Loja-Piura-Lima

Bus. Bus. Bus.
From Quito we caught a supposedly 12-14 hour bus ride that actually took 16 hours to Loja, Ecuador. The city is known for it´s musicians, so we thought we´d check it out. We popped into a nice cheap hotel, only 10$ a night and slept until after 1 in the afternoon. Josh of course didn´t want to miss out on seeing any sights, so we walked up and down the town to catch every park and church within the city limits. Heaven forbid a statue go bye without it´s picture on our camera! We also checked out the Loja Zoo and reluctantly were unable to free any of the thristy sad looking inmates. One half hairless Andean Speckled bear still tears at my heart. We heard no musicians, but Josh claims some guys were carrying guitars.

1pm the next day we caught the border-crossing bus to Piura, Peru. Another longer than expected bus, but tolerably 8 or 9 hours. From Piura we found a helpful taxi driver that took us to a bus terminal that had night buses to Lima.

Peru´s bus system is a bit more difficult to use as there is not a central terminal, thus you have to buz up and down little streets and down allies to find the bus you want. Fortunately we´ve had some helpful taxi drivers direct us in the right direction, sure they expect a little extra money but they deserve it for the help.

At half past 10 pm the bus left from Piura to Lima. This was to be a 16hour bus, so we grabbed a quick chicken and rice dinner from a local street vendor before hopping on the bus. The bus was long and cramped. The seats in this one were NOT made for tall or (I like to say big-boned) persons. Anyway at about 9 am they stopped for breakfast in a big wharehouse on the side of the road in what seemed to be a barren desert. We were looking for a nice cup of coffee and something small for breakfast. Unfortunately this hot spot didn´t have coffee today, only chicken soup and a full course chicken dinner if that´s what you´re hungry for at 9am. We went with the chicken soup and 2 bottles of water. Low and behold I was the lucky girl of the day getting 3 chicken feet in my soup. Three! Moral of the story- when there isn´t coffee don´t bother ordering breakfast.

Finally we arrived in Lima at about 2pm yesterday, another helpful taxi driver carted us to 3 different bus terminals where we finally found a bus that would take us to Cuzco the next day. Some of the other companies are not currently running buses because the Peruvian people between Lima and Cuzco have shut down the road as a way to protest the government.

This morning the receptionist at our hotel alerted us that our bus company had called and our bus to Cuzco was cancelled...sure enough the road that the other buses wouldn´t sell us a ticket to, was in fact closed down today. However, we are taking a bus yet this afternoon to Ariquipe, 16 hours from Lima and another 14 hours from Cuzco. It will be a longer route around, but hopefully it will get us there. We are signed up to hike the Inca Trail on the 27th of this month, we need to pay the rest of the deposit by the 25th. Also taking some time in Cuzco is essential to help us get acclimated. Hopefully we´ll be there in a day or two...I guess we´ll see.