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Erika and Hilary in South America
Hey guys.
Hey guys! So we are finally in Ecuador. We left Huacachina like the devil was on our tails, with our fingers crossed, and only slightly hungover from the night before. Yes we had a meeting with our fellow brothers and sisters of the commonwealth that invloved drinking games and ended up at a loacal Salsa bar (that we stumbled out of around 4am). After only a few hours of sleep we managed to get onto a bus in Ica to Lima and the trip there was relatively painless (and took about 4 hours). We had forgotten what what a big dirty city Lima was and were anxious to get to the Flores bus station and by our tickets out of there. After some mild confusion which Hilary sorted out quite well we purchased tickets to Piura. We stocked up at a bakery for a couple dollars US and were ready for our marathon bus trip north. The bus ride started out uneventfully. I sat next to the window and stared out at the desert scenery until it got dark. Hilary went to sleep almost right away. Then people started putting their seats back and things got pretty cramped pretty quickly. I managed to find a semi comfortable position and dozed on and off for the next 8 hours or so. The entire time I was ¨sleeping¨ the old guy behind me was snoring EXTREMELY LOUDLY. Like the loudest I have ever heard. It was also continuous except for when he would stop (wake up?) and breath two or three hot hot breaths over me and then pass out again while I was left to deal with the stench that followed. At some point the air was turned off on the bus so the smell lingered for five or ten minutes. So by that time I was starting to get pretty stir crazy. Hilary had woken up a few hours before and offered to switch me seats but I was all ¨noo nooo¨. Anyway her offer was starting to look pretty good when I remembered my muscle relaxants lying in my pack under my seat. I figured if I could pop a couple of those I would be able to chill out. However, trying to reach them was impossible with the seat in front of me on my lap. And my attempts just made me more frantic. I could feel my thigh muscles cramping up and honestly thought I was going to lose it from being so confined. I tried crouching up on the seat but to no avail. Finally I broke (hey this was after 10 or 11 hours on our SECOND bus of the day) and attempted to wake hilary so I could get up...a walk to the bathroom became shining dream to be achieved and I was also fantasizing about the bus breaking down so I could go for a walk. The only problem was that waking hilary was easier said than done. Remember (I hate to admit it) I was feeling none to gentle at this point. I started off shaking her leg roughly...nothing. Then I shook her whole body...nothing. I smacked her head (ok gently!) and still nothing. FINALLY I tapped her pretty hard repetatively on the neck and she woke up after a 2 minute delay with no idea what had woken her. I basically yelled let me out and lept around her and took sanctaury in the none too pleasant bus bathroom at 4:30 am. I hung out there for awhile and finally made my way back to our seats where hilary was pretty much already asleep so I stretched my legs out into the aisle. The rest of the bus trip was uneventful and culminated in us being served chocolate filled twinkies (my first twinky ever!). We sorted ourselves in the bus terminal and grabbed a cab to the post office so I could send my Peruvian post cards (some of you will be getting lucky in about a week). Then we made a (in retrospect) mad dash to the bus and were thrown on a bus to Loja with out time for them to even print out tickets for us. On that leg of the trip we saw some of the saddest scenery so far. Lots of shanty towns built in the sand and there was garbage everywhere (I did take some pictures...I felt we were showing you guys too much nice). I also saw small children, sometimes with mothers, picking through the garbage. It was even in the plantations. As we neared Ecuador the weather started getting more humid and the surrounding more lush. We hit the boarder after 2 or 3 hours and had only minor complications. We showed our passports to Peruvian police man (wanting directions) and he took our visa enterance ticket thingy and pointed us to a hut where the people ended up wanting said thingy so we had to run around looking for the police guy and then get our ticket back and then get exit stamps and then go to the police hut and tell them our age and then they gave hil a massive bear hug and told me I was very tanned and we walked over the boarder and got enterance stamps into Ecuador. As soon as we crossed the boarder I saw a tiny monkey in the tree. It was soooo cute (not as cute I also saw my first cockroach in Ecuador although it was pretty small...I suspect the bugs will be much more of a presence here). Anyway at this point Hil and I switched off seats and she sat in the window so she can probably give you a better account of our scenic journey into Ecuador. Love you guys and thanks for the messages! XOXOXOXO ErikaThe scenery changed so much as we crossed the border - it was wierd, it was almost like Peru was arid and dry and fairly boring, and it got tropical as we went over the bridge. We passed orange trees, lime trees, lemon trees - saw people selling coconuts and watermelons on the side of the road. We started climbing here, too - all through Peru we were on really flat terrain, and once we got across the border, it got quite hilly, with lots of winding roads in the mountains. The mountains are beautiful here - you can see for so long, and there´s so much definition on them - I think maybe because a lot of the plants are quite short, so you can see all the dips and hils on the mountains. Erika commented that they looked like a topographical map. Really, really beautiful.One of the nicest things about all the greenery is that it made even the smallest shack look quite prety. In Peru, we saw a few shantytowns, and they were some of the most desolate places I´ve ever seen - dirt and shacks. Here, though, even though the houses are tiny, and aren´t in great shape, they have these yards covered in flowering vines, with big trees and plants everywhere - the sort of landscaping that some people would pay a small fortune for. It was fun being on a bus that the locals used - people flagged it down on the side of the road and climbed on, then got off in the middle of nowhere. I watched one woman running for the bus who actually forgot her baby - someone chased her down with the baby! Lots of horses and donkeys at the side of the road, too. The other bonus is that these buses aren´t fancy enough to have more than one TV, which is at the very front, so it´s not in your face. We ran into a girl who was on the bus from hell with us, and she was heading to Vilcabamba, too. By the time we got into Loja, which is the nearest big place, Erika and I had been travelling for 33 hours, and we´re pretty done with buses, and Shelea had been going for awhile, too. None of us were keen on getting onto another 1 1/2 hour bus right away. We´d read that you could get shared taxis for pretty cheap, but the taxi-driver who we asked about them didn´t think they were running on Sundays, so he agreed to drive us for $15. A good choice, since it took about 45 minutes, and he dropped us in the main square. We´re staying at a hostel called hidden garden - reminds me a lot of the house in Akumal. The showers are pure heaven - loads of water pressure, really hot water, and pretty tiled bathrooms. Comfy beds, too - a big bonus after all that time on buses! We´re definitely in the land of creep-crawlies now - saw two cockroaches last night, and Erika kicked a cricket out of our room before we went to bed. Woke up this morning after a fantastic sleep in, and went out for ham, cheese, and tomato crepes (and real coffee! No Nescafe!). After this, we´re off to find laundry, and then decide how long we want to spend here (there´s a great National Park here - so I´d really like to check that out). So happy to be away from strikes (I read that a couple of days ago, a group of teachers actually tried to set fire to one of the train stations on the Cusco-Machu Picchu route - crazy!), and in a new country with loads of new places to explore, and warm nights. Yay!- comments