September 1, 2007
Day 703
I looked at my map and figured I'd easily make it to Vilcabamba, Ecuador today. How wrong I turned out to be.
Early in the morning I easily found a colectivo to Bagua Grande, which only took a few hours, but it was a slow trip on the unpaved road. I took a three-wheeled motorcycle taxi to the bus station, then caught another colectivo to Jaen, the next town on the map. After that, I took another moto-taxi to the to the bus station and finally got to ride in a van with a little more legroom to San Ignacio. After yet another moto-taxi ride, I took my last ride of the day in another colectivo. This car was way overloaded with eleven passengers, 1 mattress, about twenty two-liter water bottles, my backpack, and a few other smaller bags packed into one small station wagon designed for five passengers. You've gotta love a South American's ability to get the greatest gas mileage per passenger possible.
I ended my day in Nanballe, which I was happy to learn was only fifteen minutes from the border with Ecuador. I barely did any physical activity today, yet after riding in seven vehicles for over ten hours to cover a distance of all of 200 KM, I was exhausted. Ecuador will have to wait until tomorrow.
