Adios Quito...Hola Guayaquil!!! Bienvenidos a Tumbes,Peru...

First of all, where am I? I write these lines from a lousy keyboard at Tumbes,Peru, a tiny border town...I hope it works by the time I finish to update my blog!!!

We had a quiet Sunday, just walking around, uploading the pics to the net,purchased our tickets from Lima to La Paz from Ormeño and walking through the fleamarkets. After a fruitful TV evening, we were so anxious to get our visas. On Monday,after having our breakfast at Cafeto (the same for the past three days, scrambled eggs, cappucino for me, tea for Piril, two kinds of bread and lovely fruit juices!!!), we headed to the consulate. We promised to each other to swear "okkali" nice words upon getting the visa and having nasty pics holding our passports, with the visa page open!!! I was very quiet, we brought the passports, paid the 30 USD, gave the tickets and they told us to pick the passports up at 3:30 pm...Wooo, finally...We were very relieved, we went to Transportes Ecuador to get our ticket to Guayaquil, returned back to the hotel, packed up and took a taxi to the nearby internet cafe for a lunch and a quick update...Then we took our bus...The bus was a number 13, the bag tag was a number 13...Well, that's my number (3,13,23) but it was everywhere today...The bus was a Volvo, not something very special, but the movie played on the bus was "Saw", the little muchachos and muchachas were technically giggling and kissing each other, a couple gringos on the front rows, the music as usual was pretty loud!!! It took us more than 10 hours to reach Guayaquil. We departed at 4:20 pm and arrived 1:30 am at Guayaquil...I love my IPOD...The road was very scenic, we drove through smoggy roads, through a beautiful nature,very green, simply beautiful...Piril claims that the bus passed the trucks with a couple centimeters distance...The bus was stopped at drug trafficking control points 3 times and the police seemed pretty indifferent, they just throughly checked our tiny backpacks...It was sooo hot...We even saw the famous Dole Banana Factory. Well, probably that's true, I fell to sleep many times, especially after it got dark. I have a book with me, Elif Shafak's Araf, it was a good company for that long bus ride...Finally we were there, we had already done a hotel reservation, a room at Guayaquil for 15 USD!!! We haggled with the taxi driver for 3 USD, arrived at the hotel. The muchacho at the hotel was called Antonio. Our room was a number 13!!! Piril was freaked out... We both decided that he was a slightly improved version of Forrest Gump!!! He claimed that Turkey was a country of beautiful girls (señoritas he said!!!) and we both said "sure", very beautiful at 2 am with our red eyes!!! The room was very cute, we had a good nite sleep and woke up early to wander around Guayaquil. In the morning, I was looking for the Forrest guy to claim our 5 USD back but another Forrest that I had talked on the phone for reservation claimed that one double bed and two beds would differ. I had explained him at least twice that we wanted to separate beds...Well, he handed on our 5 USD, I was tired of the conversation and after swearing a bit, we left it there!!! We are swearing loud in Turkish though, with the hope not to meet one Turkish on the street hehehe:))))

Guayaquil is the largest town in Ecuador with a nearly 2 million people. It has a natural port, like a lagoon or an inland, opening to the Pacific Ocean. All the bananas of the country are loaded to the ships from Guayaquil and exported to all over the world. It is located right by Rio Guayas, a greyish looking dirty river...We were out early, walked through the 9 de Octubre street, which is the most important street of Guayaquil, had a Spanish breakfast at "El Español" (I insisted to eat there with the hope to find a Spanish tortilla but it was a disappointment!!!) and reached the "Malecon", or the beachfront. We wandered around, Piril shot some short movies (you can see them from Facebook, Piril Yay's page)...When we decided to slowly head back, we saw a market which seemed fun. When we entered, it was quite fun. We were the only tourists inside...It was colorful, vegetables,chubby ladies cooking pigs, potatoes and rice, flowers...This time I was able to take a pig head's picture...We had already purchased our tickets from Ormeño to go from Guayaquil to Tumbes...We took a taxi to Ormeño's office, the taxi driver insisted to find the gate and took us right by the bus but we ended up walking to the office for a check in...The bus departed about half an hour late, there were many gringos on the bus heading Lima. The seats were very comfortable, we were even offered a nice lunch (rice, fried bananas and some type of meat)and Inca Cola. On the bus at the toilet, it says "solo urinario" which I found a little funny...

Murphy worked again, the bus broke down...We waited about a 40 or 50 mins for it to be repaired...The weather was getting warmer, probably it was a about 38 C or 90 F. I think there was something wrong with the radiator, because when they poured water from the top, it was down as it is. When our "dombili" chubby driver put on his repair clothes and laid down under the engine, suddenly a couple people gathered around and started watching the repair process by nibbling banana chips!!! A typical Cem Yilmaz joke it would make, according to Piril...There was a Danish girl, a couple young Brits and Americans, a Canadian who has last been in Istanbul at 1970 and a charistmatic Uruguayian, whom I later found out that he was the Uruguayian consul at Antogafasta, Chile and a Chinese looking guy. Maybe three or four street vendors just appeared to sell water or snacks to the gringos all of a sudden...Finally they repaired the radiator and we were back to the bus...

The road was nice. There were kms or miles of banana plantations all around on the road. It was very scenic, miles of greens and greens...Finally we came to Huaquillas , the Ecuadorian Border Post, then reached Aguas Verdes, the Peruvian Border Post and finally arrived in Tumbes...We told the Peruvian Border Police that we are teachers, as he insistently wanted to know our jobs...From our bible (South America Lonely Planet), we called the Lourdes Hostal and decided to stay there. We were already surrounded by two commissioner taxi guys while doing the phone call to the pension. Instead of a regular taxi,we took a mototaxi, almost like a cocotaxi in Cuba...The guys were following us to the hotel with the hope to get some commission, but I had already haggled the price with the guy who picked the phone at the hotel. They were sweet though, we both hoped that they could have gotten something!!! The hostel looked like a school dorm, all in one corridor, ours was the 6th...It was abnormally noisy, I used my earplugs for the 1st time...In the morning, we had a good breakfast at "Si Señor" Cafe, as usual scrambled eggs, milk and strong coffee, bread and Piril had some sort of tea, a different thing then our tea of course!!! We looked around, took photos, updated our blogs, had a great lunch at the same cafe "Si Señor"...Within an hour, we'll be heading Lima on Cruz Del Sur, ultra luxury bus service...We are told 15 hours but that means 20 hours, we know that already!!!

Well, tata for now...

PS: I had Lomo Saltado today....