Borders without actions

I wish I could say I woke up and I was in Peru, but that would be wrong because a) of course you have to pass through immigration in ecuador first and b) sleep on the bus....ha. I cant figure out how to get the question marks on this computer so will have to do without.

But passing through immigration in ecuador wasn´t so easy. Mind you there´s a bus company that runs every day 2 buses that leave about 10:30 / 11 pm arriving at the border around 2:30 or 3. And when we showed up at 2:45 AM, the "24 hour border" was pretty dead. So we all lined up and waited...for about 20 minutes, while the bus went ahead a little, the luggage compartments opened and a cursory glance inside made. Finally after 20 minutes a guy in army gear appeared. But nothing happened. Maybe 20 minutes more and he finally opened up the window the the immigration office and turned on the computer. Ecuador has a computerized entry/exit system...they put your passport in a machine to get the stamp with your date and place of arrival, kind of visa etc. But it was taking a while and nothing was happening. And another bus, although very empty, pulled up. Turns out nothing was happening because there was a computer problem. The guy kept rebooting the computer and it would get to the start screen with the same box appearing...then at one point an alarm went off and he left the office to see what had happened. Finally, about 4:45 we heard a phone ring. And then everything started working. BECAUSE ALL HE NEEDED WAS A PASSWORD! And apparently it took 2 hours to find someone who knew the password. And of course one of the few people you don´t ever want to mess with is an immigration officer because he can just not let you in if he doesnt want to...so no one said anything. Once the computer started working it was all very efficient and we all walked over the brigde, cleared in at PEru immigration and were off....at 5:45, 3 hours after arriving at hte border! Thankfully there was no bus I was trying to catch at a certain time or only one bus to my next destation so I wasn´t a nervouse new york wreck.

My trip from Cuenca to Loja, where I caught the bus to PEru, was quite pleasant because I traveled with 2 girls from school, one the one in the Michigan b school. 5 hours on a bus are much more pleasant when you have people to talk to! Especially when the road is windy. They were going for the weekend to a relaxing town Vilcabamba I might hit up on the way back to Quito.

I am coming to you live from Chiclayo, which was a 3 hour yery comfy bus ride from Piura, where my Ecuador - PEru bus terminated. Tonight I take a bus overnight to Lima. Yes 4 bus rides in 24 hours. But this one will be the nicest - its pretty much a plane on the road, stewardess, meals served etc.

More on my day in Chiclayo when I´m in Lima, where I´ll be content to do nothing but eat good food and practice Spanish with Fernando.

ps I´m pretty proud of this blog entry title, it took me a while.