The journey here has been beautiful and entertaining. Fortunately the huge layover in Lima, Peru never transpired. Declaring quite insistently that we are not Americanos and cannot afford exorbitant airport charges has so far saved us $300. Firstly the *@%# supervisor at Sao Paulo airport wanted to apply the bike policy to the letter and charge me $100 for not putting my bike in a box or case but fortunately after arguing for 45mins I got it down to $50. However, just as my Amex was declined the big boss arrived and pulled her nose up at the whole drama and waivered the fee! So there is an upside to our bank cards rarely working here!
The second case was when we arrived in Lima we discovered that there was a flight leaving in just over an hour to Quito. The connecting flight assistant insisted that there was no way she could waiver the $100 fee each to change the tickets so we looked down and slowly walked away saying we just could never afford that as South Africans. We then returned with puppy dog eyes begging if we could at least be allowed to grab a snack in the VIP lounge as it was technically their fault we had such a long wait due to their flight schedule change. This is when she realised there was no way we were going to pay so she promptly made an exception for us and off we went!
The flight along the Peruvian coast and up and over the Andes was awe inspiring-huge peaks rising almost straight up from the coast. We now arrived in Quito at midday instead of at midnight which allowed us to see this creeking but beautiful city by day. The terminal terrestre (bus terminal) was daunting by day as it was so we were glad not to have arrived here at 2am with all our belongings.
We left Quito on an old but comfortable bus alive and filled with jovial Ecuadorians. The road just outside of Quito down the Andes towards the coast was scary. Passing petrol tankers on blind corners at a hair raising rate when the sign in my minimal Spanish clearly said no overtaking and to stick to 20km/hr!
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| From World Travels – Ecuador |
Mark seemed more concerned about how on the earth we would drag our 30kgs worth of bike up these mountains in a couple of months time. Concerns aside we just sat back (literally as the seats recline pretty much all the way back) and enjoyed the view shortly before dozing off to 1 of 3 Bruce Willis movies dubbed into Spanish that we would get to watch along the way.
The journey lasted 8 hours with 1 or 2 stops including one where we were singled out as the gringos in a routine road block but all was good once we produced our African passports with the 3 month visa stamp we were fortunate to receive on arrival. The passengers had been jovial all the way as if on am exciting school tour, chanting something when the lights went out after the movie and laughing at the top of their voices. One guy was even being the class clown at the police road block cracking jokes much to the pleasure of the rest of the men being singled out for a pat down.
We now sit in a modern clean Terminal Terrestre after catching a taxi ride from where the bus dropped us off, in what looked like a vintage Fiat station wagon. Bikes didn't quite fit in but no problemo Marko must just hold onto them tight while sitting in the back seat. In a few hours we will be on the last leg of this journey, a 3hr bus to Montanita.
Our Surf and Spanish school only starts on Sunday when we also expect to be reunited with Rosco! For now all we need to do is find a place to shower and sleep.
can't wait to see pics of you guys surfing! have fun! x
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