Never Arriving....

So I am now in Peru. Yes, Ryan and I initially had plans to do much more in Ecuador, and after we left Montañita we were headed down the outlined path. The original plan was to continue heading south. Ryan and I would meet up in Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador, because Ryan had left a day earlier than me to stay at Kahyda´s house (the woman from couchsurfing). Ryan left and I came the day after with the Israelis- Yair and Ory. We met up in the bus terminal of Guayaquil with Dennis - the tallest Dutch man I have ever seen - to say our goodbyes. The boys were going to head into Tumbes, Peru, a border town, because they wanted to go to Iquitos and do a jungle tour. So we said goodbye and Ryan and I stayed a night with Kahyda, a very sweet Ecuadorian who housed; me, Ryan, an older man from trabajadores por la paz, a Swedish woman, and the French Canadian, Veronica.
Guayaquil definitely felt like a big city. The buildings were taller and much more modern and the whole city felt like it was being built up. The next day we all went out and walked around the Malecon 2000, a long strip of playgrounds and little gardens, it also has some restaurants and a new IMAX theater. Its basically a boardwalk that was built in the year 2000 and is maintained and kept clean. We walked past the boardwalk and headed into an area called las peñas, so we could climb the stairs to the light tower that overlooks all of Guayaquil. The houses that outline the stairs are European in style and are all painted in bright colors. The houses, though, are facades. Behind arch ways and little streets, there are dirt roads, trash filled streets, hungry dogs, and filthy children running around. Ryan and I met a girl who was carrying a five month old baby - she was sixteen years old.She told us she had the baby at fifteen and there was definitely no sign of a father, since she was asking persistently for Ryan´s phone number so they could go out together. It was pretty scary to realize how run down the whole area was since it looked so pristine on the outside. Ryan gave her his number but we never heard from her...
After the light tower, Ryan and I raced back to Kahyda´s house so we could catch the bus to Cuenca, a very quaint and colonial little town on our way to Vilcabamba. Since we took the bus at night, we didn´t get into to our hostel until 2am, so we slept in and woke up the next morning for a late breakfast. It was the Friday before the election in Ecuador and they told us that starting at noon on Friday and lasting through Sunday, the day of the election, Ecuador was a completely dry country. Because of the vote, no one can sell or buy alcohol for the entire weekend. Apparently, Ecuador wants to make sure that sober minds are making the right decision. Well I hope they did. Vota si.
After lunch Ryan and walked around the town a bit - cobble stone streets and a beautiful river right near our hostel, with a woman washing her clothes. Ryan tried to talk to her and she called him the anti-christ. Some locals are more friendly than others... As we were debating about renting the bikes for the afternoon, Ryan offered that since we missed our little traveling band so much, that we could just go meet the boys; Ory, Yair, and Dennis, in Tumbes and go with them to the jungle and we could come back to Ecuador after to do the farm in Vilcabamba. Immediately we got online to figure out where they were and luckily they were still in Tumbes, since Yair had gotten sick and needed time to recover. So that night Ryan and I hopped on a five hour bus to Machala and in Machala we got a bus that took us across the border and into Tumbes.

Peru-
Border crossing was easy, which was great since all the tour books had said that we should not cross at night. We got off the bus in Ecuador so they could look at our passport and then 20 minutes later we got off in Peru, so they could stamp our passports. Pretty simple. Eventually at 2am we arrived at the hostel of the boys and woke them up so we could drink a little and figure out plans for heading towards the jungle.
Here starts the never ending bus tour that we have been on for about a week now. Since Guayaquil we have not spent more than one night in any place and twice we did overnight buses, so we didn´t stay anywhere.But Im skipping ahead so here goes...
We got into Tumbes late and woke up early to head to Chiclayo, a bigger city, because people had told us that we could catch a bus from there to Cajamarca to take a boat to get to Iquitos to head into the jungle. So stupid as we were, we believed whoever told us this information and we hopped on a 6 hour bus to Chiclayo. We had an enormous amount of land to cover before getting to Iquitos, where the basin to the Amazon is, so we wanted to cover as much as possible, as fast as possible. We got to Chiclayo in the evening and hopped on another 7 hour bus to Cajamarca. The buses aren´t normally comfortable, the seats recline pretty far back and they usually play a movie, and no one has had anything stolen. They seem safe enough and with the windows open, each ride has been pretty maneagable. And for Ryan they are a breeze, since the second he gets on any bus his mouth opens and his head falls back, and he is in a deep sleep for the whole ride. I haven´t seen Ryan awake for more than one bus trip yet...
So we arrived in Cajamarca, a tiny town, and when we got off the bus at 6 in the morning and asked one of the taxi drivers to take us to the boat- there was an uproar of laughter from all of the locals. Apparently, there were no boats in Cajamarca and we could not even take another route to get to Tarapoto, where we could get to Yurimaguas to get the boat. So we realized we had no option other than to turn back. So we slept the morning in a hostel and then spent the afternoon meandering around the small town trying to figure out exactly how we would get to the jungle. So the next morning we got up to take the 9am bus to go back to Chiclayo, which of course didnt exist. Instead we took the one at 10:30 and got into Chiclayo at 6 at night. The buses seem to always take longer than they actually say. So when we arrived we found a 13 hour bus that would take us to Tarapoto, so we hopped on that at 6:30 and headed to Tarapoto, another small town, full of mototaxis and motorcyles - no one wears helmuts and kids dangle on the bikes with their parents. Super unsafe.
When we got to Tarapoto the next morning, Ryan had somehow contracted what Yair had been sick with, so we knew we couldnt go on to Yurimaguas, which is only 3 hours away. So we got a hostel, so Ryan could relax and sleep and try to get better. Throughout the day his fever went down and his stomach started to feel somewhat better, so it was decided that the next day we would forge on and head to Yurimaguas.
So here´s the deal with getting to Yurimaguas. For the past two years they have been doing construction on the one road that connects the two cities. It used to take about 6 and half hours to get from one to the other because the roads were unpaved and extremely dangerous. It goes through a mountain range, so it is basically a canyon for a majority of the journey. But now since they are doing construction, the roads are closed during the day. There are buses that leave at 3 and 4 in the morning, but we all wanted to sleep in a bed, so we figured we would take a bus at 5 in the evening when the roads opened up again. So at 3:30 in the afternoon we all got into these mototaxis and told them to take us to the bus terminal that goes to Yurimaguas. But little did we know, there are no buses that leave in the evening- only pick up trucks. So as our mototaxis dropped us off near the end of the town of Tarapoto, about ten men swarmed us, yelling numbers and pulling our bags to get us to go in their truck. Finally we decided on one and they told us that it leaves at 5. Ryan and I were going to sit inside the truck next to the driver, there was an Ecuadorian family and another woman in the back, and the boys sat under a tarp - it was raining- in the bed of the
truck- either sitting on the floor, standing and holding on, or sitting on a little bench.
At 5 we left and about 20 minutes into our drive we got behind all the other trucks stopped at a point where everyone waits until 7pm and the police open the roads. I hopped out and sat in the back with the boys while we waited. There were no other gringos doing this treck.All the locals, who were piled sitting, standing, and crunched in their trucks stared and looked at us.We were definitely a sight for them. Me and Ryan, two Israelis - one of which is blonde and a bit Fabio-esque, and Dennis - a 2 meter tall blonde Ducth guy.
So we passed the time hunched over in the tarp, listening to music, dancing for some of the locals, and waiting for the road to open.We were lucky by the way - no other truck put tarp over any of the passengers in the back or over any of the luggage - I guess the locals know how to treat us gringos.....
Eventually at 7, the line of cars began to move and I decided to stay in the back with the boys for the three hour ride. In the beginning it was frightening. It was raining and the driver drove fast. With the tarp over us, we could only see the slick road descending behind us and occassionally the lights of a passing car. The road was windy and narrow and it felt like a roller coaster ride, where you question the security of your life. But the rain began to let up and the ride seemed to smooth a bit. We passed through the areas where they were doing construction and I peeked through a whole in the tarp- it was almost like something out of a movie scene. The mountains were covered in fog and the clouds seemed to hang like they were placed there by some creepy director.The trees jutted out at us we passed and I tried to figure out what horror flick I was in.
After an hour or so, we got to the area where the road ended and we drove along the bumpy and diveted dirt roads.The rain had let up enough so we took off the tarp and stood in the back facing the head of the car. Its an amazing rush.Ive never felt anything like it. Its completely dark except for the headlights and the road ahead and the air just sweeps you along. There was tons of vegetation and greenery- we were getting closer to the jungle .
We picked up some more passengers for the back, and two of them were locals from Yurimaguas that said they would help us get a hostel and take us out. So we arrived last night and the locals took us out for some drinks.
Today we figured out what boat we are going to get on: Eduardo 4. It leaves this Saturday and we spend 3 nights on the boat. We bought hammocks today because you sleep outside on them and hopefully it wont be too grimy. Although Im sure all of us without showers for three days will be grimy and disgusting either way. So we leave Saturday and we will get to Iquitos, and from Iquitos we will take some kind of jungle tour. So we are almost there!

Its been a long week and a lot of bus rides. And Im looking forward to heading to Lima after the jungle so we can spend substantial amount of time in one city and I dont have to pack up my pack every morning. But that might be a long way off. Hope all is well with everyone. I´m thinking of you all.

xoxoxoxox