Last post from South America (includes sting-rays, strikes and strife)

Hey everyone
We are in Lima (finally!) at a nice hostel in Miraflores (Albuerge Miraflores house) and Nina is flying off tomorrow. So this is our last post together, but Nina will post some more from her travels in Australia and South east Asia.

In the last post, we were in Canoa just bumming round on the beach. We TRIED surfing, but there was something wrong with the surfboards, the waves or our swimming gear as we were rubbish (to put it bluntly). But we hired a bodyboard and were excellent at that (it requires so much skill). We were also excellent at drinking cocktails, eating food, lying on the beach and generally relaxing after our hectic three months. Our hostel did a great 2 4 1 happy hour as the sun went down on the beach and we thought it was good to participate just to be social... It cost only $5 for a great meal every night looking over the beach - fish, shrimps, chicken etc. And of course, brekky was wonderful - also overlooking the beach. We tested out all the hammocks (which overlooked the beach, of course) and found them to be most satisfactory. Lots of pictures to follow.

But all good things must come to an end, and our fun was curtailed by a nasty stingray in the sea on Sunday morning. It must have decided Nina and her body board weren't welcome in the Pacific Ocean any more as it planted a massive sting in the bottom of her foot. We paste a link to the wiki description of Stingray injuries which is a lovely read!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray#Stingray_injuries

So, Nina comes out the sea - foot bleeding, limping, crying and trying to call to Glenn - who just merrily waves oblivious to the pain Nina is in. A group of beach residents gather round at the gringa who is crying and Glenn finally comes over and tell Nina to liven up (only joking..). Lots of advice is given by the Ecuadorians in Spanish, but the pain is so much we limp back to the hostel. So we try 2 paracetemol to take away the pain after cleaning the wound, but after 45 minutes of crying, sobbing, swearing at the searing pain Glenn relents and accepts it might hurt, so we go to the doctor. The local medical centre was a little metal hut but they were first class. We were straight in (unlike A+E) and it was spotlessly clean. He recognised it was a stingray and and anaesthetised the foot - oh the relief! He then cleansed the wound and took the barbs out which were causing the pain. He applied a dressing, gave Nina some antibiotics and Nina limped off. After that, it didn't take long to get better, but as a conversation topic it has lasted -all to Glenns delight.

After this incident, jumping around in the waves didn't seem so alluring, although it is apparently very rare in Canoa. So after a day or so of lazing around on hammocks we said goodbye and jumped on a bus to Guayaquil in the expectation of reaching Lima after a long bus journey.

Unfortunately it was not to be as a transport strike was announced in Peru, and a state of emergency was issued by the government. The bus took 8 hours over bumpy roads with a psycho driver (all part of the experience) and then after 5 hours at the bus station we took an overnight bus across the border to Peru. The border is described as 'harrowing' in the Footprint travel guide (our bible on this trip) and there are many blogs which describe how people try to rip you off as they 'help' you get across. So we took the recommended route of an international bus (CIFA), where your luggage stays on the bus and you negotiate customs with the help of the conductor. The actual border crossing was OK, except it was 2am, but the overnight bus journey was not fun. There was a loud Jean Claude Van Damme movie being played, lights would suddenly come on frequently and with no explanation and there were lots of stops for what was supposed to be a direct bus. But, we made it to Piura in Peru and could go no further by bus as they were paralysed by the strike. Even as we type no-one can give an explanation as to when it will end and the news has headlines like '1600 tourists trapped in Arequipa', 'disaster' and 'state of emergency'. Normally, we wouldnt mind and would just hang out but we had to get to Lima for flights. So we spent a fun four hours trying to book a flight - after lots of back and forth (cards wouldn't work, conflicting advice etc etc) we got one for Wednesday evening. Obviously everyone else had the same idea and we have just walked past a LAN office (airline) and the queue is snaking round the block. So even though we incurred extra cost we did the right thing as Nina really doesn't want to miss the flight to Australia and Glenn is desperate to get back to London to go back to work (!). We were too tired to appreciate Piura and after a row with a taxi driver, we decided to hang out in the tiny airport for 7 hours. The cafe was air conditioned with sofas, coffee and peace so we actually had a nice afternoon (strange as it sounds), which is tantamount to the fact that Glenn was very tired and 'emotional' and seemed to have lost his patient gene (especially with the coach companies and the minister of transport).

We booked the same hostel that we stayed in 3 months ago when we first arrived in Lima, as we knew they pick you up with no hassle, they have massive beds and hot water (which we needed after 48 hours with no shower...nice). This morning we transferred to the hostel in Miraflores which we had already booked and have spent the afternoon enjoying the city now that we are clean and have had a good nights sleep.

Photos will be uploaded soon so you can all be really envious of the time in Canoa (we didn't take any photos of the bus rides though..).

Thanks everyone for following our South american adventure and Glenn will see you all soon (Nina will see some of you soon, other later...).

Nina and Glenn xxx