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Crossing the Border

I decided to get moving on towards Ecuador, so I could try to take advantage of a last minute deal and get on a boat to the Galapagos.  I bought my bus ticket to Guayaquil, Ecuador and sat with several foreign travelers to wait for the Internation bus.  This was the first time I was traveling with several foreigners.  There was a young couple from Denmark, a couple of girls from the Nederlands, a couple from Maine, and a young couple from Australia that were teaching English in Ecuador (I had actually met them in Trujillo).  It made for a very nice bus ride to have so much company!

The bus was a decent bus with the stewardess and movies.  The ride was to be 8 hours, so we settled in talking a bit and watching the movies.  Unfortunately, many of these movies are the shoot them up movies and sometimes all in Spanish!  But, they help the time pass!

We had to cross the Peruvian/Ecuador border on this trip.  It was quite an ordeal, stopping in Peru to exit, then crossing a bridge and stopping in Ecuador to enter.  It was supposed to be free to cross, but I got caught by a "border crossing helper" when I exited the bus.  I thought he was just being nice, helping me fill out paper work and escorting me to the various stamp locations.  But, no, that was not free.  I ended up paying $10 for his services and really felt like a chump!  Oh, well, mark it up to another learning experience!

After getting our stamps to leave Peru, we got back on the bus and crossed over a bridge which designated the border between Peru and Ecuador.  After winding our way through tons of markets, we stopped at the Ecuador immigration office and stood in a long line outside the office in the hot sun awaiting our processing.  Once we got our entrance stamp, we got back on the bus and proceeded into Ecuador.  We had to stop 4 more times at different points to either have the bus searched and/or our passports checked by armed guards with bullet proof vests.  Some of the checks were military checks and the soldiers had huge machine guns.  All the checks really made you wonder about your safety!  The number of checks did seem a bit extreme and excessive!  We were wondering if they had had a recent incident! 

They have really increased their safety procedures on the buses in order to minimize the robberies they have had in the past.  When you book a bus trip, you make sure you are on a bus from a reliable company.  Many of these buses have armed guards with bullet proof vests checking passengers as they embark.  Sometimes the guards actually ride with you to your destination.  Some of the companies video the passengers as they get on and I even heard of one company finger printing passengers.  I have been videoed and have been escorted with armed guards.  It gives you an eery, yet safer feeling having an armed guard with you!

When we crossed the border, the scenery changed drastically.  All of a sudden, we left the arid desert and went into a high jungle area with lots of dense vegetation; low, misty clouds hanging over the Andes; lots of banana trees, palm trees, pineapple fields; and the poor houses characteristic of the jungle.  It was so strange to have the environment change so drastically by just crossing a border!

We finally reached Guayaquil 2 hours late - late as usual!  The couple from Denmark (Kamilla and Morten) and I decided to travel together while in Guayaquil and see if we could negotiate a good deal on a boat.  So, off we went to find a hotel for the night.

Guayaquil is the second largest city in Ecuador and is quite modern in comparison to the other cities I have been in.  They have been spending a lot of money to upgrade and reinnovate the city and reduce the crime.  They have created a pedestrian walkway along the river in downtown called the Malecon 2000.  It is a beautiful area, but you really wonder about the crime problems when there is an armed cop every 50 feet with several patrolling together!

We spent the next day shopping for our Galapagos trip.  After a full day, we finally came to an agreement with Galasam Travel.  They were recommended by Lonely Planet for last minute deals, but we were surprised that they really didn't live up to the write up.  But Morten is a great negotiator and he got us on a 5 day cruise that left the next day for a pretty good price.  It being low season, we thought we would have a little more negotiating power!  We ended up booked on the Cruz del Sur - a first class boat with a level 3 naturalist guide.  The boat is the one used by the Gap Adventure Company, but is owned by Galasam.  So, it was off to the Galapagos Islands!

I have to admit that Guayaquil has been my least favorite place of my travels.  It is a big city with very unfriendly people.  The cab drivers as well as the hotel staff were not helpful or nice.  The young front desk guy at our hotel even tried to kick me out of the hotel the second night we were there (all the while with a smirk on his face and saying he didn't speak English).  Luckily, an older staff member interceeded and I was allowed to stay.  I will be letting Lonely Planet know about this!

There was an interesting park in the middle of town called Bolivar Park.  The park has hundreds of pre-historic looking iguanas roaming around, climbing trees and sleeping.  It was quite an experience - right in the middle of town with traffic zipping all around.  We never saw any hit by a car which is pretty amazing!  This really put us in the mood for the Galapagos! 

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