Peru!!

So we have made it to country number 11...Oh ya!! It was a strange border crossing for us. The Ecuadorian immigration building was just located on the side of a busy, dusty highway and the bus just dropped us of (we were the only 2 that got off the bus to go through immigration) and pointed us at the building. We quickly got our Ecuadorian exit stamp and then were wondering how we get into Peru, and where do we get our entry stamps? It turns out the Peru immigration building is about 6km away, so we had to take a taxi there! A bit strange-most countries we have been in you just walk from one building to the other and you´re done. So we hopped in a taxi, were taken to the border of Ecuador and dropped off in a market. They just pointed and said over there...It looks as if we are just in the middle of a busy city on market day and there is no immigration office in sight. As we started walking another taxi driver comes to us and says he will take us the 3km to the immigration office and then onto the bus terminal. Alright, I prefer than then walking in the hot sun with all my stuff. At the same time I am thinking how strange this border is...

As we start the ride with taxi number 2 we are talking with the taxi driver about this strange border crossing and how much the taxi ride will cost. Adrian says, don´t worry, we just changed a bit of money at the Ecuadorian border, it will cover what this ride costs. The taxi driver tells us that we the money changers there frequently give fake Peruvian money! We exchanged about $26USD and they gave us a 50 soles bill that looked very real, complete with holograms and watermarks (Adrian even checked when he got the bill!). So Adrian takes it out to show the cabby, and low and behold- it´s fake! Doh! It looked very real, the only way you could tell was that the number 50 on the bill was not an irridescent color. Now we know...Luckily we didn´t change much money and the fake 50 is only worth about $16USD.

We get to the Peruvian immigration and get our entry stamp and are back in the taxi to go to the bus station. Subtracting our counterfeit money from our stash, we realize we have just enough money to get us to Mancora, our destination beach town. Luckily, I had a few soles coins that I had traded with a guy in Montañita for some Colombian pesos that I had leftover...Those coins got us there on the bus! Whew...

We were pretty annoyed about getting some fake money and thought it was a lost cause. But later that night, I was able to buy some drinks at the bar with my fake note. We just picked the most wasted bartender and waited for him to help me. There was no chance this wasted dude was going to examine the bill to see if it was fake :) Good times...