Tumbes and Machala

You may recall that in my previous blog post I mentioned that I'd been eating a lot of seafood in Huanchaco. Well it looks like I paid the price for that, because I was violently ill in the early hours of Tuesday morning while on the bus from Trujillo to Tumbes. I won't go into any details, but let's just say it was lucky that the bus had on-board toilets, because otherwise it would have been even more messy and unpleasant than it already was.

I'd already planned to split my journey from Trujillo to Cuenca into three parts, and that turned out to be a good plan, because it gave me a chance to recuperate. It also meant that I spent two nights in towns with tropical climates, and I actually got to put on a pair of shorts for the first time since I was in Salta in Argentina, about seven weeks ago.

I spent Tuesday night in Tumbes, which is a fairly large town about 30km from the Ecuadorian border. The main reason people stay in Tumbes is to explore the nearby National Mangroves Sanctuary, but I wasn't really in a fit state to do anything like that. Instead I just had a look around town, and I thought it was quite a pleasant place. Among other things it had a colourful Cathedral and a strange piece of artwork in the Plaza de Armas.

The border crossing to Ecuador at Aguas Verdes has the reputation of being the worst in South America, because the town is full of scammers and con artists who are all looking to take advantage of the fresh supply of naive tourists that turn up every day. Fortunately it's possible to avoid all of this by getting a direct international bus from Tumbes to Machala in Ecuador, which is what I did on Wednesday morning.

I spent Wednesday night in Machala. Pretty much the only interesting thing about the town is that it's surrounded by huge banana plantations, and it's sometimes referred to as the 'banana capital of the world'. However, I didn't see anything of interest in the town itself, so I don't really have anything else to report.

I've now arrived in Cuenca, which is a much nicer place, and where I'll be staying for the next week to study some more Spanish. I'll tell you more about it next time.