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Guayaquil, Ecuador
2° 10' S 79° 54' W
May 28, 2008 22:44
Distance 168km

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3rd base, runner on second, safe

Text written in: English

Tumbes border crossing, Aguas Verdes, border crossing to Ecuador. That´s the search terms covered - we could only find ´harrowing´ ((c) Footprint) blogs about this border crossing when we googled!

The secret was the CIFA bus from Tumbes, we took the 8am as there was no indication of a´luxury´bus. Windows were the aircon. The CIFA office is on Av Tumbes just past Civa and up the road from Cruz del Sur. We walked there from Linea (5 mins), ignoring all the taxi and moto drivers who wanted to take us to CIFA!

The bus conductor looked after everyone at the immigration posts and checked we had filled out the form correctly. We weren´t asked for bribes and didn´t see too many police officer who might ask for them. We stuck reasonably close to the other passengers but noone was hassled too much. Our bags stayed locked on the bus the whole time and there was no customs check.

Peru immigration is 25mins out of Tumbes. Then there is a ride through the border town (half peruvian, half ecuadorian, separated by the river) - it was super busy with lots and lots and lots of shops and market stalls. Crossing on foot or in a taxi would be very interesting indeed and not something we´d want to try! Then we stopped at the CIFA terminal for 10 mins before another 10 minute ride to Ecuadorian immigration. Again, no sign of the crowds of people mentioned in Footprint, just a few money changers who we politely declined! A rather generous tip at the CIFA terminal had got rid of our last 10 soles...the only annoying indcident on our border trip.

Loads of vendors got on the bus as we passed through Ecuador - having heard N+O´s story we kept our bags on the floor rather than in the racks above our heads so everyting was fine.

So we arrived after 6 hours in Guayaquil. Bus station like an airport (and better than any of the UK airports of course!). Baked plantain with chees on the street to keep us tied over until dinner. Poor meal in a nice restaurant (T - Ecuadorian ceviche was STRANGE). This was quickly forgotten as we found a local panaderia for awesome cakes afterwards.

Guaya is quite modern and big, not to mention a bit humid! We´ll explore tomorrow!