A very early start to the day to catch our bus to PERU! It was to be a 9 and a half hour journey so we were all dreading it a bit.

After getting on the bus that smelled like urine, I settled in for the long haul with some good tunes. Unfortunately we were sitting behind two guys from Ukraine who also smelt like they'd been dragged through a pile of sweat. Once we got to the border we all piled out to give over our passports and immigration details and were met by loads of army guys with ak-47s and other mean looking guns. Apparently the border between ecuador and Peru is one of the most dangerous, because of the drug smuggling and whatnot. They checked the luggage compartment for anyone stowed away in there and patted down our bags. Other than that our arrival into Peru was really smooth and no one discovered the 3kg of coke I had stored in my backpack...juuuust tricking.

My first taste of Peru once we crossed the border wasn't all that great. We passed through a town called Tumbes which was extremely run down, and all the dried up rivers has piles and piles of rubbish in it with vultures circling over head. There was a security guard on the corner of these roads with a long sword at his side. It was unreal to see something that looked like Arthur's sword being used as a potential weapon! It was a real eye opener because some of the towns in Ecuador were pretty bad, but nothing like this. It was dry and desert-like and there were shanty towns as far as the eye could see. Once we were out of Tumbes we just saw desert for another hour and then finally caught our first glimpse of the ocean!! It's been 2 weeks since I've seen it and it felt like an eternity!

Finally we arrived in Mancora, happy to see the arse-end of our Ukrainian stink bombs and even more happy to see this town. It's a small surf town about 2 hours south of the border and full of hippies and surfers. The markets were awesome for buying all sorts of junk (but cool junk) and the beach had a nice wave. We are staying at Las Olas hostel which is on the beach, and I can hear the waves crashing from my bed, I'm in heaven. I threw on my togs as soon as we checked in and threw myself into the water...soooo good. Shirley and I had a gander at the night markets before heading to bed early so we could make the most of our day tomorrow.