6th October

Lima, is rubbish. It’s official. The capital city of Peru, much like Birmingham, but bigger and uglier. Although outwardly similar to Quito, Quito has a soul which Lima seems to lack. As luck would have it, we’re only staying here for one day before we move on to Huacachina, but believe me, one day is enough.

For the first time on this trip someone tried to chat me up into being robbed, but luckily his intentions stood out like a sore thumb and I didn’t give him the opportunity. He sounded like a friendly enough fellow at first, but his body language gave him away and it just didn’t feel right. It was when he started talking about me taking drugs with him that alarm bells really started to ring though. I made my excuses and parted company quickly.

The hotel room didn’t make things any better either, even though we were allegedly staying in the more upmarket part of Lima - Miraflores. It is hard to imagine a worse room than the one we had on our first night in Mancora. Here though, we didn’t need to try and imagine, for it was right in front of us. The Stop and Drop hotel was, according to the guide, a well specified, and reasonably priced, backpacker type accommodation. On paper it probably is, or at least once was, and the receptionist was nice enough, but it was just one of those hotels that made you leave it as long as possible in the evening before you headed back to it. It was for us, quite literally, just somewhere to sleep for one night only. Or so we thought.

What the guide didn’t tell you is that it was also attached to a disco come night club. Consequently, we had in-room music until past 3 in the morning for no extra charge. When I say in-room, I mean that you didn’t just hear the music, you could also feel it vibrating up the legs of the bed. How on earth I slept through this racket I will never know, but somehow I accomplished mission impossible despite the bass rattling my brain around my skull. All that walking in Huaraz must have paid off I think, as being dog tired is probably the only way that you can sleep in this place.

I didn’t expect much of Lima, and it delivered even less. My advice to potential travellers; avoid Lima if you can, because there’s nothing very redeeming about it. Circumstances being different, Lima may have left a different impression upon me. But for me, it was what it was, and I’m outa here.

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Part of trip: South America 2009 - Ecuador, Peru & Bolivia

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