Just a few shots from Guayaquil, a 5 hour stop over from Mancora Peru, to Quito Ecuador. We set off to cross the most dodgy border crossing yet. The day started in Mancora at 8am with three hour bus ride to Tumbes, a dusty transit

town and after hearing of three different mugging knife to throat stories we decided to pass through it as quickly as possible. We then jumped on a 6 hour bus across the border to Guayaquil... after two hours of border crossing procedures. We arrived in Guayaquil with Pat and Cath (two aussies) and headed straight for dinner at the newly developed coastal boardwalk for an awesome seafood dinner right on the water. Out the front of one of the diners Ebs managed to take a photo of a typical sign in South America... NO GUNS NO ROLLERBLADES (two activities that obviously go hand in hand) accompanied by an armed guard at a fast food restaurant. We have seen armed guards, complete with semi automatic rifles and bullet proof vests in pharmacys, supermarkets, and the best of all in a supermarket guarding the fruit and veg section... crazy business. We then took the overnight bus to Quito, bus security works like this... you receive a thorough touch up and frisk before you get on the bus, but then the bus will logically pick up the seedest of characters off the highway at 4 in the morning for a cash in hand fare. This is exactly how buses get hi-jacked, maybe a system rethink is in order.

Ebs and Richo