Sep 4 - Oct 9, 2016: Peru

Zumba, Ecuador to Chachapoyas, Peru

Ignore the "8 hr 5 min" - my trip took a bit longer (14 hours).

Sep. 4, 2016. Home Backpacker's Hostel, Chachapoyas, Peru. First day in Peru!

This was a day of travel. It took 6 rides, in 6 different transportation modes, to get here:
1. A taxi from the hostel to the Zumba bus station.
2. A ranchera (open-sided truck}, to the border at La Balsa {2 hours). Walked across the border, with the world's easiest customs and immigration. Only two other tourists - a German couple, naturlich - where we got our exit stamp from Ecuador, and our entry stamp to Peru. The Peruvian immigration official asked me how long I was planning to stay in Peru. I hazarded two months. He said "Why not longer?" And gave me a multiple entry visa for 6 months.
3. A "taxi collectivo" to Jaen.
4. A "mototaxi" (motorcycle taxi, like a Thai samlaw} to the collectivo stop.
5. A collectivo to Bagua Grande (one hour)
6. A good old regular bus to Chachapoyas (three hours), arriving late afternoon.
A German couple on the bus were carrying the world's biggest and heaviest backpacks, so, walking together from the Chachapoyas terminal terrestre, we stopped at the first hostel, which turned out to be just fine.
After checking in, we headed for a restaurant that Lonely Planet said had good steaks, but it was closed. So we ended up in a wonderful giant restaurant and market complex off the main square, where the usual was available - chicken, chicken, and more chicken. I tried chorizo, because it was the first time I had seen it on a menu, and it was more like a not very good hot dog. Next time, back to chicken.
We agreed to try to get to Kuelap the next day using public transport and our own feet. Only, what an adventure that turned out to be.
Chachapoyas, despite Lonely Planet dinging it as nothing special, turned out to be a fine town with a great central plaza and a pedestrians-only road back to our hostel, cobblestoned, lined with restaurants, bars, businesses, all decked out with carved wooden doorways and overhanging balconies, full of flowers.