So we were advised to take the international coach from Loja in Ecuador to Puira in Peru we were told that it was the best way to get across the border as the journey itself is about 18 hours and they sort out all the passport control and take you to the nearest town that is 4 hours over the Peru border, so we booked our tickets and waited for the coach, now the coach was due to leave at 3pm but we were still waiting for it to arrive at 4:30 in the end a woman from the coach company came and told everyone to get on a different coach that was waiting around the corner, so at last we were on our way, by the time that we got to the border it was about 11:45 and there was about 12 people left on the coach the we were told that we had to go get off and our passports stamped, once we had all had our passports sorted we got back on the coach and waited to go across but the driver said we had to get off and walk across were another coach would be waiting, as we could see to the other side of the border and we could not see another coach we all refused to get off! As we had all payed for the coach to take us to Puira he was insisting that there would be another coach arriving to collect us on the Peru side, but no none was believing him as this coach was supposed to take us the way, that is why it was an international one, the policeman from the passport control came over to see what the fuss was about and once it was explained to him and he had seen our tickets he told the driver that it was his responsibility to get us to Puira as that's what we all ad tickets for, it was at that point that the driver changed his story and explained to the policeman that because our original coach was late we were put on a different coach and it was the wrong No so was not authorised to cross the border, the policeman said that it was still his problem and he/his company had to make sure that he got all the passengers to there destinations on there ticket. The driver then got of and went to go use the phone. After about 10 mins he came back and started giving us all $5 then starting explaining that we had to walk across the border and the money was so we could get a taxi to Puira, now I know travel is cheap in South America but there is no chance of finding a taxi that will take you to a town four hours away for $5 (£2.50), so everyone gave him his money back and stayed put on the coach until he sorted some proper transport out, it was now about 1:30am and the rain had been coming down for about an hour and a half like a tropical storm, this was the first real down pore that I had seen and it happened to be on the night it looked like we were going to be dumped at the border 4 hours car drive from any town at 1:30 in the morning!. We decided to split in to two groups as we had all had our passports stamped “leaving” Ecuador we needed to get the stamp in to Peru, so half of us stayed with the bags on the coach and half went to get the entry stamps then we switched, just so the drive could not offload our bags and drive off!. In the end the driver came and told us that he had arranged transport to Puira once we got of we established that the transport was in the means of two cars, one estate and one hatchback, after a whole lot of agueing with the driver we came to realise that this was going to be the only way we were going to get to or destination, so we divided in to tow groups each making sure that there was a “local” in each car to reduce the risk of the car being hijacked, once all the bags had been tied to the roof and loaded in the the back we then had to fit the people in was one person on the passenger seat, four on the back seat and me and Ryan in the the back squashed with the rest of the baggage, knees squashed under your chin just so that we could fit, oh and soaking wet from the rain, and off we set on the four hour ride all sat on top of each other and squashed in with the bags to Puira. This guy was on some sort of mission to get us there asap as he was doing about 60-70 mph most of the way, which only made the journey more uncomfortable for me and Ryan as every bump we both cracked our heads on the roof!!. also there was the issue with the cows!!!, now by the time we left it must have been about 2:30-3:00am and the roads outside of the centre of the towns do not have any lights on and as we were driving at lightening speed towards Puira there were a few occasions were the driver had to slam his brakes because there were cows sat in the middle of the road and because of the rain there were a few times we thought that we were going to slide right in to them!. Then there was a issue with the heat with the rain there was a tropical heat to match and then there was 7 people in the car too, all giving of body heat, when Ryan checked his thermometer it was reading 97 degrees and there was no chance of opening the windows as that would have let in the torrential rain so we just had to sit and sweat. After what seemed about ten hours and a lot of leg cramp we arrived safely in Puira, it was a great relief to be able to get out the back of the car and to get in to a shower and a bed.