Ecuador to Peru by bus, by Kev

27.10.2025. I think. So we left Loja on a bus, bound for Piura, Peru. We had to check out at 12 mid-day and didn't get on the bus until 23:00 that night. Lots of time spent in the bus station. Finally, 23:00 arrives and we get on the bus. We're off, it's late so let's try and sleep. They put a movie on! Some Richard Gere and a dog thing, dubbed in Spanish and pretty bloody loud. Great, I'll try and sleep through that. Somehow I did manage it, because I don't remember the end of the movie. We stopped at the border and hopped off the bus. It's around 2:30am and we're not sure how this is gonna play out. The guy in the Ecuadorian booth stamped us out and we moved the whole 6-7 metres over to the Peruvian booth. He spoke some English and seemed pretty nice. We got another stamp and were welcomed to Peru. Back on the bus and off again. We arrived at Piura around 8:39 in the morning, though all the details are a bit blurry. We had a quick walk to our new apartment and got checked in. Hungry? Yes we are. We headed out, found an ATM, got our hands on our first withdrawal of Peruvian Sol. Lunch was bought and devoured. We then did a quick hit and run on a supermarket. We decided while we were out, that we would sort out our next bus tickets. We found the bus station and after a while and some google translate, we sorted some tickets. We had planned on being in Piura for two days, but the bus is overnight and our next stay is a key one. So we decided to leave Piura a day early. My first impression of Peru? It reminds me a lot of Cambodia and India. Lots of rubbish blowing about. Cracked footpaths with holes everywhere. Obvious poverty, all about. Tuktuks everywhere. Very similar but smaller than the ones we used elsewhere. They call them mototaxis here too. Anyway, we tried to get one to take us to an art place. After some confusion and them seemingly not wanting to take four people, as I said they seem smaller here, we gave up and went back to the apartment. We played some games, I made some pasta, we watched a movie and we went to bed. Bring on tomorrow!

29.10.2025. You may have noticed I skipped a day, very astute of you. The last entry covered two days, this one probably will too. We walked across the street to a little restaurant for breakfast. Emma got a lovely bowl of fruit, cereal and yoghurt. She couldn't finish it, so Mel and I got some. We headed back to our apartment and waited. All packed and off again. We headed back to the bus station with all our gear. This bus was one of two today, and it leaves Piura at mid day. Oooh it was a comfy one, with plenty of leg room. Three hours later we were in a place called Chiclayo, for a changeover. We grabbed some dinner across the street from the station then went back and got on the next bus. It's 7pm and we're off again. This time headed for a place called Pedro Ruiz. We need to get to Chachapoyas, but the guy selling us the tickets only gave us until Pedro Ruiz. It's another short trip after that to get to Chachapoyas. We'll sort it out when we get there I suppose. An uncomfortable night for all, we stopped at Pedro Ruiz and hopped off and started grabbing our bags. We asked the guy how we get to Chachapoyas. After some English/Spanish discussion and several failed google translate attempts, we think we managed to understand that we should just get back on the bus. So we did, thinking maybe we would pay extra later or something. We got back on and eventually made our way to Chachapoyas. We got off, grabbed the bags and wandered off towards a place for some breakfast. The guy never mentioned anything about more money, not that I would have understood anyway. We had a few really sucky days on buses. As usual, the kids were great, they are good travellers. We're in Chachapoyas, we're exhausted and hungry, but we're here. Chachapoyas is in the Amazon rainforest, and we hope to do a few tours here, relax and have some fun.
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