Deepest, darkest Peru

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Everything up until now had ben no more than a holiday really, and the proper travelling began in style with an emergency dash on Monday morning to the British Consulate in LA to replace my missing passport, just in time in to catch our plane to Lima.

The flight was a bit of a nightmare, delayed 3 hours, but not until we'd actually boarded, meaning we were stuck in our seats for nearly 12 hours. The delay also meant we wouldn't arrive in Lima till 3am. Lima isn't supposed to be the safest of cities, so I had organised our airport pick up advance, and we were a bit worried that he wouldn't wait around till then, leaving us stranded. But no, we got off, and there was our guy waving a placard for Amanda Tonhinson. Close enough! We soon began to wish he hadn't bothered waiting, though, as the journey was hairy to say the least, the car was falling apart, and held together in parts by primer, although that didn't stop the driver from hitting 100mph. He was all over the road so much, there were times I thought he might have fallen asleep.

We eventually pulled up outside a hostel somewhere, but it wasn't the one I had booked, and to be honest we had no real idea where we were at all. The taxi driver and the hostel owner had a few words in Spanish, the hostel owner showed us a room and as it was 4 in the morning by this stage, we thought it would be just as well to take it and try and work out where on earth we were after a few hours sleep. Neil started to freak out a bit, thinking the taxi driver and the hostel might have had an arrangement to drop off unsuspecting tourists to be butchered in their sleep, and then freaked out a little bit more when he thought there might be an insect in the room, but we eventually dropped off and slept till lunchtime.

Turned out everything was ok really: for one reason or another, our original hostel hadn't been able to take us, and had arranged an alternative for us, although it would have ben nice if someone had have explained that to us! The guy was really helpful though, looked after our bags while we found somewhere else for that night, as they were fully booked, and organised our bus tickets to our next destination, Nazca. Unforunately the only bus he could get us on left at 4.30 in the morning, meaning we only really had a few hours to explore Lima.

We'd been told that Lima was really dangerous and to fly on to our next destination without leaving the airport, but it hadn't seemed right not to see any of the capital at all, so I had done my research and picked a safe suburb called Miraflores to stay in. And we're so glad that we were able to spend some time there, it was amazing: not exactly the most picturesque city in the world, but really intersting and so different to anywhere else we've ever been. There was a real buzz about the place and they seem to have a real coffee culture, as all the cafes were bunged with the after work crowds.'

After a traditional Peruvian meal of sausage, egg and crinkle cut chips, it was an early night for that 4.30am bus in the morning!

As usual, pics to follow whenever we find a computer that was made post 1990!

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