Demonstrations, riots, roadblocks - leaving Peru

 

I was in Chachapoyas when the news broke that the president, Pedro Castillo, was arrested. I should have known better and headed straight to Ecuador, especially since I was about to leave Peru anyway. But I decided to go back to Lima and fly from there to Colombia, skipping Ecuador to save time and money. It was a bad decision and I never got to Lima, but at least I experienced a bit of the country-wide demonstrations that shook Peru.

From Chachapoyas I went back to Cajamarca from where I was taking an overnight bus to Lima. On the main square of the city, people demonstrated against the removal of Castillo.


Next morning I was supposed to wake up in Lima. Instead we were somewhere in an open field with hundreds of other buses and trucks a little south of Trujillo. Smoke could be seen in the distance in both directions.






Nobody could say anything about how long we will be stuck, so after a while I decided to join those who were walking in the direction of Trujillo.






At one point I got a ride on a motorbike for an inflated price, then we found these three-wheelers that took us further. They drove between burning tyres and rocks, and off the asphalt to bypass road-blocks. Finally we got on a pick-up truck that avoided the main road altogether and followed coastal dirt roads until we could get back to the main road and be dropped off on the outskirts of Trujillo.


In Trujillo I teamed up with others who wanted to go to Chiclayo and we took a taxi to the bus terminal. It was chaotic as everyone was trying to leave somewhere but not many lines were operational. We decided to take an overpriced colectivo, and that`s how I arrived in Chiclayo.


I stayed one night in Chiclayo and bought a ticket to Cuenca. All the buses were cancelled except the few to Ecuador, and the bus terminal was almost empty. That`s how I said good bye to Peru.




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