Our Trip to Peru

On Sunday our official visa was expiring so we had two choices. Either renew in country and spend 240$ on visas and applications plus the cost for pictures, lawyers and misc as there always is in south America or cross the border into Peru and reenter on a different visa. We chose the later. We were told that we had to leave on the expiry day of the visa and then reenter a day or two later so here is our story.

We read many horror stories about having to get off the bus and taking a taxi 10 minutes away then crossing a bridge on foot. It seems perhaps this is how it use to be done but it would seem they have streamlined the operation and is much easier these days on bus. This is what we did.

We took the bus from Guayaquil because I had to bring my sister to the airport and we hopped a bus line called CIFA. They had the best reputation so we chose them. The bus was 13$ each and we went to Mancora. When you get to the border everyone gets off and gets stamped out of Ecuador and then you line up to get stamped into Peru. After which you get back on the bus and head on to Peru with one more baggage stop to check bags where you get off the bus again.

We arrived in Mancora around 4 pm and looked for a hostel. Cost of hostels seemed to be higher then in Ecuador and you received less. To do this over we would have stopped in Zorritos instead seems to be a better option. Mancora is the equivalent of Montanita in Ecuador. A bit of a party town with no real comfort. The beach line is small as the waves come almost right to the end. But if you want to surf it has quite the waves. To make things worse heidi was sick the whole time and sitting on a bus for 8 hours sick is not enjoyable.

Coming back in we did a little differently as we didn't want to go to Guayaquil again. So we took a CIFA bus from Peru to Machala Ecuador at 1pm, which actually ended up coming around 2:30, but I guess there was a road block earlier in the day. The bus trip was about 12$ to Machala which is a little more expensive then coming in the country was but in general Peru was more expensive. At the border same deal stamp out of Peru and stamped into Ecuador. The only extra item they asked for was our birth certificates which I had thankfully brought with us and everything else went fine.

We told the driver on the bus that we were headed to Cuenca and he dropped us off at a small stop in Machala that was basically a connection point for buses and a small market which is where we jumped a 5$ bus to Cuenca. Again poor heidi was sick all the way home but we finally arrived in one piece at 10pm with another 90 days on our visa.