Blogs from Miraflores, Lima, Lima, Peru, South America

14.5.2012 – 15.5.2012 Well dinner at La Gloria was sensational $60 head with wine but great food. Checked out of our house and over to Embajadores Hotel near the beach, quite a nice hotel. Met the other people on our tour, we are five, 2 melb, 1 Brisbane and 2 Cairns. Had a tour around the downtown today and what a combination of different architecture, just amazing. Did the usual cathedral, which I have to admit was absolutely stunning, and then onto the San Francisco Monastery, with all the catacombs which are on display, loads of bones and skulls, containing around 70,000 human remains, also went to the Museum of Antropology, so interesting. Also there are several sights of pre incas around here in Lima even one in Miraflores. The Peruvian people are so friendly. Had ... read more

10.5.2012 Arrived back in Havana at 1.00op.m.. Go go and JJ delivered us to the airport and others on the trip to their city hotels. We had a three hour layover at Havana Airport before our flight on “A Central American Airline, TACA, “, paint peeling off the plane, wasn’t a good look and they were ½ hr late taking off, arrived safely in Lima, after heaps of turbulence, lots of clapping and cheering when we landed in Lima, Peru. We had booked an apartment in Miraflores, through a guy called Rudi, and had been communicating with him for six months, all worked liked a clock work, driver etc etc≥ Rudi lives in France and his mum used to live in the house where we are staying. Just lovely and very safe, as well as normal ... read more

Its been a long time since I last did a blog entry, I think I last wrote something in Sucre and since then we´ve done a lot of stuff. So I´m afraid this one won´t be as detailed as normal. To be honest they never are that detailed, most of the time I just end up referring you to Will´s blog because I can´t be bothered to do any more. A lazy approach, perhaps, but seeing as we´re on pay as you go internet (not free hostel internet) I´d rather save a few Soles (Peruvian currency) and buy a load of amazingly delicious bread from the exceedingly luxurious supermarket down the road. Sorry but it´s really good bread. So here goes. Let´s start with Potosi. Whilst in Potosi, we did the one thing that pretty much ... read more

So arrived in Santiago after a long 13 hour flight for New Zealand, our body clock was all wrong as we had time travlled back in time arriving 4 hours before we left, so it was actually the longest day we had ever lived! Arrived in Santiago with no clue on how to get to the hostel, and this is where the language barrier proved a little difficult as most people didnt speak english and our spanish was by no means good at this point. Finally got onto the right bus, not having much of an idea which stop to get off at, or even where we were going, but thank god Rachel sat next to someone who knew the area well and spoke english. So after we were shown to our lovely hostel (which we ... read more

Hi everyone, A little upadate from our first couple of days here! we arrived in Lima yestersday and it was crazy! Firstly, travelling with Iberia was interesting in that Tash and i were sat next to two nuns who kept touching their rose beads, which didnt bode well, but then one offered us some mints during the flight so we knew that we would be in good hands should we crash! In addition, they were not forthcoming in the drinks department either - the stewardesses DID NOT want anybody to drink alot and cottoned onto us two early doors... They kept making up excuses as to why we could not have a glass of wine and TSS was annoyed to say the least! So we arrive in Lima and instantly, TSS fears for her life. We ... read more

Stay in Lima or not? This is what we found ourselves asking as we arrived in the Civa bus terminal around 12 on Friday afternoon. Lima is the capital of Peru and is home to over 7million people making it the largest city in Peru -- by ALOT. Arriving in a big city is quite different than many of the smaller towns we´ve been in the past few weeks because asking a cab driver to drop us off ´in the center of town´ to find a hostel just doesn´t work. So as not to end up in an undesirable part of town, we decided to go to the Gringo Heartland aka Miraflores district for the night. Hostal Pradera Verguna welcomed us with open arms and we quite enjoyed being in the nicest hostel yet. A walking ... read more

Hello all!! Well it’s been a week now since we left home and so far so good. Last Sunday we set off from home leaving Jenny and David in charge of the house and dogs – I do hope they are behaving for them (house and dogs for Jenny and David I mean). We arrived in Heathrow with loads of time to spare so we made our way into London and did an Entrecote with the boys and Kath which was a great way to start our holiday. Once back at Heathrow everything went without a hitch getting onto the flight for Sao Paulo – we had a two seat row and I got the window seat. Having said that there was nothing to see as it was a night flight! Fortunately the flight was not ... read more

In Lima is het heerlijk warm. Tussen de 20 en de 30 graden. Vooral als de zon echt doorbreekt dan loopt de temperatuur flink op. Toch doet zich ook een vreemd natuurlijk verschijnsel voor. Een koude oceaan stroming vanaf de zuidpool genaamd de "Humboldt stroming" komt hier voorbij de kust. Dit heeft een effect s'morgens vroeg de zon opkomt en de temperatuur snel oploopt naar ergens tussen de 25 en 29 graden. Na een uurtje komt er een damp vanuit zee de stad in drijven. Je ziet echt een deken zich uitrollen de stad in. Deze damp blijft als een soort mist over de stad hangen en lost pas om een uur of vijf in de middag weer op. Het is even wennen maar ook wel lekker wat de temperatuur blijft met de mist ergens rond ... read more

After the inevitable flooding delay we finally boarded the train to get to Machu Picchu. The fog and rain were so thick you could barely see the end of the cabin, but with high hopes the slow ascent to the ruins began. The rain got worse and worse... the river running alongside the track appeared closer and closer to burting it´s banks until... THE RAIN STOPPED! This can only have been an Inca blessing since it had not stopped for 4 days straight at this stage but then we do seem to have incredible fortune. After getting of the train and climbing another 1500 feet or so up the side of a basically vertical cliff, our breath was taken away far more by the sensational view than the altitude. After wanting to see Machu Picchu for ... read more