Bus trips

This morning, Patrick and I embarked upon our two-day sojourn from Baños, up to the Quilotoa Loop area. The "Quilotoa Loop" is a ring of road and villages that begins and ends at the town of Latacunga, which is about 2 hours north of Baños (by bus). The most important spots on the loop are: Laguna Quilotoa itself, a massive lagoon that sits inside an ancient volcano crater; and Chugchilán, a village north of the lagoon, with great day-hiking (or horse-riding, whatever floats ye' boat) in the area around. Our journey began with a bus up the nice highway, from Baños to Latacunga; and then another bus along the crazily winding mountain road, from Latacunga to the village of Zumbahua.

This evening marked the end of my long and much-loved time in Peru, and the beginning of my time in Ecuador. After making it to Tumbes — the northernmost major town in Peru — I embarked upon a 5-legged, night-long journey, from the border-crossing at Huaquillas, all the way into the heart of Ecuador. The next morning, I found my first introduction to this country being the lovely (if tourist-infested) town of Baños. It was a long and bumpy night, but I've made it.

Since Máncora is only 2 hours south of Tumbes (Peru's northernmost major town), you would have thought that it would be fairly easy to find some transport from one to the other. But apparently, on Sunday afternoon, this is not the case. Einat and I ended up waiting over an hour for a combi, and even then, we only just managed to squeeze onto one (it was already ridiculously overcrowded, and we just made it worse). There were also no afternoon buses to be found. Anyway, at least we eventually made it out of this funny little beach resort town, and got to Tumbes, which is the gateway to Ecuador.

Went shopping around this morning, for a ticket on a night bus north to Trujillo. Got to the terminal of a company called Linea at 9:45am, and was given some hilarious news. Their 9pm bus to Trujillo was booked out for tonight: but they had 5 reserved seats that hadn't yet been paid for; and if nobody came and paid for them by 10am, they'd give them away first-come first-serve. So I took the advice of the guy at the desk, and waited for 15 minutes. By 10am, two reserved seats had been claimed, but the other three were up for grabs. I grabbed one of them, fast.

It seems that the recent troubles in Arequipa have cleared up a bit over the weekend, and that the roads in and out of the city are once-again open. For now, anyway. Not sure how long they'll stay open (it's still pretty volatile around here); but Chris and I seized the opportunity this evening, and grabbed a night bus to get us out of Arequipa, and over to the city of Nazca. Apparently, Nazca has been pretty much free of riots and roadblocks, so we should be fine there. Vamos a ver (lit: "we'll see").

Crossed back into Peru today, from Arica in northern Chile; and I must say, it's good to be back! Almost feels like coming home again. The money looks familiar. The food looks familiar. And the people look familiar (and they have that familiar Peruvian friendliness). Got a shared taxi across the border this morning, from Arica to Tacna; and then it was a long evening's bus ride, from Tacna to Arequipa.

So many farewells these days; ah, mais c'est la vie, such is the life of a traveller. This afternoon, Chris and I caught a bus north, from Iquique to Arica; while Leila and Christina, our fine, female, central European travelling companions for the past week, caught a different bus south, to Antofagasta. It's sad to see them go; although I must say, their crazy German ways (e.g. saying "Schultz" after burping — anyone who forgets to say this is liable to be slapped on the head), and their obsession with the card game Yaniv, were getting a bit much. Can't really say I'll miss Iquique, however; as we didn't really do much there, and as there ain't much there to miss, truth be told.

Myself, Chris, Leila and Christina caught a night bus last night, from San Pedro de Atacama to Iquique, which is a coastal "beach resort" city, further north and on the coast. It was two buses, actually; since we changed after one hour, at the mining town of Calama. Buses in Chile certainly are nice, compared with Bolivia: nice, comfy semi-cama (i.e. semi-bed) seats; movies (with headphones!); air-conditioning; and smooth roads all the way. In some ways — although definitely not in all ways — it's good to be back in civilisation.

This morning, we finished our tour of the Salar de Uyuni and of south-west Bolivia. We stepped out of our dusty Land Cruiser 4WD, we transferred into a minibus, and we made our way to the Chilean frontier (having already technically left Bolivia two days ago). Our first of many introductions to the differences between these two countries, upon crossing the border: the first sealed, properly signposted road that we'd seen in a month! Chile really is a very, very different place to Bolivia. It's like stepping into another dimension.

After a day spent relaxing yesterday, today Chris and I made the journey, by bus, from Potosí to Uyuni. Was a bit of an exercise, actually finding a bus to take us there; but once we got our tickets, the trip itself went without incident. The road, of course, was unpleasant to say the least; and the number of random "extra" people on the bus was a bit worrying. But hey, this is Bolivia.