From Ecuador to Peru
After a rather exhausting bus ride from Quito, we decided to spend one night in Tumbes and bought tickets at a travel agency for the following day to fly to Cusco via Lima.
Tumbes saw multiple conflicts between Ecuador and Peru. It belonged to Ecuador until a war between these two countries in 1941. The larger and better equipped Peruvian army easily overwhelmed the Ecuadorian forces. As a result, Peru occupied a large territory that included Tumbes. Border clashes continued until 1995. Only in1998, Peru and Ecuador signed a peace agreement that holds so far.
We were pleasantly surprised by the very clean main square of the town. Its side streets looked the same as in Ecuador – piles of rotting trash were everywhere.
We stayed at a small hotel, quite comfortable, except for one thing. During the night, a rooster crowing woke us up several times. It sounded like a chicken coop was right behind the wall of our room. My husband swore and promised to wring the rooster’s neck the first thing in the morning.
We got up early since sleeping was impossible and went to see what was around the corner of the hotel. We found a café with a courtyard full of chickens. The birds probably ended up in soup and other meals served at the café. An enormous handsome rooster proudly stood in the middle of the courtyard. He eyed us suspiciously as we tried to approach. He was king of this world and we were intruders. My husband snapped a photo of the roster and cautiously retreated.
Guidebooks recommended visiting Zorritos, the beautiful beach not far from Tumbes. Living in the landlocked Colorado, we try not to miss an opportunity to go to a beach. So we flagged down a colectivo that was already full of passengers. Somehow, we squeezed in too and 40 minutes later were at Zorritos.
The beach was deserted and dirty. Perhaps, it is a lovely place in summer, but in September there were no beachgoers; the blowing wind was quite chilly.
Tumbes is located at 3°34’S, i.e. almost on the equator. One would expect hot climate there. However, the cold Humboldt Current that flows along the western coast of South America keeps the temperatures mild.
It was still very early and all places to eat were closed. A young man was unlocking the door of what looked like a café. Using all our limited Spanish vocabulary, we asked if we could have breakfast. “No,” he said and indicated that we should leave. We did not move. He said “No” once again. We begged sensing that this young man was our only hope. The poor guy resigned himself to the inevitable – he had to feed us. Soon, we drank freshly boiled milk with buns while waiting for fried eggs that sizzled on the stove.
After breakfast, we went back to the beach. My husband was determined to have a swim. I was not so eager to go into the cold water and hang around. Fishermen brought their morning catch. The fish was weighted right there on the beach and loaded onto trucks that would take it to the market.
The airport in Tumbes was more like a one-room shack with several chairs. Our flight to Lima was delayed for 2 hours for no particular reason. Everyone patiently waited; we were not worried either. The flight Lima – Cusco was on the following morning, there was plenty of time to find a hotel in Lima for one night.
Things looked different when we landed in Lima. The crowds were maddening, people rushed in all directions and we had no idea where to go. After wandering for some time in the airport building, we came across a tourist agency. It was quiet behind the closed door. An agent asked us politely what we needed.
“Can you find us a hotel room for one night please?”
“Sure,” he said and began planning our vacation in Peru for us. We were supposed to see this and that, to go here and there, and so on. We interrupted several times trying to bring the agent’s attention to our immediate need. Yes, he understood that we wanted a room and went back to selling us a package in Peru. A clock on the wall kept on ticking and the agent talked as if he had all time in the world. Risking being rude, we stopped him one more time and said firmly that, at that point, we were interested in getting a hotel only and no extras. Could he help us or should we go elsewhere?
He finally phoned some hotel and negotiated a rate for us. Next on the agenda was an issue of getting to that hotel. The agent arranged for a taxi as well in the same unhurried manner. The wall clock above him showed that we spent almost 2 hours in his office. A taxi driver walked in to take us to his car.
Once we were outside, all hell broke loose. We got attacked by dozens of taxi drivers who waited for a chance to earn income that night. They shouted that it was unfair to steal customers and tried to drag us to their taxis. Our chosen driver was too young and inexperienced. He started arguing with the others and made things worse. The yelling became deafening, the driver faces angrier. Nothing probably would have happened if we had ignored that crowd and walked through it to our taxi but my husband had enough. It was a long tiring day and he had a panic attack. He suddenly screamed that we were not going anywhere and stunned everyone around by pulling me back into the building. Inside, he told me that we would wait for our flight at the airport, period.
There were no chairs to sit down. Even the floor space was taken by passengers and their luggage. At last, we found a spot to put down our backpacks so we could sit on them. I had a headache, my husband felt terrible too but he calmed down.
Perhaps, it was for better that we did not go to the hotel. The flight to Cusco was at 6 a.m. We did not know how far from the airport that hotel was. We probably would have spent no more than 3 hours in our room before taking a taxi back.