We got to Guayaquil very early (at around 5:30 AM) in the morning and tried to find lodging. All the open hostels (although we still had to wake up the attendants on duty) were horrible - dirty, uncomfortable, small, and of them had blood on the pillow and no blanket... and all of them were over-priced.
Since it was already hot at 6 and the people that we met were not friendly (though that MAY have had something to do with the time), we decided to return to the bus station and take a bus back to Loja, Ecuador.
Once we arrived there, we kept going on an overnight bus to Piura. Feeling inspired to get to Chile (and not for lack of loving Ecuador and Peru, but for our anxiety to meet up with STeph and Carrie), we booked the first night bus out of Piura (to Lima) and spent about 8 hours there between the arrival of our bus from Piura and the departure of our bus to Arequipa. Since we were dirty and covered in sweat from the past 3 days (and especially thanks to the buses to and from Guayaquil), we elected to find a hostel for the day to shower and leave our things in while we went for a run (obviously not in that order). Just across the street from where we'd need to leave that evening, we saw a hotel that advertised double rooms for S/. 22 - about $7 in total. With TV and a private bathroom? Yes please! We thought that it was a bit strange that the offer was actually only for 6 hours, but whatever. That's about the time we wanted to rent it for anyway, we were tired, and there was a park nearby to jog in.
We got the key and went to the room. First we checked for hot water and a functioning toilet (yes and yes!), plugged in our phones to charge, and dropped our stuff and got ready to run. When ready, we took another look around: Soap and towels provided (excellent!). Jay tested out the TV, and was immediately greeted with a close-up image of some over-made-up woman's breast, quickly panning out to a rather more graphic program. Interesting... THAT hadn't happened before in our trip... And then we noticed the sign on the wall: "Por favor no ensuciar las paredes" (Please don't dirty the walls). It was laminated. And the walls weren't terribly nice either.
Hah. At that moment, we finally realized that we were in a love hotel. Classy. And rather nostalgic (the only other time we found ourselves in a love hotel was when we first arrived in Korea and that was the temporary arrangement our boss had made for us while we waited for the teacher's apartment to be available). Other than the (now noticeable) noises from some other room down the hall, it worked well enough. We were tired, and the room was cheap (plus, it DID have hot water and towels).
We left our things and went for a run (noting as we passed it an additional stairway for discrete exits). After running and showering, we got our stuff and went to a restaurant to eat. While we were there, a rather dirty man came in from the street. He tried to talk with Jay, but it was very difficult to understand him and the restaurant owner shooed him away for us. He left for a while, but then came back and wouldn't listen to the owner's request. He kept talking to Jay and asking him random questions while patting him on the shoulder, making him very uncomfortable. I asked him to leave, and he responded that he wasn't bothering us.
"Yes, you are bothering us. He (Jay) doesn't speak much spanish and so it will be a bit difficult to communicate with him and you are bothring us both, so please leave."
"I'm asking a question."
"Sir, this is not a question. I am telling you to leave."
He got angry, and pointed his finger in my face (about 2 inches from my eyes) and yelled at us (I didn't understand what he was saying at this point). During all of this, Jay and the restaurant owner are trying to get him to leave. I looked at him with my firmest angry teacher look and he finally left. Whew, scary.
We waited for a few minutes, paid, and left. After crossing the first half of the street to a mini-sidewalk in the middle, Jay noticed that he was in the same group as us, though he didn't seem to have seen us. We turned around quickly and walked over to a sidewalk Kiosk. What did we want? Oh, I don't know...
"How much is a water?"
"Just one sol."
I turned to Jay to ask if he had a coin available, and the man was already next to us. I asked him to leave again and the sweet attendant at the kiosk immediately did the same. When he didn't leave, she asked me if I wanted her to get the policeman (there was one nearby, directing traffic).
"Yes please, he followed us into a restaurant and won't leave us alone."
"You just wait here."
She got out of the kiosk and started across the street to the policeman. The man decided it was time to leave us alone and he left. She watched him leave, with a very mother-hen attitude, and looking as imposing as she could (she was maybe barely 5 feet tall). Once she was sure he'd left us alone, she got back into the kiosk and got our water.
"Thank you very much."
"He followed you into a restaurant?"
"Yes, and the owner asked him to leave."
"And he didn't listen?"
"No, he did once and then he came back and wouldn't listen to any of us."
"Do you know what he wanted?"
"I think he just wanted to talk, but he was very hard to understand and he was making us very uncomfortable."
"Yes, I think he's a little bit crazy. You two just wait here with me for a bit. Where do you have to go?"
"To the bus station," I pointed across the street.
She scanned the street for him, deemed it okay for us to make a break for it, and cautioned us to watch out and to talk to the bus station's security guards if he followed us again. We thanked her, paid for our water, and headed to the station.
We made it the rest of the day without seeing that man again, but we did have a lovely conversation about the merits of taking a self defense class or two when we get the chance. A couple hours in the bus station, and then on to Southern Peru.
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