Piura

ihana.com - big trip - diary - peru - july 2003

Friday 28 June - Thursday 3 July

Leaving Trujillo we tracked north through the desert along the coast to Piura. The usual sand desert becomes covered in algarroble trees which are a hardy type that doesn't need much water, the wood is rock hard too. Piura is temporary home to Barnet bovver boy Ray-zor Sharp and his doris 'Crystal' Krista, who we first met back in April at a campsite in Cafayate, northern Argentina. They had only planned to be in Piura one night en route to Ecuador but, arriving at the bus station, bright spark Ray put down their rucksack containing passports, flight tickets, money, walkman, cameras etc. never to be seen again. "Some tea-leaf has half-inched me baag". Upset? after 5 weeks of arguing with corrupt cops (who even secretly ate Ray and Krista's sandwiches while they reported the theft), being in the newspapers and even on the telly, the more friendly locals are helping them get over it, using mainly alcohol related methods.

It was great to see the old couple again and catch up with their amusing tales of woe. They are making the best of life despite the circumstances and have got to know lots of people and the local scene, so we hit the town Friday night to the newly refurbished Queens club. A repeat visit there on Saturday saw B meet a nice young lady causing the lads a delay in Piura of a different nature.

One of Ray and Krista's new mates was a Canadian called Luc. His big rooftop patio was witness to many a drunken game of table-football and even a bit of Tae-bo aerobics. Luc's wife is into some esoteric things and they decided to take the unfortunate couple to a fortune-telling witch woman. We tagged along for a laugh. A laugh it was to be as we sat in her house filled to the rafters with ludicrous religious tat. Krista was told that she has two kids, "no", "one child", "no, none", "oh, you'll have two then, I see two children", "this is your husband","no"....and so it went on. We couldn't stand it anymore and left early to walk down the main shopping street and have the local dorises wolf whistling us as seemed to be the new norm.

Thursday was high time to be on the road and by mid afternoon we were at the border post for Ecuador. The entry formalities hit a slight snag as the customs man wanted to see our carnet, long since expired. We had to make an escorted 5km trip to the nearest town to speak with the boss lady. The alternative to not having a carnet was a hefty deposit of half the value of the car. We dug out the carnet and gave it to the woman, the expiry date of last July, she decided, was the date that we started the trip...ah, yes, that's right. Into Ecuador we went, the expired document with a fresh Ecuadorian stamp in it, the last country of this little jaunt.

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