Near disaster averted

i've come to realise that i'm not actually to good at travelling- i knew that i had to leave Quito and head south but didn't really know more than that. Remembering that i'm not great at crossing borders unsupervised (and this border is known to be a bit of a nightmare) I figured the easiest way was to simply catch a bus in Quito that would take me all the way into Peru. At the ticket office i was informed that i would actually have to change buses at the border and for the privilige of buying one ticket it would cost me $75!- back to the drawing board, or rather the bus station and starring at the destinations, waiting for inspiration. I then remembered i'd been told it was possible to catch a bus from Guayaquil into Peru, that's it, decided- i'm going to Guayaquil. Guayaquil is 8 hours from Quito and so i decided to get the night bus and therefore arrive first thing in he morning, travel all day and arrive in Trujillo, Peru that evening- this meant a 4 hour wait in the bus station until my bus left, not too bad-i had a good book.
The bus journey to Guayaquil was not too bad, i was befriended in the station by a five year old and his mother. As it turns out they were sat behind me and for the first hour he kicked the back of my seat and whispered through the seats at me until i feigned sleep. i slept in bits until i was awoken at 6ish by everyone was getting off, great i thought we've arrived on time (no such luck). We had a flat tyre, which the driver had been trying (unsucessfully) to mend for the last hour so all the passengers were transferred to another bus- this meant standing in the aisle for the next 90minutes until we reached Guayaquil. And here i was told the bus into Peru left 30minutes ago and the next one was in 3 1/2 hours- more book reading then, i guess. The next bus was almost empty to begin with and, as we were travelling down the pan-american highway the journey was swift and smooth. We reached the Peruvian border after 5 or so hours of travelling, the conductor announced that everyone needing immigration (why everyone doesn't need it is still a mystery) must disembark now, three of us got off in total. The immigration process was very quick, we'd all finished in under ten minutes and were back outside to board the bus, only to discover it wasn't there. I wasn't initally alarmed by this, i'd bought a ticket all the way into Peru, of course the bus would not jut drive away with my rucksack (and thus all my possesions) to leave me stranded at the border; the other 2 ecuadorians who had disembarked with me weren't quite so trusting and were going mental at the side of the road. After a few minutes of shouting they decided that we all need to go to the police office. Here, there was more shouting, waving of arms and general panic whilst the police radioed ahead to get the bus stopped. Don't worry however, the bus returned (and was always going to return, it merely dropped off the remaining passengers on the other side of the border) and pulled up behind us as we stood shouting before the police officer, we all rather sheepishly got back on he bus and in no time at all (5more hours) we were at our destination, Piura.
Piura, was not my final destination however and i needed to catch yet another nightbus to Trujillo, so i had an hour to kill before leaving again. I realised i was actually quite hungry, having not eaten all day- i went to a nearby food stall and ordered some soup. It was very tasty, but much to the great amusement of my fellow diners i nervously picked out the (whole and very scaly) chicken foot followed then by what we all concluded was probably an eyeball, they then found it even more hilarious when i took a photo of the uneaten contents of my bowl. Back on the bus very soon, completely full and slightly smelly but quickly falling asleep, arriving very early, still tired, but finally, at Trujillo.