Those bastards - or the Peru-Ecuadorian border in Huaquillas

This day seems to get worse every minute... After writing a nice long blog post, it just dissapeared.

Good news of the day - I arrived safely in Máncora. Bad news - about 30 dollars lighter. It all started with many stories from other people telling me about how dangerous that border is and so I asked the bus company (went from Quito to Huanquillas, last stop) to help me out at the border. Which they did - cost me 2 $ to get to Ecuador border to get out of country and I was then taken to some wierd "taxi" that was supposed to get me to the Peru border. Believe it or not, those are around 2 km apart... This taxi wasn´t official at all and I would have to listen to all the bla bla about how they try to promote safe tourism etc. Yeah, right...

After I asked about 10 times how much it will cost me, they mentioned 2 $. Then I got back into that car after getting my visa done, thinking we go back to town (another 2 $ or so) where I could get a bus to Máncora. Wrong... they headed of to Tumbes explaining there are no buses on sundays etc. Of course there are but they first made their intentions obvious as we were at some place best described as dangerous and middle of nowhere. What could I do? This was apparently also the best time for them to tell me it will cost me 35 $ till Tumbes. Bastards! I could handle it down to 23 $ but that is still nothing even close to a good deal. And that doesn´t even involve the "being scared" at the back seat of a car that is not a taxi and going to somewhere I didn´t know just hoping there will be a bus station at the end of the journey...

Well, got off in front of the wrong station, had to search for a different one and then as I payed (still being rather shocked by the experience), didn´t notice they didn´t give me change after I bought the ticket. Another 3 $ extra.

Well, enough of my frustration, best to forget it now. I just wish Peru would be safer - they manage in Ecuador! Good news is: 30 C and I´m going to swim in the sea...