I legged it to Zamora to catch another hellish bus ride standing up the whole winding way to Loja including a 1hr wait for 50m of roadworks - get your &//)& $&%$ together people! Although I do remember someone telling me the going rate for a roadworker is $200... a month. Try keeping a smile on your fayce living on that! Afterwards was the quick transfer and mini-bus back to Vilcabamba and the Jardin. I was feeling pretty good before my busses that day... just goes to show you Ecuadorian buses may be cheap but they sure are nasty!
When I got back I tried to process photos but found my digital joystick had caught an STD in the jungle and everything I tried to stick it into wanted me to wipe it clean before it would be accepted. Bugger!! I chatted online with Jess from Canoa about an early morning rendevouz in the Peruvian border town Piura.
Later I visited Rumi Wilco, described as an eco-lodge in a wilderness sanctuary. In reality it was some cabins on the river on a weed-infested and eroded patch of land - albeit perfectly positioned on the outskirts of town. The managers had developed a series of well-marked interpretive trails complete with map and natural history of the area. They had signed many plant species, mostly weeds, with their scientific names and included interpretation piece for significant geographical events too. I walked around for a bit, completely underwhelmed by the beauty of my immediate surroundings but very much enjoying the sunset. But actually to me that`s permaculture (if I say something`s "permaculture", I mean I fully approve of it on sustainability principles). To take a crap piece of land that probably cost them next to nothing, research and develop educational activities asking only a small donation and invite pèople to explore. That`s cool, using what you`ve got.
I caught an evening bus to Loja to connect with the over-nighting border-crossing sleep-restricting bus of slightly higher quality than previous ones including 4hrs of long winding downhill. Together with Elizabeth from Austria we changed countries easily, bored border guards smoking, grunting and pointing our way to Peru.
And so I said good-bye to Ecuador after two months. It is definitely my favourite country so far - beautiful and accessible nature, cheap and at the end of the day great people - friendly, helpful, honest and generally not pushy. I loved it when a complete stranger would walk past me at a restaurant table and say "Buen provecho" (enjoy your meal). How cool`s that¿! I`ll miss you, Ecuador!!
The roads immediately got better and flatter and we soon entered the drylands of coastal Peru. Piura is a busy transit centre with, like many Peruvian cities, no central bus terminal. This meant Elizabeth and I were forced to walk bleary-eyed and tired from company to company trying to find her a bus to Trujillo while full loaded with backpacks. While down one side street some godless street-urchin reached into my left pocket and cleanly stole $40, managing to only just escape me despite my 25kg of packs front and back and hiking clod-hoppers. I assumed he must have followed me for over half an hour since our original terminal where I had fuzzy-headedly forgotten to transfer the cash into my wallet.
Elizabeth caught her bus and I managed to find Jess and Chris which alleviated my ill-feeling somewhat. We changed moneys, had breakfasts and coffees and explored Piura a little, including seeing this ladies-only gym with irresistible personal trainer, Cesàr. I whole-heartedly re-immersed myself in the pleasant and inviting Peruvian culture of beeping with every second breath. We found bargain bed-seats for our overnight and restful journey to Lima which included the obligatory 1.5hr stop for a flat and the amusing 5min stop for running out of petrol. The desert and ocean landscapes combined with at times desperate poverty made for surreal and depressing experience. Grundgy, trafficky grime welcomed us to Lima, we arrived at the terminal and taxied to our hostel in Miraflores.
I had previously expressed my dislike of Peru to many other travellers, however in discussions with some pro-Peruvians I had agreed to clear the negative mist from my eyes and gaze anew. Well, my new eyes saw a warm and gracious welcome from a fine and upstanding citizen of Piura. I could easily have been negative about the experience - but in reality he was trying to help me. To let me know I had to lift my game, not to bring any weak ·$&& into tha house or it`ll be thrown right back in your fayce as we`d say in basketball. Harden the %/&$ up, Australia, and get wise while you`rè at it. So thanks to my stranger-thief. What I`ve learnt from you is more valuable than the money you took - I see that money as a down-payment on when we might next meet, when I can bestow upon you a grateful kiss. A Liverpool kiss, that is.
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