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.
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.