BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL
It was sad leaving Peru and going into Ecuador. Peru had become my favourite country in South America for its food, its diversity, its history/culture and its vast difference in landscape all over the country.
I jumped on a night CIFA bus which was supposed to be the safest bet crossing borders into Ecuador. As I was travelling by myself and didn't want the risk, I opted for the more comfortable "bus cama". All the guidebooks forewarned me about the border crossing at Aqua Verdes - that it was supposed to be one of the most dangerous border crossing in South America. But I thought I was safe on the CIFA bus.
So I got to the border crossing, walked in, this "official" checked my passport and asked for a US$30 processing fee. I told him that I had no money in Spanish. He then looked at my passport and asked me where was my Peru Entrance Card. I said it was in the passport. He handed the passport back to me and said it was not there. By then I smelled something very fishy as I checked the Card before I left the bus and knew that it was definitely there. He then said that I need to pay for not having the card. It was also 11:30pm and I was started to get bit tired and frustrated.
I actually yelled at him and told him that I had no money. I also looked around where he was standing and found my Card behind his feet. He picked up and asked for US$5 for finding the Card for him. I grabbed the card and lined up in a proper queue with the rest of the Peruvians. It was such a scam that they pulled on all the tourists - especially those travelling by themselves.
Once we crossed the border, all the travellers on the bus were pulled down by the Ecuadorian Army and searched one by one. I wasn't sure what they were searching for, but it must have been along the lines of drugs, weapons etc. It was quite scary because it was like 1:30am by then and the army were all carrying shot guns, or M16s and some kind of fierce looking automatic weapons.
These French boys I met were petrified at that point as they were smoking weed just before we got on the CIFA bus in Peru and they were telling me that they bought a few grams to last them for the next few days. I later found out that they were actually so stoned that they left the packet at the bus terminal and forgot to carry it onboard. Luck was on their side as they probably would lose a lot more than a few grams of weed if the army did find them.
After we got back on the bus, the rest of the journey was very uneventful. We arrived in Guayaquil about an hour ahead of schedule at 6:30am. I was dead tired by that point as I could hardly sleep on the bus worrying that people might rob me.
After I bought the ticket to Montanita, I had lunch with the French boys whom I travelled with pretty much for the next 2 weeks.
We jumped on the "tourist" bus to Montanita on time and it was a very nice air-conditioned bus. I got on, a man checked my ticket, and took me to the back of the bus as there were already people sitting on my seat. So I sat down and put my personal backpack on the seat next to me. He said that I could not do that as other people might be sitting there. After I put the backpack on my lap, he said I had to place it in the hand luggage section. I said I preferred to have it next to me but he showed me that all other people were doing it and it was a company policy. It being my first day in Ecuador, I thought it might be true as it was a new country. So I reluctantly gave him my backpack to place it on the top. As my backpack was quite large, it took him a little while to place it on the top. While he was doing it, I heard the zipper being opened. I looked at him and he smiled at me. I thought I must have imagined it and just left it. Few seconds later, he also left.
I didn't realise until I got to a hostel in Montanita that my computer and my camera were missing! I nearly fainted when I realised that they weren't there! I also met this Swedish guy who was on the bus and who was nice enough to accompany me to the police station and the bus company to report the theft. I felt really sorry for him as it was his birthday on that fateful day.
He helped me to get the police report which I also had to pay a bribe for as the police said I had to go back to Guayaquil for the report. The bus company was very much less helpful. My theory was that they must gotten some perks from this guy as they didn't act shocked or surprised. They merely said this kind of things happen all the time and I needed to be more careful. I also found out the next day that this other Australian guy had the same experience the very next day after I was robbed. So the thief must have been there all the time and there was no way the bus company wouldn't know about it. But what could I do????
I decided to leave it and not go back to Guayaqil and search for this guy in case more worse luck happened to me.
I was very devastated by the theft though, and it took me maybe 2 weeks to stop thinking about it all the time. Especially since I had so much personal stuff on my computer and all the photos from our whole trip. It was lucky that Naomi took most of the photos back on the spare hard drive. So I probably only lost 2-3 weeks of photos altogether, which were on my camera.
Montanita was an ok town. It supposed to be a surfing town, but it was a little cool and the weather was not that great when we were there. So we spent a lot of time eating and drinking.
Two days later, we moved onto Puerto Lopez where the National Park Machalilla was. It was also called the "Poor man's Galapagos" due to its similarity in landscape and animal life etc.
More to come in the next post.
I jumped on a night CIFA bus which was supposed to be the safest bet crossing borders into Ecuador. As I was travelling by myself and didn't want the risk, I opted for the more comfortable "bus cama". All the guidebooks forewarned me about the border crossing at Aqua Verdes - that it was supposed to be one of the most dangerous border crossing in South America. But I thought I was safe on the CIFA bus.
So I got to the border crossing, walked in, this "official" checked my passport and asked for a US$30 processing fee. I told him that I had no money in Spanish. He then looked at my passport and asked me where was my Peru Entrance Card. I said it was in the passport. He handed the passport back to me and said it was not there. By then I smelled something very fishy as I checked the Card before I left the bus and knew that it was definitely there. He then said that I need to pay for not having the card. It was also 11:30pm and I was started to get bit tired and frustrated.
I actually yelled at him and told him that I had no money. I also looked around where he was standing and found my Card behind his feet. He picked up and asked for US$5 for finding the Card for him. I grabbed the card and lined up in a proper queue with the rest of the Peruvians. It was such a scam that they pulled on all the tourists - especially those travelling by themselves.
Once we crossed the border, all the travellers on the bus were pulled down by the Ecuadorian Army and searched one by one. I wasn't sure what they were searching for, but it must have been along the lines of drugs, weapons etc. It was quite scary because it was like 1:30am by then and the army were all carrying shot guns, or M16s and some kind of fierce looking automatic weapons.
These French boys I met were petrified at that point as they were smoking weed just before we got on the CIFA bus in Peru and they were telling me that they bought a few grams to last them for the next few days. I later found out that they were actually so stoned that they left the packet at the bus terminal and forgot to carry it onboard. Luck was on their side as they probably would lose a lot more than a few grams of weed if the army did find them.
After we got back on the bus, the rest of the journey was very uneventful. We arrived in Guayaquil about an hour ahead of schedule at 6:30am. I was dead tired by that point as I could hardly sleep on the bus worrying that people might rob me.
After I bought the ticket to Montanita, I had lunch with the French boys whom I travelled with pretty much for the next 2 weeks.
We jumped on the "tourist" bus to Montanita on time and it was a very nice air-conditioned bus. I got on, a man checked my ticket, and took me to the back of the bus as there were already people sitting on my seat. So I sat down and put my personal backpack on the seat next to me. He said that I could not do that as other people might be sitting there. After I put the backpack on my lap, he said I had to place it in the hand luggage section. I said I preferred to have it next to me but he showed me that all other people were doing it and it was a company policy. It being my first day in Ecuador, I thought it might be true as it was a new country. So I reluctantly gave him my backpack to place it on the top. As my backpack was quite large, it took him a little while to place it on the top. While he was doing it, I heard the zipper being opened. I looked at him and he smiled at me. I thought I must have imagined it and just left it. Few seconds later, he also left.
I didn't realise until I got to a hostel in Montanita that my computer and my camera were missing! I nearly fainted when I realised that they weren't there! I also met this Swedish guy who was on the bus and who was nice enough to accompany me to the police station and the bus company to report the theft. I felt really sorry for him as it was his birthday on that fateful day.
He helped me to get the police report which I also had to pay a bribe for as the police said I had to go back to Guayaquil for the report. The bus company was very much less helpful. My theory was that they must gotten some perks from this guy as they didn't act shocked or surprised. They merely said this kind of things happen all the time and I needed to be more careful. I also found out the next day that this other Australian guy had the same experience the very next day after I was robbed. So the thief must have been there all the time and there was no way the bus company wouldn't know about it. But what could I do????
I decided to leave it and not go back to Guayaqil and search for this guy in case more worse luck happened to me.
I was very devastated by the theft though, and it took me maybe 2 weeks to stop thinking about it all the time. Especially since I had so much personal stuff on my computer and all the photos from our whole trip. It was lucky that Naomi took most of the photos back on the spare hard drive. So I probably only lost 2-3 weeks of photos altogether, which were on my camera.
Montanita was an ok town. It supposed to be a surfing town, but it was a little cool and the weather was not that great when we were there. So we spent a lot of time eating and drinking.
Two days later, we moved onto Puerto Lopez where the National Park Machalilla was. It was also called the "Poor man's Galapagos" due to its similarity in landscape and animal life etc.
More to come in the next post.
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