Blogs from San Isidro, Lima, Lima, Peru, South America

First day in Lima after a long day of travelling. Sitting outside in the hotel forecourt having breakfast, fresh fruit, orange juice, rolls, fried eggs. A good start to the day needed as tired, a bit jet lagged after a long journey. Aah well, it is a means to an end and have a few days for the brain to get round to the fact that breakfast at 8.00 am is not the middle of the afternoon and waking up at 2.00 am in Let us get to work mode and then not getting back to sleep for 2 hours is not sensible. Amsterdam airport was a 4 hour stopover with not enough time for a city tour or to do anything sensible so had to be a wander round the shops to look at things ... read more

Well.... Airport was a nightmare, Miss Bennett got caught on the conveyor belt, she was going round and round and round, until someone saved poor betty! to cheer her up we brought her a years supply of hersheys, she loves the stuff. mr beer got jealous and cried. especially after losing tilly during a bet with the peruvian man that he could somersault over an aeroplane. luckily he only broke his back so on the trek he can be pulled around by a donkey... his plan all along as he doesnt like walking, shame he didn´t get the chocolate though. however it´s a shame that betty is still going round and round. She keeps calling for help but we´re too busy lauhging and buying stuff from the duty free. will keep you updated on bettys whereabouts ... read more

It would appear that giving the group the blog password and suggesting they make their entry amusing was interpreted as ´make up an amusing story´. I would like to confirm that everything is fine and I have not had any encounters with baggage carousels! Miss B... read more

Landed sometime after midnight and then had to go through all the usual hassle of immigration, luggage collection and customs. Loads of people and the airport's about as efficient as Heathrow... maybe not that bad. Hotel sent car to collect us, just as well as people everywhere. Hard to spot sign with my name on amoung the dozens on display. Made it to hotel about 02:20. Greeted by owner(?), but didn't bother to check in. Grabbed a drink, showered and headed to bed. Nice hotel; much nicer than we expected for the money. I even got a Double Bed!! First impressions of Lima... Maybe a little rough. Most buildings have 6' fences or walls, often topped by razor wire or electric fencing. Security cameras on a lot of buildings and cars not kept on streets over ... read more

It's been an up and down past couple of days. Mostly it's been good, I just have gotten a little down once or twice because of not knowing anyone here and not really knowing what's going on half the time. But I feel a lot better now and have lots of fun things coming up! First off, my feet are still hurting. It's difficult to have any days where I don't walk a lot, so I am trying to get used to it and trying to massage out the pain when I'm not doing anything at home. I should probably try to give them a rest for a day or two and then be careful. Though I'm sure they will hurt again once I start hiking mountains continuously. Yesterday was pretty good. I had plans with ... read more

I think I have decided to keep both this blog, as well as a more personal, written journal. This one will probably focus more on chronicling what actually happens to me in Peru, while my written journal will be more about my internal thoughts and processes. Either way, I'm sure there will be some crossover. So far, things have been going pretty well. Yesterday and a little bit today was the first time I had felt some loneliness at being here all by myself. It is kind of funny, there were many weekend days in Maine and even in college, where I would not leave my house/res hall room the entire day and not feel weird about it. And for some reason, when I spend the nights alone here, I feel like I should be doing ... read more

On Saturday night I sat on the end of my bed and cried whilst talking to Mum about all the things that could go wrong with this trip. I have a rather vivid imagination and am a natural pessimist so I was creating allsorts of bizarre possible situations. However, even I couldn’t imagine just how much bad luck I was in for over the next 24 hours or so. Getting to Heathrow airport was painless enough as was checking in for my flight. After a painful goodbye to Mum, Roger and Jon, I was comforted by a 30 minute wait to get through security and an exciting frisking by a particularly burly female security guard. The next hiccup didn’t come until boarding was supposed to start for my flight to Madrid at 7.20pm. Apparently someone had ... read more

I apologize in advance for the lengthiness and influx of pictures in this entry, but I've done a lot since last time. These pictures are from my last week in Cusco and my first week in Lima. I spent my last week of Cusco trying to make the most of every moment and seeing everything I could see and doing everything that I could do. I went on a tour via horseback which was really fun (although my butt was sore for two days after). I didn't realize you used so many muscles when horseback riding. The horses took us to some of the more remote ruins in Cusco (the ones that aren't quite as touristy as the ones I saw in the Sacred Valley -- last entry). There were some awesome views of the mountains ... read more