Hi Everyone
A new government law from November 2016 means that all inter-city buses can now only travel at 90km/h. This seems to have increased travel time in certain areas of the country like Trujillo to Chiclayo, which has more traffic & small-town stops than say, Chiclayo to Piura. Our 4h bus took 4h30mins the other day with no notable extra stops or traffic, according to the driver. We live in Peru & this 'normal' 12.15pm journey has never taken us more than 4h.
What I'm saying is don't take guidebook timings as gospel when preparing journeys - check at the local bus stations or bus offices. We eventually ended up missing an onward connection with Loja International - not helped by a new telephone number, new address, different schedules, not-updated website & none of the people we asked knowing - but not helped either by the trip taking longer for nothing other than buses now travelling more slowly.
John