The 2018 Blog / June 11, 2018
After finishing up in Banos, Sarah and I decided that we were ready to head off to Peru! With some research we agreed upon our first destination in Peru to be Huaraz, the Trekkers Paradise! Only problem was that it was a bit tricky to get to Huaraz. From Banos, this required a two hour bus to Ambato, where we caught a 5 hour bus then to a small town called Cuenca. From Cuenca, we would then have to cross the border on an overnight 13 hour bus to Chiclayo in Peru, where we would taxi to the next bus station over to catch a four hour bus to Trujillo where we would finally head off on our last bus to Huaraz, an eight hour overnight bus!
After a fairly smooth first two bus rides to the beautiful town of Cuenca, Ecuador we decided to stop off at an AirBnB to rest up before starting the bulk of the journey to Huaraz. We taxied over to our AirBnB in Cuenca where we were dropped off in front of a dark house at 8:30pm at night. After multiple calls and doorbell rings later, our host finally answered us and let us in to where we would stay for the night. Once settled in, we headed out got one very large pizza at the shop down the road and had ourselves a nice dinner (and even a nice breakfast the next morning). That next morning we headed out to the bus terminal and got our 10pm bus tickets for that night! So with 11 hours in Cuenca we did what any adventurous backpacker would do and found a laundry mat to finally get some clean clothes. We dropped off our clothes, and then proceeded to go to two different cafes where we wrote some of the previous blogs and applied to jobs!
Once we picked up our laundry, Sarah then took me to a local Indian restaurant where we proceeded to kill a few more hours as Sarah tried to explain to me that curry is a myth and doesn’t exist. After a heated debate, we realized that it was already 9pm and we raced back to the bus station and got on our bus to Chiclayo, Peru!
Once on the bus, Sarah and I knocked out pretty quickly only to be woken up a couple hours later at the Ecuadorian, Peruvian Border (the same border crossing that all the blogs we read about said was the most corrupt and we should try to avoid). Dazed and confused we followed everyone outside to the immigration office where we waited in line for almost an hour to get stamped. Just to remind you, we are navigating this entire experience with almost no knowledge of Spanish which means when the bus driver says something, or the people at the front of the immigration line say something we just smile and nod and hope that we can guess what they said. Once we finally got to the front of the line, we got our stamps and headed back onto the bus.
This is when things got interesting. As we then crossed over the border Sarah pointed out the fact that we only got our Ecuadorian exit stamps and never got our Peruvian entrance stamps. After this discovery, we frantically started searching the internet only to find that everybody who wrote about the border crossing stated that after getting Ecuadorian exit stamp they got in another line to get their Peruvian entrance stamp before getting back on the bus. At that moment Sarah started looking up phrases to get the bus driver to turn around in Spanish, while I googled where the closest US Embassy was. At this moment we both truly thought that we had accidentally illegally entered Peru. Luckily, thirty minutes later we arrived at another building where people were very confused and hesitant to get out. But again, following everyone we got out and hoped that maybe we just get stamped a little while after entering Peru. While being stuffed in this line that barely moved, our bus driver ran up to the line mumbling something in Spanish we had no idea what he was saying. After a few minutes of him gesturing and yelling in Spanish, everyone in line who was on our bus got out of the immigration line and started running out of the building. I guess the phrase, if everyone jumps off a bridge would you, doesn’t really account for the language barrier. Because when everyone bolted out of line in a huge commotion at the immigration office on the Peru, Ecuadorian boarder, without a doubt we did the same and followed the stampede of about fifteen people running across the parking lot as the bus driver continued to yell more random Spanish at us. We finally arrived at a different destination, another immigration office that i guess our driver assumed would be faster, and we ran there to beat the next bus load of passengers that just arrived? About ten minutes later, we finally got our Peru stamps and got back on the bus to finally get some sleep with the peace in mind that we didn’t illegally cross the border.
After arriving in Chiclayo around 10:30 in the morning, we got a taxi to another bus station where we got a bus Trujillo, the last and final destination before Huaraz. I guess we really need to work on our Spanish because we accidentally booked the VIP bus to Trujillo, which honestly I am not complaining about because these seats are like beds, we are sitting on the second story of the bus, we were given a slice of cake, a cookie, some nuts, and a soda. So currently I’m enjoying the ride, catching up on some blogging and some photos and Sarah is taking what seems to be an incredibly comfortable nap.
Anyways, the rest of the journey calls for an 8 hour bus ride from Trujillo to Huaraz which I believe only leaves at 8pm or 9pm. So I guess we will get a few hours to explore the small town of Trujillo and then hopefully arrive in Huaraz the next morning! So until then, I hope you enjoyed the story about how we thought for thirty minutes that we illegally crossed the Peruvian Ecuadorian border.
Originally published June 11, 2018 / See the Huaraz gallery
