Peering into Peru

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Well here I am am!! Along with my travel campanion Andew Gissing (Gissa) we have made it to South America! After the best flight ever on the new Qantas A380 and a quick stop over in LA, it was time to head back down to the Southern Hemisphere and into Lima, the Peruvian capital. Arriving in Lima at 1am sure was an experience with many dodgy people hanging around and the war torn looking streets completely dark and vacant. However, it wasn't too long before Gissa joined me though and the daylight bought some safety to a very tired and poor looking town.

We soon hit the streets and explored the beatiful but rotting spanish architecture and grand squares. There were many international flags including the Aussie one flying about and high security with water cannon tanks and riot squads everywhere, all getting ready for a world summit being held this week.

We were told to pretty much stay inside our hotel once dark came as street crime was huge and we met an Aussie tourist from our hotel had had had her camera stolen from her in broad daylight. Needless to say, we were pretty happy to leave Lima behind and head for the Andes after two nights, to the beautiful Cusco, the starting point of the Inca Trail. It is here where we are getting acclimatised for a few days before our trek starts on Thursday. Cusco is at 3000m and we will be trekking to more than 4500m. Tomorrow we head out on mountain bikes to explore some Inca ruins and fingers crossed the altitude isn't going to effect me this time. All good so far...

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Photos

Lima
Colourful architecture in Lima

Lima
Peru's coastline

Cusco
Overlooking Cusco

Cusco
Looking across the Andes