Justin McCandless

I finally succeeded in getting another 90 days here in Ecuador. I went to the immigration office here in Loja, and they told me to go to Cuenca, Guayaquil, or Quito to try and get a visa to stay longer. But everyone continued to tell me that I could do it by going to Peru, despite already having tried that and failing. Later that day Ángel from Arcoiris told me that he was going to Huaquillas again that day and that I should come along to try the Peru thing again with him, then I could go to Guayaquil from there if it didn't work. I packed up real quick and left with him that night, even though I thought that there was no way Peru would work after trying it the first time.

I spent the night at a hotel in Huaquillas, then in the morning we went to immigration on the Ecuador side (the same place I got stamped out and back in the first time). The guards there told me that I couldn't come back in to Ecuador if I was to leave for Peru, because I guess you can only do that once every year or something. They even brought to my attention that I had actually lost a day the first time I left to Peru, and would now have to be out of Ecuador by Sunday the 2nd. And they called me "meester".

So about this time things were looking pretty bad, and I was about to go grab Ángel and tell him the news. But the guards kept saying "No, you don't understand, get your Ecuadorian friend so we can explain to him." Before I could draw them a bloody diagram of what they had said so they would see that I understood and didn't need them to talk to Ángel or say things like meester to me, Ángel came over and got the exact same speech. Then I walked away with him, and he kindly explained to me that they wanted us to bribe them. So yeah, I guess they were being sneaky with their wording or something and that was the part of the conversation I wasn't getting. And, that would be why my first trip to Peru didn't work.

I talked it over with Ángel, and since my only other option was probably a visa which I had just found out costs $200, I decided to basically set a maximum bid for the rest of my trip in Ecuador at $80. If they wouldn't take that I would forget them, forget the expensive visa, and go back home. I really didn't want to bribe corrupt loser cops, but it was the rest of my trip on the line. They ended up going for it at $60, and they stamped my passport (yes, that was all they had to do) and I was on my way.

I caught a bus back to Loja about an hour later, with up until the 25th of October to stay in Ecuador. I'll be here until sometime at the end of August; my last day of work is the 21st. I am a bit bummed about not going home, but it's nice knowing exactly what I'm doing now. Now I just need to change my focus from American food to everything awesome I'm doing in Ecuador and all the people I've met and I'll be all set to stay another month.