Adios Ecuador, Hola Peru!

Well, I made it to Peru without incident. The bus trip wasn't too bad, although I didn't get a huge amount of sleep. 10 minutes into the journey they put on a trashy violent action movie that blared loudly in Spanish until 1am! We crossed the border at around 3:30am. At the border Erin (the Canadian) & myself did get chatted up by a heavy metal band from Lima who had been touring in Ecuador! They spoke a bit of English & were pretty hard-case...

We arrived in Piura at 7am. Erin shipped out straight away on another bus to Chiclayo (she's mad!), & a really nice taxi driver recommended me a cheap, clean hotel that had hot water (bit of a rarity in Piura it appears...) & most importantly, would let me check in at that time of the morning! I hit the sack straight away & managed a few hours sleep.

After a long hot shower & clean clothes, I started to feel a bit more like myself. This afternoon I've been having a wander around the town. It's a gorgeous warm day with cloudless blue skies. Better than the weather in the UK & NZ at the moment from what I can gather! Piura is a nice place with a lovely central Plaza which the cathedral backs onto. It was very quiet, but I suppose it is a Sunday... I found the Cruz del Sur office which is the luxury bus company I wanted to travel to Lima with tomorrow night. I managed to get a first-class ticket for a bus leaving at 7pm, which is perfect. I'm actually quite looking forward to the journey, I've never travelled first-class in my life!!! The nice thing is that the coaches leave from their office, meaning I don't have to travel to the main bus station. In Ecuador at least, the bus stations were the dodgiest feeling places, & are apparently where a lot of theft occurs.

During my wanderings I then stumbled on a huge big western-style shopping mall, which is where I think most of the population of Piura was! I was in a department store, & could have been in any western country in the world. It was quite strange being surrounded by all the familiar brands. Levi's were really cheap though, I might have been tempted if space in my pack wasn't at such a premium! There was an impressive international food court where I'll go back to soon for dinner, it had the first Chinese restaurant I've seen in South America, so I fancy a bit of that... I'm looking forward to a long sleep-in tomorrow morning, as I haven't had a huge amount lately. I'm not planning on doing much tomorrow, just relaxing, & maybe reading my book in the park in the (hopefully) sunshine before catching my overnight bus to Lima.