Lima

Tommy's Account

What can I say about Lima: well it's probably like most large cities; big, hot, dusty and hectic. Traffic seems to follow some sort of system but I've still to understand it... The people here are very friendly and we've barely been hassled at all, which is a bit of a surprise but a welcome one. The airport was hectic but having prearranged to be picked up we avoided the hordes of Peruvians vying to offer their services in one way or another. We've been staying in a sweet little hostel in the business district, San Isidro with a chuckly little host, a climbing wall and an amorous French couple in the room next door!

We've spent two days here now, we've been down to the coast and seen the Pacific ocean shrouded in a sea mist, we've sampled some of the local cuisine, we've visited the central district with its colonial architecture and large open plazas and we've wandered for miles mumbling spanglish as we go. Laura and I have taken to listening to Michel Thomas' Spanish tapes on my iPod as we wander the streets - it's certainly helping and we are now building a bit of confidence and actually muttering a few sentences: we seem to be understood!

We're heading to Huaraz in the Cordillera Blanca tomorrow in the Central Highlands of Peru; it's very mountainous, very cold and very high at over 3000m. Hopefully we'll get to do some mountain biking and scale some peaks (Laura just sniggered at that - maybe just a smallish one then). First we have an 8-hour bus journey to contend with - another opportunity to brush up on the español then.

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