Monday, November 19th

Stayed on night bus to Mancora!

Dear Obiwan,

My dear Jedi, today was the worst travel days yet of my trip yet! The day started off great with eggs for breakfast! (Yesterday was only bread and some weird stuff on top). After this Margaux and I headed to our bus to Cuenca. With plans to then take a 9pm night bus to Máncora. The bus got in at 5pm, 4 hours to spare right? WRONG.

This bus was supposed to take 8 hours. I asked before if there was a toilet, they said there was, but in reality they lock the toilet due to it being broken and the door is broken too. So if you have to use the restroom someone needs to unlock it, then lock you in…It was lovely.

About 30 minutes into our 8 hour bus ride we stopped. And never moved again, for 5 hours!!! There was a MILK PROTEST OBI. No car moved! It was legit stopped. People were walking past us! People were also just sitting in the road. I think, from what I understand, the protest was to raise the price of milk to help the farmers. I’m all for that but I’m just confused why they didn’t do it in the center of town? But instead on the high way, in front of I think… nothing?

Oh also, the bus driver kept turning off the air. And the windows on the bus we’re the size of my hands. And everyone just seemed content, dying and looking so uncomfortable, but no one said anything, except Margaux did! She got the air back on! And then every now and then this other guy with ask the bus driver to put it back on.

We eventually arrived in Cuenca at 2:30 am (7.5 hours late). We asked 3 different people who seemed to work there when is the next bus to Máncora…it wasn’t until the next day BUT there was a bus to the border at 3:40 am (which was a 2 hour ride from Mancora)! We then sat down for 40 minutes and came back to go on the bus…

TO ONLY FIND OUT- the bus left at 3:00am. We were told the wrong information! We were there but didn’t know!!! It was so frustrating and upsetting. The next bus wasn’t until 9am. I went and asked a cab and he said it was $120 to go to Máncora, Margaux and I haggled him down to $100. We thought it was very worth $50 a piece.

We told the guy we need to get to ‘Huaquillas’, for the border. He said yes yes the border yes! (All in Spanish)…Also, around this time I started to feel sick. And as the cab drove us, my stomach starting feeling like something was inside of my stomach stabbing me and destroying me about every 3-5 minutes.

About an hour later, our cab driver told us that we arrived. We both knew it was supposed to take 2 hours.

We asked ‘where our we?’

He said “Pasaje!”

Us ‘Where?!’

Him “PASAJE”

WE NEVER HEARD OF PASAJE HOW WOULD WE HAVE SAID a town we never heard before?!

Us ‘No we said Huaquillas! The border! You repeated it back!’

Him “NO YOU SAID PASAJE!!!”

Us ‘WE NEVER HEARD OF PASAJE, HOW AND WHY WOULD WE SAY IT?! TAKE US TO Huaquillas!’

Him “$50 more dollars!”

Us ‘no! It’s your mistake!’

Him “$50 dollars!”

We then just said okay, I mean, what were we going to do?! We then drove to Huaquillas, took another hour and the entire time EVERY FEW MINUTES or so he would SIGH ANGRILY and loudly, it was so rude I wanted to yell at him so badly but just kept quiet.

Finally we arrive at Huaquillas, and we gave him $40 ($10 less) and he rolled his eyes and took it.

After this the worst border experience of my life ensued. We arrive at the border and there was only 1 person in front of us. We were hopeful and excited to get to Peru!…Oh how naive I was!

I walked over to the border patrol woman and handed her my passport to be stamped for Peru. She looked through my passport then looked up at me and stated something in Spanish about ‘where is your stamp for entering Ecuador?’ I then took the passport and also searched through it…and only saw my stamps for entering Colombia and exiting Colombia. The next stamp was the Galapagos.

NO STAMP FOR ENTERING ECUADOR.

Sheer horror and panic filled my entire body. All I could think was, “no, the border person in Colombia could NOT have just…forgotten? OR did I miss something?” I searched my memories and NO I didn’t miss something, the border from Colombia to Ecuador had 3 lanes, 1 was for Colombian citizens and two were for everyone else, I remember distinctly thinking ‘they need more lanes for all the foreigners.’ NO I didn’t mess up. They did. They some how only stamped that I was leaving Colombia AND NEVER STAMPED THAT I ENTERED ECUADOR. How?! I was at the Ecuador border HOW?!

Back to the present- I’m standing there and the woman had no sympathy in her face and just kept stating, “I can’t let you in without a stamp from Ecuador, you can only leave Ecuador if you have a stamp for ENTERING Ecuador.” I asked, ‘how do I get one?’

And- ready for this- she said, “you have to go back to the border of Ecuador and Colombia.” At this moment Margaux had gotten her passport stamped and she was by my side ready to help and save the day. She spoke her fluent Spanish and her and his woman began to speak very quickly. Margaux geniusly pointed at my Galapagos stamp and asked “how can she have a stamp for the Galapagos?! OBVIOUSLY SHE WAS IN ECUADOR! This isn’t her fault!” But the woman said she couldn’t do anything.

And then I couldn’t hold it in anymore Obiwan. I was standing there with panic flowing through my veins and the thought going through my mind ‘I am NOT GOING BACK to Colombia for a stamp!’ ‘What am I going to do?!’…and I just bursted into tears. I was trying not to cry, but I couldn’t hold it back and I thought it was going to be the lady-like crying where you have tears falling down your cheeks and you make small whimper sounds…but nope, I did not know my cry was going to be a loud bursting sound of SOBS and a waterfall of tears which resulted in me not being able to breathe pretty quickly. Also, the border control had high ceilings so my sobs echoed through this whole room and I ran behind a pillar and gathered myself. I then returned to the desk and it looked like somehow either me crying or Margaux or I think a combination of everything, but now our lady was trying to help! She said, “go to Tomas, he’s my boss, he might be able to help.”

Margaux then explained that the woman felt so bad and wanted to help but that she physically can NOT stamp a passport, that she doesn’t have the ability, but her boss might be able to. Margaux was so amazing and comforting and told me to cry again if I can with Tomas, which I knew I could.

Then we met Tomas, and immediately I was hopeful. Tomas looked so kind. He has his own office and he looked at my puffy crying face and immediately looked at me with kindness. I told him what happened and he took my passport, looked at it inquisitively and agreed that it made NO SENSE. He then with NO HESITATION told me to sit in front of the camera, and then relief just flowed over me and I looked over at Margaux and she had the biggest smile and was nodding saying non-verbally ‘WE DID IT! IT’S OKAY! EVERYTHING IS OKAY!’ He then took my finger prints and stamped my passport for entering Peru!

So, now if you go into my passport, I have Colombia then the Galapagos, and now Peru stamps…and nothing for Ecuador! But all is well. And I learned my lesson from now on to always check my passport at the borders to make sure they stamped it correctly! (Which seems absurd, but I WILL DO THIS ALWAYS)

Oh also, during all of this I am getting sicker by the moment and having more intense stomach cramps from hell every 3-5 minutes.

Finally, we thought everything was over. But we had one more cab scam. We were going to take the 2 hour bus from the border to Mancora and then we saw a sign that read “$50 USD to Mancora” and we looked at each other and thought $25 each for a cab over a bus sounds amazing right now. We asked the cab, he said “yes $50” we then drove there but when we arrived the guy turns around and tells us “$100,” he explained that it was $50 PER PERSON. And I lost my sh*t Obiwan, I was in pain, exhausted, and I just told him in Spanish, “NO YOU ARE A LIAR…WHAT IF IT WAS A FAMILY OF 4 THEY WOULD PAY $200? NO.” And gave him $60 and left.

Then finally, some million hours of hell later, we were in Mancora! We found our hostel and I climbed into bed holding my tummy and went to bed.

Goodnight lamb, hopefully tomorrow will be better…but no matter what it will be better than today!

Love tu Madre,

Carly