Riding in Carros and Meeting Extranjeros

*NOTE: Once I get to Quito I will post photos - I promise!!*

Buenos días desde Machala, ECUADOR!! I made it - sort of. I planned to bus it as quickly as possible straight to Quito, but after a crazy crazy day yesterday aboard 4 buses, a minibus, 3 taxis, and perhaps the sketchiest border crossigng I have ever experienced over the course of 27 hours, I had to take a breather. Plus, it just so happens that two of my closest Quiteño friends (and the ones I will be staying with for the next 2 weeks) are in their hometown of Guayaquil for the weekend to vote as some sort of election is taking place today. And Guayaquil is only 3 hours away from where I am - as opposed to Quito which is 10 hours away. So after bathing, eating a real meal, and catching up on emails, I will pack my bag for one more long haul journey and head to meet Ivo and Luisfer in Guayaquil where the three of us will board a night bus bound for Quito. So this time tomorrow I should be back in Quito - my home away from home for nearly a year during my junior year of college.

So much of the last 5 days since I last wrote - has it ONLY been 5 days?! - have been spent in carros (i.e. Peruvian buses). After my 22 hour Cusco-Lima bus, I wandered around lost for an hour or so as I attempted to find a bus to Huaraz where I intended to spend a few days more hiking en la naturaleza before making the long haul to Quito. Well, here is where I have to say shame on me for ever thinking bad of big city bus terminals. It turns out big cities WITHOUT bus terminals are far far more overwhelming. Not only is there no central bus terminal in most cities in Peru, but the bus companies are not always close to each other. Not being aware of this, I wandered around what turns out to be a rather sketchy part of Lima at 7 in the morning from one bus company to another asking for buses to Huaraz. I finally found one, but had to take a taxi to the company and only had 15 minutes to make the 20 minute ride before my bus left. The taxista assured me we would make it in time. Me, feeling frustrated, tired, and overwhelmed in the big, belching city of Lima only wanted to get out. Didnt care where I went really, as long as it meant to come smaller, cleaner, less chaotic place. So as the taxi weaved through traffic, I decided, if I didnt make the bus, I would go to Quito. There was a direct bus - 32 horus! - in a few hours, and I would take that. Fin! At least in Quito, I know people and know the city. I have learned a number of things on this adventure that I hope to carry with me into the future. One thing that has come up A LOT in the last week is not to panic when a situation seems bigger than I can handle. I have found myself on the verge of panicky tears a few times, but been able to tell myself to take a deep breath, find a "safe" place, and think about what plan of action is best to take for the moment. And after a few minutes, the situation no longer seems so bad. It may still not be a place where I WANT to be, but it is a situation that I can at least handle for long enough to find a way to get myself out.

So, on that note, I settled into my crazy cab ride, arriving in the knick of time to buy my ticket and board the 8 hour bus high into the Central Highlands of Peru with one of the highest mountain ranges outside of the Himalayas. And, as luck would have it, one other person also arrived late - Rafa from España - and as we congratulated each other for making it just in the knick of time, we got to talking and ended up spending the next two days together exploring Huaraz, visiting ruins, eating yummy food, drinking pisco sours in a hippie gringo bar, and discussing our travels (his involve far far more countries!). We has a fantastic time in this small, but energetic city of Huaraz that is FULL of discos and bars. There is certainly a lot of tourism as many people come there to mountain climb, but even more so, there are a lot of locals andando-ing. So we visited the local market to buy lunch items and headed high into the nearby mountains to visit some Incan ruins. Not being sure of the actual route, we made our way through family farmland asking men, women, adn children along the way if we were headed in teh right direction. I loved the pastoral setting - so green, animals grazing, women washing clothes on the rocks, kids yelling "hola" at every turn, and old men wondering where we were headed and assuring us "oh, it´s only 30 mins more..." Later, after visiting an ancient Incan burial ground and ducking down into and wandering among the underground rooms, we made our way back down to a city about 7 kms away from Huaraz. The hike again was so beautiful - that is, until a dog got spooked and came after the two of us with blood on the brain. He got Rafa in the back of the knee and me in the calf. I have yet to be bitten by the many "guard" dogs I ahve come across, and this experience nearly had me on the ground in tears - more out of fear than pain. But night was approaching and we still had a ways to go, so I sucked it up knowing that if I got rabies - ok, the reality is that I most likely had nothing more than a scratch, but these things run through your mind when you are far away from a good hospital and your mom´s loving care. And three days later, we are both still alive, so it looks like we´ve come out just fine! And I suppose teh scary dog lead us off track as the last part of our journey involved slip-sliding down a fairly steep hillside and jumping off rock walls to get back to the highway where we caught a carro back into town.

The next day, I got us sucked into a tour that gave us a view of some of the surrounding towns, but was overall fairly disappointing - as I find tours usually are. And then I was on a night bus headed 9 hours to the coastal town of Trujillo to make my journey North to Quito. I did a little research, but was unable to find much of any use, so as I began my trip, all I knew, was that most liekly, I would ahve to take a minimum of 4 buses to get to Quito. There are direct buses, but that would ahve been too easy. Ok, no, I actualyl would have PREFERED that a million times over, but those buses only run on Tuesdays and Fridays. I would have to wait nearly 4 days, so I opted for the "adventure" route. And what an adventure it was! I got to Trujillo at 6:30 am, found out teh most direct route to the borer town of Tumbes would mean a 15 hour layover in Trujillo. NOt liking hot, dusty coast towns, I opted to make the journey in steps. Took a 3 hour bus to Chiclayo, then another 3 hour bus to Piura - slowly working my way up the coast. Then a 4 hour minibus to Tumbes, where I took a cab to the Peruvian-Ecuadorian border, listened to the taxista tell me about how dangerous this border crossing can be adn about two Italians who were stabbed last week. Oh joy! And night had already fallen just to make me feel that much more at ease. Then another cab to Ecuadorian immigrations on the Ecuadorian side in hopes of catching the last Quito-bound bus only to find out taht while I made it 2 minutes befor ethe bus left, it was full. nearly lost it then. Deep breaths... So Plan B - FINALLY - a 2 hour bus to Machala where I decided I would take a breather and spend the night. I found a hospedaje, showered, called my friend to discover that it was for the best I didnt make my Quito bus, and quickly drifted off to dreamland on an actual bed - woohoo!

So that brings me here to Machala - the banana capital of the world. And, now, bathed, and dressed in the last clean clothes I found in my backpack, I am headed to meet Ivo and Luisfer in a few hours. It will be the first time we have seen each other in 4 years. Looking forward to seeing them and to the adventures the next two weeks will bring...VIVA!!