Finally in Peru

Yesterday I finally entered Peru at the inland La Tina – Macará border crossing. The drive took 9 hours from Loja in Ecuador to Piura in Peru, and passed through some stunning Andean scenery, before descending into the hot and dusty lowlands of Northern Peru. The temperature difference was quite a shock after a month at 2,000 metres or more in the mountains.

Peru Ecuador border crossing - La Tina & Macara

This photo shows me in ‘no man’s land’, on the bridge entering Peru with La Tina in the background.

I’ve crossed a lot of land borders before in Asia and out here, but this was easily the most relaxed out of all of them. A gentle stroll across the river, no queues to get the entry stamps, and the solitary Ecuadorian border guard even shared some of his sugar cane with me to chew on as I walked across into Peru.

I’ll be visiting some of the less famous but equally important archaeological sites in Northern Peru over the next couple of weeks, before making my way to Lima and onto the main Gringo trail towards Macchu Picchu and Lake Titicaca.

Podcast: Studying Spanish in Cuenca, Ecuador

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Cuenca is a UNESCO World Heritage city, founded in 1557 by the Spanish, about 10 hours south of Quito in Ecuador. I chose to study here following my Spanish studies in Guatemala as Guatemala and Ecuador are the cheapest places to study, and with the ‘cleanest’ spoken Spanish in Latin America.

Studying Spanish in Cuenca, Ecuador

This time around I opted for two weeks of 4 hours a day one-on-one Spanish lessons.

In this podcast I discuss why I chose to study in Cuenca, getting to Cuenca from Quito, the bag slash that occurred to me on the way from Quito to Cuenca, how I chose the Spanish school, the costs of living and studying here, and how I rate the Spanish classes at the Abraham Lincoln Cultural Centre where I chose to study. I finish the podcast with an interview with Richard, the founder of the Abraham Lincoln Center in which we discuss the school, activities in and around Cuenca, and why it is better to study in Cuenca than Quito!

If you have comments or questions about studying Spanish in Ecuador or Guatemala, please feel free to post them below.

Links

My photos of Cuenca, Ecuador
Abraham Lincoln Center website

Studying Spanish in Cuenca, Ecuador

Having got over the trauma of my bag slash, I found some Spanish classes in Cuenca, Ecuador through a recommendation on the Lonely Planet forums. I’ve just completed a week of 4 hours/day one-on-one lessons here – at the Abraham Lincoln Cultural Center (pictured below).

Abraham Lincoln Cultural Center, Cuenca, Ecuador

I’ll be studying for another week here and also publishing a podcast shortly containing a lot more information on studying Spanish in Cuenca….

Listen to the podcast I made on Studying Spanish in Cuenca, including an interview with Richard the director of the Spanish School.

Video: Hervideros organic mud-baths outside Tumbes, Peru (Spanish/English)

When crossing the border from Ecuador to Peru I lost my bus onwards to the Hare Krishna village north of Lima. This meant I had to spend the night and the whole next day in Tumbes. At first I was a bit annoyed because I really wanted to move downwards towards the Hare Krishna sanctuary.

However, I met a young guy named Mauro Alexander, who was my taxi driver when I arrived in Tumbes, and he changed my point of view. He suggested that he would come and pick me up at my hotel the next morning at 10 and take me to Zorritos beach and Hervideros mud baths.

Having left Thomas in Ecuador (he had to work) I was now a woman travelling alone. This made me feel a bit vulnerable. I considered several times whether to accept Mauro’s offer and decided to say yes eventually. Why? Because I remembered when I visited Nepal back in 2006. I met a guy called Shiva in a wool shop. We talked a few times and he invited he to come and stay with him and his brother two hours outside of Kathmandu in their small village for the night. My intuition told me that I could trust Shiva and I decided to say yes. That visit is one of the most memorable 24 hours in my life. Shiva and his brother took care of me like a beloved sister and at night he gave me his bed and cover and slept himself with his brother. Shiva is one of the kindest people I have ever met in my life – he has such a good heart and always thinks about other people. Still to this day, when the world is against me, I think about Shiva – to remind myself that there are many wonderful and loving people. That’s why I said yes to the invitation from Mauro – because sometimes we have to take chances in life to fully enjoy the beauty of it.

So Mauro picked me up at 10 and we drove to Hervideros. Hervideros is placed in the south of Zorritos, in Monte Guacura (Guacura Mountain), in the department of Tumbes. Hervideros has several natural pools with medicinal high-temperature waters that contain iodised salts, minerals and special properties for skin and for health. The surrounding area is the most beautiful area I have seen in Peru. We spent a few hours at the mud-baths and afterwards we went to Zorritos beach before Mauro took me to my bus bound for Lima.

The mud baths were not in my guidebook (it had free entrance), but you can contact “Mauro Alexander” through facebook and pay him to drive you there. It is very beautiful and well worth a visit. The video above shows you me covered in mud and Mauro who also explains (in Spanish) about Hervideros.

Train ride down the Nariz del Diablo (Devil’s nose)

Train ride down the Nariz del Diablo (Devil's nose)
Train ride down the Nariz del Diablo (Devil's nose)

The train ride down the Nariz del Diablo (Devil’s nose) is a tourist trap. Honestly – only tourist will pay 10 $ for a 45 min tourist train ride from Alausi to the Devil’s nose. And then having to pay an extra 2 $ to sit on the roof.

The so-called devil’s nose looks nothing like a nose. It’s just a mountain and not a big one. All the tourists on the train were disappointed. The view that you see from the train i beautiful – but nothing in comparison to the views you see when taking a regular bus in the South of Colombia.

The five hour train ride to Sibamba starts in Riobamba and stops in Alausi just before passing down the Nariz del Diablo. From Sibamba, the train immediately makes a return trip to Riobamba, stopping again in Alausi. Most people get on and off in Alausi.

The train departs on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 7am from Riobamba. The tickets can be bought the day before – but as I said – I don’t recommend anyone doing this ride unless they have huge amounts of time and money and nothing better to do.

Video: Cuenca, Ecuador

Cuenca is a beautiful colonial city in Ecuador. Although not as grand as Quito, it has another advantage – it is a lot safer and that makes it as charming as Quito. With its narrow cobblestone streets and whitewashed red-tiled buildings, its beautiful plazas and churches, and its setting next to the Rio Tomebamba it makes a definite worth-while visit.

This video shows you the charm of Ecuador’s third largest city.

Bag slash robbery on Quito – Cuenca bus

I arrived in Cuenca, Ecuador a few days ago, having taken a bus from Quito. The journey was meant to take about 10 hours, but I arrived in Cuenca exhausted, 13 hours later.

The first bus broke down after 2-3 hours, and we ended up sitting beside the road for about an hour and a half waiting for a replacement. On the second bus I ended up in the seat at the back by the toilet, inhaling the acrid smell of piss.

There’s no doubt about it, this was a journey from hell. My first seating companion was a local woman with a baby that screamed hysterically non-stop for two hours. She tried to stop the baby screaming by shaking it, which of course had the opposite effect. She was replaced by a woman with her (approximately) 9 year old daughter sprawling on her lap, which ended up being on my lap too. The daughter then started vomiting in a bag, and continued vomiting for quite some time, whilst lying all over me.

We stopped for lunch at 3pm, I had got up shortly before 6am and missed breakfast, so I was starving. The man in the roadside restaurant had no change for my $5 note, so I was forced to skip lunch too.

I arrived in Quito 13 hours later, having eaten one bag of potato crisps all day, and then discovered the following morning that my small backpack, which had been carefully sandwiched between my legs for the whole journey, had a neat 15cm razor slash in it. My plastic wallet (hidden in a back compartment of the bag) containing $1300 in travellers cheques and $100 in cash was missing.

All I can think is that I fell asleep for a while, and the sprawling 9 year old took it. BUT I am totally amazed that anyone managed to enter my bag, with it sitting between my legs (whilst ignoring my laptop, two cameras and MP3 player) and go straight for the hidden compartment and extract the bag without me noticing.

The Police lady informed me that I am the 10th tourist in the last two months to have been robbed on the Quito – Cuenca bus, whether that’s cause for alarm or not I don’t know…?