Peru!

Hi Folks:
Internet has been a little sketchy............... at least that is my excuse and I am stcking to it! After Saraguro, Macara, a little dusty border town was a complete change. Only a near-riot under our window in the middle of the night, and the usual Carnavale hi-jinks to liven the place up. I went looking for a cambio or bank to get some Peruvian Neuevo Soles and asked a bunch of guys at the market using my best Spanish (thanks Nuri) and they pointed to the man with the suitcase in the park across the road. Although I am sure that I got ripped off a little,he was a charmer.He listed of a number of Canadian cities and showed me his US permanent resident card. Said that he was too old to stay there.
At the border we made our obligatory three stops on foot: first getting stamped out at the Ecuadorian side (had to fill out a form and I wonder what would happen if you didn't qualify to get out?).then to immigration in Peru where we had to fill out the same form and I cleverly put in the wrong passport number,then across the road to check in with the police (Joy almost missed this one). Later, quite a few KMs (Canadian miles for Fred and Pat) into Peru the bus got stopped at a police check point and a number of Ecuadorians were rousted for not checking in with police. That left the rest of us in a sweltering bus waiting for the wrangling to get over. Then on to Piura where we planned to stay.When we got there we decided to go further to Chiclaya and settled down with cervaza (get used to it......it's beer) waiting for the bus. Unfortunately, when we got to Chiclaya (about 10pm) all our choice of hostels were full for Carnavale and our taxi guy earned his extra pay driving us all over town to find a hostel. He was eventually successful.
Jim