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Tumbes, Peru
7° 38' S 74° 58' W
Oct 10, 2006 14:00
Distance 636km

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Home to Lima via Tumbes

Text written in: English

Guayaquil, as I mentioned before, has not been my favorite place on this trip.  I was ready to get back to friendly Peru.  Since a flight to Lima from Guayaquil was almost $400, I decided to take the bus back to Tumbes (just across the Peru border) and take a plane from there for $100.  To my pleasant surprise, I ended up on a bus that afternoon headed for Tumbes!  It was a packed bus because of the Ecuadorian holiday, but it was a decent bus complete with movies and stewards and an ARMED guard.  Nobody was going to mess with us! 

Made it safely across the border to Tumbes and after taking a motor taxi to a few hotels, settled in for the night.  Tumbes is a border town with lots of military personnel.  There isn't too much there, but a stop over for the border crossing and the ocean.  There are some mangroves near by that you can tour, too.  But, I was ready to get back to Lima, so I got my airline ticket first thing in the morning and was scheduled to fly out that afternoon.  While I waited for my flight, I walked around the Plaza de Armes.  There was some interesting architecture - Spanish colonial - and several huge mosaic statues and amphitheatre.  

All the towns have a Plaza de Armes.  The Plaza de Armes is the central plaza in each town and usually consists of a large park with statues and fountains.  You can usually find anything in town if you find the Plaza and walk from there.  The Plaza's have become my light house in most places I have visited. 

I went out to the airport early since I had to be out of the hotel by 1 and did not want to deal with my luggage. The airport was just a little building with a dirt parking lot out in the middle of nowhere - very hot and dusty.  The taxi didn't even want to go out early since he would not be able to get a return fare with no flights arriving any time soon.  Oh well, he finally agreed to take me!  I walk into the airport and other than a few employees, there was one other early bird traveler.  It happened to be a businessman from Houston, TX of all places!  We had a nice chat until our plane took off.