Again on an overnight bus (we love those overnight buses - they take you somewhere and you get to sleep in chairs that recline way back - airlines should study these overnight buses) we landed in Piura. This was just a quick stop on our way to more beaches because we heard that the beaches in Northern Peru were the best. Piura was a nice little city and very historical, older than Lima in fact. On the other hand, it was hotter than the Devil´s underpants. We got to our hostal at about 6am and they put us in a room with windows to the street. The street happened to be the street where the town's newspaper (Sunday edition in this case ) were put together by 20 very loud workers. It was too hot to sleep with the windows closed and too noisy to sleep with them open so we turned on the ceiling fan which sounded like a jet engine preparing for takeoff with a hint of another noise like it might fall between our beds. We slept like babies anyway.

Piura was our first opportunity to see a movie in a cinema. In all cities before Piura either the movies were terrible or we missed the showing. If you know D and Em at all, you know that they love to go to the cinema (especially D) so this was very exciting for us. We saw TransAmerica which was very heavy but very good. Afterwards we went out and ate some pizza, drank some beers, and danced a little. The second night in a row that we went to a drinking establishment. Crazy party animals we are! We were back to our hostel and asleep by midnight. 12 hours later we were off in another bus to the north, amidst 90 or 100 degree heat with a delicious cheese and salami sandwich on hand.

Piura is the first town I´ve visited in Peru, having taken the easier and safer border crossing via Macara (recommended, no hassle at all getting across thank goodness, although the passport inspector was visibly sceptical that the person in the photo was actually me.  Although this concerned me at the time - I didn´t really want to be left on a bridge literally not existing in any country - I took it as a good thing given how awful the photo looks.

Anyway, perhaps I´ve been harsh to Piura in the title of the entry - it was, after all, only occasionally that I caought a whiff of sewage and that might have been the fault of the hostal as much as anything.  But me and my brief South Korean travelling partner Philip agreed that the place had little to offer after a brief walk round and he cut down the time he was expecting to stay there to just one night.  My trusty guide had already indicated that the place didn´t deserve more time, so no changes needed to my plans fortunately!  The evening walk was made more interesting though by a political demonstration (yey, more politics to be interested in) and a rather safer-looking parade by some girls celebrating the anniversary of their school with a beauty-pagant syle affair. I tried to ask the girls whether they were upset that the attention their parade deserved was being diverted by the protest across the street, but inevitably my Spanish was not strong enough and they just smiled and laughed.

Oh and Peru is hot.  It´s probably the same on the Ecuadorian coast but becuase I´d suddenly descended from living in the Andes for weeks it felt stifling.  Think it will get better as I go further south, and the heat might be more enjoyable if I come across a beach or two!

Next stop Chiclayo, and then Trujillo, down the main road on the west coast.