Last Day in Peru (July 19, 2006)

We left Chiclayo at 10:00am on a bus for Piura, further north towards the border. The bus ride to Piura took three hours so we arrived around 1:00. There was a police checkpoint as we entered Piura and the police came on the bus and took everyone’s ID and ran it through their computer. For some reason, our passports weren’t adequate identification and we had to show our driver’s licenses – weird. Two men on the bus were taken off by the police – one of them in handcuffs because of some kind of traffic violation and the other one because they didn’t want him to leave the country for some reason. Thankfully they didn’t care about the gringos.

We arrived in Piura around 1:00, and decided that we would take the overnight bus to Loja, Ecuador instead of the day bus tomorrow. We wanted to get their earlier so we could enjoy the nice resort we had made reservations at. We went to the Transportes Loja bus station and bought our tickets, which departed at 9:30pm, and then we had seven hours to kill. We took a tuktuk to the main plaza and walked around there for a bit. Piura is the oldest colonial city in Peru and has a nice little plaza de armas with bougainvillaea-covered arbours in it. We sat in the plaza for a while where I gave in to a boy insisting he had to give me a shoe shine. We wandered around and found a café to have ice cream and tea. We went to an internet café and searched for flats in London (there are tons! Some of them very nice and within our price range – whoo hoo). We ate dinner at a nice café called Cappuccino that had great sandwiches and yummy fruit juices. We liked Piura – there was a main street called Grau that was full of shops, restaurants, ice cream places, and a good supermarket where we bought some water for our bus trip.

On our way walking back through the plaza, we stopped in at the Tourist office to look at an art exhibit they had on display. We really liked one of the oil paintings that had an interesting technique and asked if we could buy it without the frame. The lady called the artist himself to ask if this was okay, and he gave us a 20 soles discount because we weren’t taking the frame. Mom and Dad had given me some money to buy myself a birthday present but up until now I couldn’t decide what to get. For 100 soles (about US$32), I decided that this would be my birthday present; I really liked the painting, and we keep seeing stuff that we like and not buying it because we don’t want to carry it. This one is small, and we had it rolled up so it is easy to carry. Thanks Mom & Dad for the birthday present!

Around 7:30pm we headed back to the bus station and played cards until it was time to get on the bus. The seats didn’t recline as far as the other overnight buses we had been on and they played either very loud music or a loud movie for most of the night. We arrived at the Ecuador border at midnight and it took around 45 minutes for everyone to go through Peruvian exit customs and then Ecuador entry customs. The Peruvian customs guy was the first one to notice that the name I put on my forms was different than the one on the identification page of my passport – I was wondering if anyone would notice that! On page 5 of my passport is the name change information, but up until now nobody had asked about it. The Ecuador guy didn’t even read the form at all, as per all the other customs officials we have encountered on this trip so far.

We were sad to be leaving Peru – the people are so friendly, vibrant, and proud of their country and the scenery is so varied – rainforests, cloud forests, deserts, snow-capped mountains with fantastic hiking, deeply carved canyons, rolling hills, beaches, bustling modern cities, fascinating cultural diversity, and fabulous archaeological sites. You name it, Peru has it. We spent 42 days here and still think we needed another month or two to have seen all the places we wanted to see. I wish I hadn’t waited 25 years to return, and hopefully it will be sooner than that before we come back again!