saying goodbye to ecuador

Well we have given our fond farewell to Ecuador. We have managed to cover quite a bit of ground in the last few days, although nothing too exciting. It is quite the experience watching the andes go by outside of the bus window. There is so much variety as you are driving along the side of mountain. But if you think that many hours on a bus would be boring you have never driven with the retired nascar drivers that man the many buses. There is debris flying from one side of the bus to the other as the driver rips around potholes, animals, people, and vehicles. One time there was this little old lady in the front seat and the driver couldnt make the pass on a blind corner so he slammed on the brakes. WEll the lady slid clear off her seat, across the floor and onto the steps, good thing the door was closed. This interesting driving also managed to do a number to our stomachs, swerving through all the switchbacks. The buses are interesting. There are people who sit and wait for the buses to come by and then jump on and try to sell you food, drinks, and other random things. Ecuador proved to be quite the beautiful place. Our time there allowed to meet many interesting people. There is such a diversity from the big city, to the laid back countryside where some people still dress very indigenously, with bright colors, cool hats, alpaca ponchos, traditional jewlery, and babies (or anything else) strapped to their back. Although I will add this, on one bus a very very indiginous looking grandma sat down beside us and proceeded to whip out a cell phone...are we the only ones in the world without a cell phone??? Things in Ecuador were also very cheap. We ate many typical meals at small local "hole in the walls" with meals consisting of rice, meat, some salad and usually starting with soup.

Today we crossed the border into Peru. In this process we had to go to 5 different stops, slightly confusing as we were ungulfed into a massive heat wave. We had to go into a makeshift health station to be screened for the swine flu. The nurses did a basic vitals (and even casually took our picture on her cell phone of us) and then we had to see the doctor who just asked some basic questions. We were given the ok to proceed on with a perscrition type note from the doctor. Interestingly enough no washing of hands, change of gloves, cleaning of equipment as they went from person to person (maybe now we have the swine flu)!!! So now after 9 hours on the bus we are in Piura Peru, which is basically situated in a dessert. IT is smoking hot here and we are dripping with sweat as we are crammed into this little booth at an internet cafe. We decided to move on quickly and got tickets for an overnight bus to Trujillo leaving at 11 pm. Hopefully we will be able to get some sleep. But untill then we have another 6 hours to kill so were going to find some food and check the place out a bit.