The Road South

Complimentary mirror with the front seat

Veggie meat, rice, beans, verdes, and salad on the bus!

Wanting to get out of Guayaquil as soon as possible, but not feeling particularly motivated to explore more of Ecuador, we went with our original plan from January: going back to the south coast of Peru. After weeks of constant moving, both of us were feeling a little drained and down in the dumps. As fun as it sounds, sometimes traveling is hard work!  We decided to cross the border on the coast, the route we hadn't taken on our way to Ecuador. We caught a bus going from Guayaquil to Máncora, another surfer beach town in northern Peru. This bus was probably one of the nicest we had taken to date. So, although we weren't super excited to get back on a bus, this was more than we had hoped for. Air conditioning, flat screen TV's with chick flicks (vs action movies...I've seen DeathRace II probably 4 times), a nice meal, and a fairly empty bus made for a relaxing trip. We arrived to Máncora relatively late, and took a little moto taxi with another American to our hostel on the beach. It was great to feel the ocean breeze and to get away from the heat of Guayaquil.

Banana fields!

Our bamboo home on the beach

Hostel in Máncora

Peruvian hairless dog 

I think if you asked anyone who travels for long periods of time, they would tell you that eventually it's possible for the novelty to wear off, and for home and family and stability to seem really appealing. We are lucky to be able to take time off from ¨real life¨ to travel and see amazing things, but just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you always want to. Part of traveling with a friend, and of traveling with no return date, is that you never know when that time will come where you just want to go back home. In our case, that time came for Kyra before me. So, although we were in a beautiful beach town, and traveled our way south through Piura, Trujillo, and onto Lima, we spent most of our time exploring our options and figuring out whether we were going to stick together, or whether it was time for us to go separate ways. By the time we reached Lima, we had decided that Kyra would go back home in a few weeks, and I would continue traveling. So, the timing was perfect for us to make our way to Arequipa together, and then to split up: me going to Cuzco, and Kyra heading back to Lima to catch a plane to the US. But until then, we still had a few weeks, and lots of territory to explore!