirca. I was proud of myself fpr getring myself to the small village with thte ruins and back on multiple busses with my poor lang skills (boy do I wish I would have taken spanish in high school instead of German). The ruins were cool and in a beautiful setting.
The next day I went to Banos 2 (Ecuador has two towns named banos). There were some hotspring there that I went to in the morning. It was nice to soak for a few hrs. Then I walked up the hill to this beautiful blue cathedral where I indulged in a post sunday mass breakfast.It is funny bc a bunch of vendors set up their food stall/carts for the church goers. This has been the case since Colombia. Maybe I should try this at home?
Latr that afternoon I made my way to another town which had a nice sunday market. I ate some lunch there in the "food court." There were all theae giant roasted pigs that they were selling meals from. The Ecuadorian happy meal I guess. Pork with hominy, tomatoes and onions.
That night I hung out qith some girls I met at my hostel. One from Holland and one from Switzerland. They shared their bottle of wine with me as we talked. Nice girls.
After staying in Cuenca for 3 nights I got on a bus to Vilcabamba. This was a really beutiful, quaint and peaceful village in the mountains. It was a perfect place to chill for the last of my solo time. I stayed at a really great german run hostal. The hostal is surounded by the countryside with flowers everywhere. I did some nice day hikes and ate some good healthy food there. The free buffet breakfast at the hostel was one of the best parts! Many people travel to Vilcabamba intending to stay a day or two but end up staying far more. I would have liked to stay longer myself but Peru was calling our names.
From Vilcabamba I travelled to the border to meet up with Travis again (see above).
I typed these on my phone so please forgive the spelling errors;)
Post a Comment