As with every bus journey for the next five weeks or so, we are travelling South and with it, further away from home and the differences couldn't be greater. We spoke to a taxi driver who actually knew some English and he was asking about what we were doing in South America, where we were going and where we were from. He then went on to asking what the biggest difference between England and Ecuador was and our immediate response was probably the mountains and just in general, how high above sea level it was. The taxi driver was then shocked to learn that we didn't have any mountains above 1000m in England and zero volcanos. He asked if we had any hot springs? Surreal.
Nevertheless, the reason as to why we were in this taxi in the first place is because we decided to spend our last afternoon in Cuenca, and with it Ecuador, in the local zoo. We later learnt that every animal was rescued and that it had all been built by one man - our hostel host's former university lecturer.
It was a very good zoo. Each section was divided into where you could find these animals that were on show. There were only a couple that you couldn't find in Ecuador itself! These were lions and ostriches. There were a lot of animals that I had never seen before, such as the Andean bear and several types of monkey.
What was particularly strange was probably the accessibility of the zoo. It was situated on the side of a mountain on the edge of Cuenca. The paths were narrow and felt like you were traversing a national park. Somehow we managed to spend what seemed like 80% of the time going uphill! With the remaining 20% a steep descent right at the end to finish our set loop of the park. After the park was over it was time to pack all of our things and get onto the what seemed like eternity length bus journey into Peru (it was probably only about 14 hours). After scrambling about the bus terminal trying to find a provider that would take us to our destination. We managed to find two. After doing the traditional South American thing and not just buying the first one at the first heard price, it actually transcended for the first time that it was actually the same price!
Upon leaving the bus terminal at 9.30pm, we arrived at the border crossing at 1.30am. As it was our first border crossing we were a bit confused as to what to do really. First they did a random bag search of the baggages underneath the bus. Once they were satisfied with this, we were then taken to passport control. Unfortunately we were the 3rd bus in line and as a result there was a lot of people waiting in line to speak to the people at immigration. 2 hours later and after speaking to some fellow English travellers (it's so nice to actually not have any language barrier) we were through! Into our second country of the trip. Almost as if by alarm, when it 7.30am, we were rudely awoken by a female preacher. Bearing in mind that I was not really awake, you could say that I didn't take too kindly to the word of God being shouted throughout the bus in passionate Spanish. If I hadn't have had my headphones and some classic rock then Peru could have had a missing body on their hands. 20 minutes of a vague annoyance that was just about drowned out later and she finally returned to her seat. Was there any need? There was precisely zero people who wanted her to give her lecture at that time.
One of the first impressions I was able to gather was how different the terrain was. After spending a week at over 1500m above sea level, it was a contrast to now being maybe a couple of hundred at max and by the coast. Everything was so dry. Ecuador was just green, green everywhere. With the dryness came a diminishing quality of roads. The route into Piura was like something you'd find in downtown Baghdad. You know when you think what you could improve on a city and where you'd start? Well, the answer for Piura would be to just completely knock it down and start again. It has no redeeming features at all. Think of it as the Peruvian Stoke, but with more dust. On to Chiclayo.
