Chugchilan to punta sal

We left chugchilan by the same winding road only this time we took the first chance to crack open the roof seats on the truck. We have 8 roof seats, 4 at the front and 4 at the back. When they aren't in use we store all sorts of crap in the shelf they form. Mainly blankets and sleeping bags, but these sections of the roof flip open and then you sit on the shelf with your feet dangling in the truck. The only rule is to wear glasses in case of bugs, and preferably to keep watch for low hanging power cables. Fortunately I was having a particular geek day so was adorning my lovely specs already so up I got. So I told you we were in the moutains at high altitude so I'm sure you figured it out, but just in case, it's bloody freezing! Even with many layers and multiple blankets it's a loose term to say that this roof experience was comfortable, but it was fun. All the locals still seem shocked at us and all wave as we pass by, so there was generally lots of amazing views, some hairy edge of cliff moments, lots of waving and one horrible bus passing.
Annoyingly it started to rain so after about 45 minutes we were freezing and soaked and were begging to be let back in. I'm looking forward to the next rooftop experience, I'll pick a better weather day maybe.

Todays destination was Cuenca, extrude third largest city (which is pretty small) and quite a pretty one too. Home to Panama hats, yes they are not actually made in panama. We didn't have a lot of time here after the drive but enough time for me
To scour the streets for a charger for my camera. My Spanish now stretches that far at least. I did fail miserably though. We then all met up for a trip to the hat factory. It was pouring with rain and everyone was not up for it at all but as soon as we got in there, there was a complete hat buying frenzy. Some of us had ours made or adapted in the factory too. The women who work there are amazing. They can take any of the hats and adjust the size, the width of the rim, put a trim on it, change the band, mould them to a new shape all in minutes. We've got some pretty interesting ones floating around the truck now. I insisted I was only buying a traditional one but instead have one with a smaller rim, with a blue trim and a stripy blue band. It's so nice :-) 

After the shop we roamed the streets a little before heading back for cake and wine to celebrate Hanna, one of the crews, birthday. Some of the guys were raving about the amazing street food they'd found, one of which was pizza in an edible bread cone. I still don't get it, but apparently it was good. But we all went off to sample the goods and for $3 had the best meal of the trip eating by the side of the road with the locals who were happily feasting on chicken foot soup (nasty).

The next day was another drive day and another border crossing. As we approached the border we
Were faced with shiny new buildings very advanced for Ecuador. We got the truck through and then got off to get ourselves out of Ecuador. On arriving at the shiny new migration building we were told to go to the other building which after much walking around turns out we had already driven past and needed to drive back to. When we got there it was quite apparent how we had missed it as it was basically a shack amongst a row of shops. The man in the shack did his stuff and then we drove off through no mans land to find the entrance to Peru. We were faced with the same shiny buildings and a shack and headed straight to the shack to be accepted into the country. While we were waiting for everyone else we asked the unfriendly policeman where the loos were and we got the Spanish inquisition about what the hell we were doing in Peru. I have no idea what we were saying yes to, but eventually we were shown to the doctor who style tardis where we were clearly instructed to wee not poo. Very accommodating these peruvians.

Anyway, off we drove to the beach in punta sal. It was lovely, White sand and little huts to upgrade to if you wanted. Most of us chose to camp, pitching up on the beach so that we could wake up and literally fall into the sea. A couple people upgraded which is just as well as the facilities elsewhere were shocking. Washing your hands in cistern whilst trying to force the loo to flush is pretty grim, although much better than some of the trainspotting moments we've had along the way. 

But anyway the beach was gorgeous, lots of ghost crabs wandering around but mainly
Just us and the sea. There were lots of optional activities, but we were all loving just chilling. There was another puppy there so she got a lot of attention (and one serious telling off from Irene following some boob biting). The camp site cooked us amazing dinner of swordfish and we drank pisco sours and ate vodka jelly around a bonfire until eventually sloping off to our tents.

Sleeping to the sound of the sea was amazing and I woke the next morning to see some
Of our group already swimming around in it. After breakfast a few of us went of for a walk along the beach and saw the
Local fishermen hard at work and tried to walk off some of the food we've been over indulging on.

When we got back lunch was ready, so we ate that and then headed into the nearest town to stock up on the latest currency and to do a little shopping. Many wristbands and pairs of fake ray bans later we were back on the beach and the crew cooked us the best Thai curry ever. Camping on the beach was great, I'm looking forward to more of that later on on the trip.