The Down Side of Being Off the Gringo Trail

The trip from Jaen Peru across the border to Vilcabamba Ecuador is a little off the gringo trail but was apparently doable in one day if all went well. In fact, according to “The Book”, our day should have looked something like this: first, take a moto-taxi from our hostel to “transport terminal” – 5 minutes. Then, take a micro from Jaen to San Ignacio – 2 ½ hours. Then, take another moto-taxi from the micro (a van packed with 10 or more people) drop off spot to the “collectivo departure location”. Grab a collectivo (the photo shows the driver of the colectivo changing the flat, bald tire for a bald "good" tire) to La Balsa (border town) – 2 ½ hours, where we would complete immigration clearance, departing Peru, and then walk across the new bridge into Ecuador. Complete the immigration process entering Ecuador and then board one of the “rancheros” (farm trucks with benches) that will be waiting at the border to drive us the 10 kms to Zumba (assuming 20 minutes) where we catch a bus to Vilcabamba – a final 3 hours… all this according to “The Book”, for a total of about nine hours…

Therefore, leaving our hotel in Jaen at 8:30 am, we expected to arrive in Vilcabamba around 6 or 7 pm. In reality everything was relatively on track (only a couple of hours late) until we entered Ecuador. Once there, no rancheros, in fact, no transportation of any kind for at least three hours.

Hmm, in 3 hours we could walk the 10km… except it looked straight uphill and we wondered, “is it actually only 10 km?” Thankfully, common sense prevailed and we sat and counted ants and watched the chickens vie for scraps of food until the ranchero finally arrived.

Rather than a 10 km walk (all uphill) it was an hour and a half rough road through the jungle. Unfortunately, this delay meant that we missed the earlier buses to Vilcabamba, so after “dinner”, which was a bottle of orange juice (OK Tang) and a bag of potato chips each, we caught the 8pm bus to Vilcabamba.

Arriving at 2am, we were the only ones to get off the bus in this small town. After a quick scan of our surroundings we looked at each and said “Oh shit”. No taxis, no people, no map, no reservations, very few lights, strange South America town in a country with a higher than average crime rate. Not having a lot of options, we crossed our fingers and headed in the direction that we hoped was towards the main square and rang the buzzer of the first hostel that we found. A very sleepy and unimpressed woman in her nighty, slippers and shawl very graciously handed us a key and said “Buenos noches”. Home at last, another bullet dodged…