Five Days of Buses
Trip Start
Unknown
1
35
44
Trip End
Ongoing
Piura, Peru
Friday, November 5, 2010
So in the end, it turned out that avoiding a long string of bus trips to get from Quito to Cuzco was unavoidable, unless I wanted to take a plane, but since I had the time and a Dan Brown novel for distraction, I thought, just suck it up and do it.
I left Quito the day after I got back from our beach trip. Ina met me at the hostel for one last goodbye, then we found a cab driver who wanted to charge double for a cab ride to the airport. It was the Day of the Dead and eerily quiet around town, so I guess he figured he could. I talked him down some, but not quite enough and we made it to the huge, new bus terminal outside of town just minutes before the overnight bus was going to leave. A guy rounding up last-minute passengers at the ticket window pulled me over and sold me the very last seat on the bus. Wait, I told him, do I have a minute to get a snack at one of the shops? This was going to be a 12-hour bus ride (which turned out to be 14 hours) and I hadn't eaten very much all day and no dinner. A lot of times buses stopped for dinner or lunch at some roadside restaurant. All the way through Central and South America so far, this was true. Or people would get on selling all sorts of things - ice cream, empanadas, drinks, fruit, candy. But this was an overnight bus, so it was pretty unlikely. My stomach was already growling and he said, yeah, sure! They'll serve you a chicken dinner on the bus! Hahahaha!!!! He thought he was funny. Actually, they did give us a little bag of banana chips and a super-sugary drink. I carefully rationed out the banana chips all night - every time my stomach would growl with hunger, I'd eat five chips, no more. This got me to morning! Unfortunately, they also showed three Jean-Claude VanDamme movies in a row, so I almost threw myself from the bus.
We got to Loja, south of Quito, in mid-morning. Loja was supposed to have some nice parts, but I only had time to see the bus station and the dusty streets around it as I searched for something that was open, then gave up and had breakfast at the bus station. I got the bus to Piura, in Peru, four hours later. It left in the early afternoon and at sunset we crossed the border into Peru, one of the most tranquil border crossings I've done. I walked over a bridge over a shallow river and everything around was quiet. One side was Ecuador, the other Peru, and the border guards were just hanging around chatting, saying hello as you crossed. The sunset was making everything pink and purple and it was really relaxed. We got to Piura late, I got a taxi to the hotel I'd picked out, then found a Chinese restaurant and exhaustedly ate a late dinner.
So far, I'd been riding buses three days in a row, but I dragged myself to the bus station in Piura to get my ticket for another overnight bus that night, to Lima, where I'd get another bus to Cuzco. The one for Cuzco was going to be the hardest, I thought, a full 22 hours, about 800 miles. I went to the bus station and there was some sign there about a new service to Lima, some extras they added. I didn't really get it, but the price was definitely higher than I'd been paying, something like $60 I think. I walked around town, which was actually kind of nice, with a pretty square lined with archways covered in bouganvilla and sulked about how much the bus ticket cost, more than my daily budget. Then I got on the bus in the evening and couldn't believe my eyes!
It was total luxury. I hadn't even heard about this - why hadn't anyone told me? It was two levels and I was on the bottom. The seats were huge and cushy and reclined like big easy chairs. There were plastic-wrapped blankets and pillows for each seat. Once everyone was situated, a stewardess (or what do you call them on a bus?) in a smart little uniform came in and served empanadas and tea and coffee, then a couple hours later dinner. She was really skilled at balancing between the seats and serving drinks over bumpy roads! Even the movies were good!
The next day in Lima, I walked a long ways across town with all my stuff to the bus station office, mainly so I could see the city and also because there was nowhere to leave my backpack. The bus station office was on the other side of town from where the bus actually left, however, so I took a cab back that way again after getting some lunch. I would have liked to spend some more time in Lima - it looked like an interesting place. The nicer part of town had expensive hotels and a big, bright open park surrounded by grand, white government buildings, I think. Another part had one street that was all bookshops and cafes. Anyhow, I found the bus station and it was also really nice. There was a VIP lounge upstairs with coffee and tea and big soft chairs. I was there maybe five minutes when I was spotted and a guy asked to see my ticket. Luckily I'd bought the luxury bus ticket again, so I was allowed in the VIP bus lounge!
When we got on and they went through everyone's bags, then we all walked through a scanner, then once we were seated, a guy came on and videotaped everyone on the bus. I heard they do this to deal with theft on the bus, and I kept my stuff close. This time I got a window seat on the top level and just spent hours looking out the window from my big cushy seat under a nice blanket! The scenery was really nice. We drove along the ocean for most of the afternoon and into sunset and it was completely dry country, most of it very empty. Some towns were cinderblock and dusty streets, not much else, and then there'd be a town that looked like a resort - all white and blue glass and new houses. Strange place to have a vacation house, I thought. Then we all watched Get Smart while they served dinner! When it got dark we turned inland and I watched out the window when I couldn't sleep. The landscape reminded me of an exhibit I saw at one of the Smithsonians once of what the surface of the moon looks like - totally rocky and dry, just lit by the stars, and there were so many. I almost didn't want to get off the bus when we got to Cuzco the next morning!
