The last long bus ride (hopefully)

We got the 9:50am bus to Lima (75S, Oltursa) - quite pricey for 4 hours, but they only had the nicest seats left. What should have been a luxurious trip was possibly one of the worst due to the man behind us talking incessantly on his phone, the repetitive sounds of some noisy toy that was being used to keep a child quiet, and the smell of soiled nappies.

In Peru the larger bus companies tend to have their own depots rather than a central bus station so we were dropped in Lima miles from anywhere. We didn't fancy staying in the capital and buses to half way up the coast weren't until the evening so we decided to get a bus to the north of Peru.

We got the 3:30pm bus (120S, Oltursa) to Mancora. The seats weren't as nice as others we've had but we had front row so could stretch out.

It took 2 hours to get to the main Lima bus station for further pick-ups due to crazy traffic and the fact that Lima is huge. From what we saw, Lima is busy, dirty and has not much of interest! And a very seedy looking street full of sex hostels! There was some of the worst driving I've ever seen - the rules of the road seem to be who dares wins! Don't give way at crossroads or roundabouts, see how many lanes you can cross at once, change lanes as many times as possible, and break at the very last minute if you really have to. Oh and honk your horn incessantly. We must have seen about a hundred very close misses.

The movie choice was poor and dinner was cold (I wasn't eating anyway) but we did play bingo!! Great practice for our numbers.

We arrived in Mancora about midday the next day.Read more