Into Peru

Annie, Elizabeth and I headed out of Cuenca really early this morning, and boarded a bus for the Ecuador-Peru border. There had been protests in the square that we heard all night long, but luckily the buses weren´t striking and we were able to make it. There are buses that drive across the border, but we weren´t able to take one from Cuenca, so we had quite a time--
The bus stopped at the last town in Ecuador, which was after the bus waited for us to get all of our passports stamped and papers in order. Getting off the bus, we were surrounded by guys trying to get us to exchange our US dollars into Peruvian soles, which we knew was a scam. They followed us the whole way--you have to literally walk across the border of the two countries. They were telling us that we had to take a cab in Peru to get to the first town, and that there were absolutely no banks where we would be able to change money, which we knew was not true. We asked the border guard, and he changed his story to go along with what these guys were saying. Anyways, we found a collectivo driver who agreed to take us to a bank in Tumbes and exchange the money there (atms).
We were planning on taking a bus to Mancora, a little surfing beach town, but we discussed a price and he actually drove us all the way here, stopping for lunch and setting us up at a nice hostel of his friend (yes, he gets commission and yes, we probably paid too much, but for the convenience and stability, it was worth it).
So, we have spent the evening in the water body surfing, and then took showers and had our first Peruvian meal, which was so good--fresh fish and papaya juice, and of course, cerveza. Tomorrow we´re going to surf all day and then we´ll head down the coast on Wednesday to spend a few days at the Incan ruins at Chan Chan and Trujillo.
I miss you guys!