We decided to take another night bus to move on from Vilcabamba in the direction of Mancora, Peru.
Talk about coincidences but we met up with our French-Canadian friend, Thierry, at the bus station AGAIN. He was also on his way to Mancora... really pleased to meet up with him again (third time now). The overnight bus was comfy albeit with no legroom. We slept lots - until we got to the Ecuador / Peru border that is at 4:30am when we had to jump off and do the passport paperwork and walk across the border bridge. At least it was a chance to stretch legs and have a pee! (even if it was behind a lorry!)
What a contrast to enter Peru. So dirty with piles of rubbish scattered at the roadside. We saw some sights that morning, including vultures scavenging. Once at Piura we we faced by the usual swarm of taxi drivers who would love our business. Wendy had asked a helpful receptionist at Vilcabamba for help and we had notes, so we knew we could walk to the next bus terminal for our connection, the taxi men were making out it was far but we walked it in 10 minutes with Thierry and two other French Canadians he had met along the way.
First we had to get some local currency - soles. Got that, but the cash machine gave too bigger notes for the bus company to accept so we had to visit a bank to change. While we were doing this Wendy was looking after the bags and was getting hassled to jump on the bus - but there were lots of heavy bags to move. She showed her muscles... and they seemed to understand that there was no way she could manage!
James and the other boys returned to the bus station just in time and we took another 4 hours to get to Mancora. Peru is certainly cheap, 2 beers, a coffee and sandwich for less than 3 quid. We saw our first glimpse at the Pacific ocean as the bus pulled down the mountain, around the bay... bright sunshine and blue skies... a dream come true for Wendy...
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