Today started off at 2am we had to get across town to the Ormeno office to get the bus to Lima, Peru. There's no international bus terminal in Quito so you have to go directly to the companies office. As most of Ireland seems to know by now we ended up getting mugged that night so I might as well give the correct version of events!
The bus company have a pretty usually system because the bus that runs to Lima comes all the way from Caracus in Venezuela via Bogota, Colombia through Quito & on to Lima. That's about 1700 mls down the Pan American highway! They don't know exactly when the bus is going to get to Quito because of delays. If it doesn't get through the Colombian border in time it can be delayed by up to a day! So the company has to call your hostel with a time once they figure it out. Our bus was due in at 3:30am. So we booked a taxi at reception before we hit the hay. The power was out in the area around the hostel for some reason that night. So we don`t know if the thick English girl at reception didn`t book or taxi or she just forgot but when we got up there was no taxi in sight. The night guard wasn`t much help either when we woke him up! He just told us to hail one on the main street nearby.
Anyways we decided to take the risk knowing it was pretty dangerous around at that time of night but there`s usually loads of taxis bringing Gringos home from the nightclubs. It was usually quiet when we got down there & 2 or 3 taxis passed us by for some reason. Then we noticed 4 ominous looking gentlemen emerging from the darkness! Shit!
Two of them went straight for Charlie`s smaller bag & the other two smashed glass bottles and came at Ro & myself. We ended up backing out on to the main road as they came closer to us. The two lads & Charlie ended up wrestling around on the ground while he was trying to hang on to his bag. Finally a taxi made it`s way towards us, Ro & myself dived in front of the car desperate for some help. The driver slowed right down & then bumped me out of the way with the car & kept going not wanting any part of our situation. All of a sudden we were left back facing the two lads with glass bottles again!
The third guy went over to help the other two lads who still hadn`t managed to pry Charlie`s bag away from him after about 5mins! Ro threw his wallet at the guy shouting at him for dollars, he pulled out the money & threw the wallet back at him! Just then another taxi came along & we weren`t taking no for an answer. Myself & Ro practically jumped on top of the car knowing it was the only way outta there! Charlie gave one of the lads a belt across the face. This seemed to anger him!!
The driver & passenger got out to help, the 4 lads knew they where out numbered at this stage so they hopped Charlie`s head off the ground nearly knocking him out cold. They grabbed his back & sprinted off down a side street. We carried Charlie into the cab, thanked the driver for stopping & got moving. Once we got to the bus office we gave the driver $30 - all the money we had which was 10 times the fair! He was pretty grateful & so were we knowing we could have been stripped of everything we owned had he not stopped like the other taxi.
We were left in an awkward position now with Charlie`s passport & bus ticket gone. We managed to replace the ticket when the office opened but this bus still had to cross the border into Peru which was now impossible for us without all three passports. We decided to board anyway just to get out of Quito & made a decision to get off the next morning in Guayaquil the next biggest city in Ecuador to try & sort out some new documents. We didn´t sleep a wink on the bus playing over in our heads what had happened. Every single "What if?" goes through your head.
The whole bus was full of South Americans which made things a bit more difficult, not an English speaker in sight.
Before reaching Guayaquil the next morning we got stopped in some random hole of a town at a military checkpoint. The soldiers boarded the bus with M16s & directed us off shouting "Pasporta!" Apparently these stops are quiet routine especially for international buses to check peoples documents, visas etc. We couldn`t believe our misfourtune & I had visions of us being held in this awful town while the bus continued on. A soldier patted us down against the side of bus & checked our passports until it got to Charlie. The soldier was asking questions about 90mph in Spainish & we knew this was going to be difficult! Just then a Columbian guy off the bus came up to help us translate, thank god! We explained to him about the mugging, the stolen pasporta & even started pretending to break glass bottles & hit Charlie over the head in an effort to explain. We ended up getting a smile out of the soldier & he directed us back on to the bus!
I got chatting to the Colombian guy - Javier back on the bus & told him how we needed to get to Peru. He just kept telling me how dangerous South America was & to never trust anyone! Which we had already reliased at this stage! He agreed to help me speak to one of the bus drivers about getting over the border without the passport which he thought was possible for the right price! After a long winded conversion over & back with the driver, Javier & me he said he would get us through to Peru for a bribe of about $30. Happy days except we had about $7 in total on us on the time. But Javier being an absolute legend offered us a loan. We promised him he would get twice the money back but he just wanted to help out.
We reached Guayaquil about 3pm with other 24hrs to reach Lima. We stoped for lunch in some backwards Ecaudorian town. Lunch was soup with random potato-like stuff & a main course of fryed fish head & rice - Yummy! That night at 11pm the bus pulled into the border checkpoint on the Ecuadorian side. Ro & myself got our exit stamps while Charlie & Javier talked with the driver - Persy about getting through into Peru. Persy told Charlie they would act like friends & told him to just act dump & shrug his shoulders everytime they asked him questions in Spainish. Which was easy considering our Spainish is terrible! Persy made up some story about the lost Passport & slide the border guard the $30. Charlie was just asked "North or South Irlanda?" & we were on our way to Lima. Happy days!
Joe
The bus company have a pretty usually system because the bus that runs to Lima comes all the way from Caracus in Venezuela via Bogota, Colombia through Quito & on to Lima. That's about 1700 mls down the Pan American highway! They don't know exactly when the bus is going to get to Quito because of delays. If it doesn't get through the Colombian border in time it can be delayed by up to a day! So the company has to call your hostel with a time once they figure it out. Our bus was due in at 3:30am. So we booked a taxi at reception before we hit the hay. The power was out in the area around the hostel for some reason that night. So we don`t know if the thick English girl at reception didn`t book or taxi or she just forgot but when we got up there was no taxi in sight. The night guard wasn`t much help either when we woke him up! He just told us to hail one on the main street nearby.
Anyways we decided to take the risk knowing it was pretty dangerous around at that time of night but there`s usually loads of taxis bringing Gringos home from the nightclubs. It was usually quiet when we got down there & 2 or 3 taxis passed us by for some reason. Then we noticed 4 ominous looking gentlemen emerging from the darkness! Shit!
Two of them went straight for Charlie`s smaller bag & the other two smashed glass bottles and came at Ro & myself. We ended up backing out on to the main road as they came closer to us. The two lads & Charlie ended up wrestling around on the ground while he was trying to hang on to his bag. Finally a taxi made it`s way towards us, Ro & myself dived in front of the car desperate for some help. The driver slowed right down & then bumped me out of the way with the car & kept going not wanting any part of our situation. All of a sudden we were left back facing the two lads with glass bottles again!
The third guy went over to help the other two lads who still hadn`t managed to pry Charlie`s bag away from him after about 5mins! Ro threw his wallet at the guy shouting at him for dollars, he pulled out the money & threw the wallet back at him! Just then another taxi came along & we weren`t taking no for an answer. Myself & Ro practically jumped on top of the car knowing it was the only way outta there! Charlie gave one of the lads a belt across the face. This seemed to anger him!!
The driver & passenger got out to help, the 4 lads knew they where out numbered at this stage so they hopped Charlie`s head off the ground nearly knocking him out cold. They grabbed his back & sprinted off down a side street. We carried Charlie into the cab, thanked the driver for stopping & got moving. Once we got to the bus office we gave the driver $30 - all the money we had which was 10 times the fair! He was pretty grateful & so were we knowing we could have been stripped of everything we owned had he not stopped like the other taxi.
We were left in an awkward position now with Charlie`s passport & bus ticket gone. We managed to replace the ticket when the office opened but this bus still had to cross the border into Peru which was now impossible for us without all three passports. We decided to board anyway just to get out of Quito & made a decision to get off the next morning in Guayaquil the next biggest city in Ecuador to try & sort out some new documents. We didn´t sleep a wink on the bus playing over in our heads what had happened. Every single "What if?" goes through your head.
The whole bus was full of South Americans which made things a bit more difficult, not an English speaker in sight.
Before reaching Guayaquil the next morning we got stopped in some random hole of a town at a military checkpoint. The soldiers boarded the bus with M16s & directed us off shouting "Pasporta!" Apparently these stops are quiet routine especially for international buses to check peoples documents, visas etc. We couldn`t believe our misfourtune & I had visions of us being held in this awful town while the bus continued on. A soldier patted us down against the side of bus & checked our passports until it got to Charlie. The soldier was asking questions about 90mph in Spainish & we knew this was going to be difficult! Just then a Columbian guy off the bus came up to help us translate, thank god! We explained to him about the mugging, the stolen pasporta & even started pretending to break glass bottles & hit Charlie over the head in an effort to explain. We ended up getting a smile out of the soldier & he directed us back on to the bus!
I got chatting to the Colombian guy - Javier back on the bus & told him how we needed to get to Peru. He just kept telling me how dangerous South America was & to never trust anyone! Which we had already reliased at this stage! He agreed to help me speak to one of the bus drivers about getting over the border without the passport which he thought was possible for the right price! After a long winded conversion over & back with the driver, Javier & me he said he would get us through to Peru for a bribe of about $30. Happy days except we had about $7 in total on us on the time. But Javier being an absolute legend offered us a loan. We promised him he would get twice the money back but he just wanted to help out.
We reached Guayaquil about 3pm with other 24hrs to reach Lima. We stoped for lunch in some backwards Ecaudorian town. Lunch was soup with random potato-like stuff & a main course of fryed fish head & rice - Yummy! That night at 11pm the bus pulled into the border checkpoint on the Ecuadorian side. Ro & myself got our exit stamps while Charlie & Javier talked with the driver - Persy about getting through into Peru. Persy told Charlie they would act like friends & told him to just act dump & shrug his shoulders everytime they asked him questions in Spainish. Which was easy considering our Spainish is terrible! Persy made up some story about the lost Passport & slide the border guard the $30. Charlie was just asked "North or South Irlanda?" & we were on our way to Lima. Happy days!
Joe
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