South America here we come!

Well! Lima surprised us both. We had planned to stay just two days, thinking we would probably hate the place.
We booked a hostel and a pick up over the internet and so after a very decent flight, we had a driver with our sign ´Schenk Home Peru´. Oh so civilised!

We met a great couple on the flight, Becks and Ben and the four of us made our way to the lovely hostel Home Peru in Miraflores.
To be honest, the great hostel (and of course great people we met) made our stay just brilliant.
The hostel, was on the one of the main avenues (Avendida Arequipa) in Miraflores and nice and central. It was a fantastic old colonial place, wooden floors, incredibly high ceilings and a lovely courtyard garden including a braai !!! Ken of course was very excited!

The four of us (with Becks and Ben) went into central Lima on day 2. Lima is GIGANTIC! and traffic everywhere. We visited the Plaza Major, Grand Palace and then the San Francisco Monastery and it´s catacombs. We found a great little restuarant that served a two course Menu Del Dia for 5 soles (less than $2). The Arsenal vs Barcelona football match was on and everyone (including us) were glued to the TV.
The owner was great, he kept on pouring us this sweet lemongrass type tea and offering more Chicha (juice made from maize).

Near the hostel was a super supermarket, so of course we took full advantage and landed up cooking most nights back at the hostel. We met some great people, including these 3 young Kenyan chaps who kept us well entertained!Of course with the great shop selling Columbian fillet steaks, we had some wicked braais. Everyone was brilliant, all buying their food and then putting it altogether, one giant communal feast!

We discovered this great shopping centre, built into the cliff face and facing the coast. Very upmarket with yummy gelato ice-cream (a Hooters for the boys....you know that awful place where the woman have to waitresss in these dreadful hot pants) and managed to go see The Da Vinci code which was great.

Menno, a great Dutch guy who was also staying at the hostel, organised for us all to go see a local football match. Very excited, we all piled into cabs and roared off to the opposite end of Lima to Stadium Monumental to watch the rivals Cristal vs Universidad. We arrived early to see more police than spectators (in full riot gear too). We were advised to pay a little more for our tickets (10 soles vs 8, around $3) so that we would be seated with the ´away fans´ , less people and probably a little safer.
A huge stadium and unfortunately quite empty we settled into what landed up being an exciting match. The riot police stood in lines seperating the opposing fans.
It was hysterical, when the away fans arrived, they would rush forward towards their rivals, pulling off their belts and whipping and punching their rival supporters. What a scene! So much more interesting than the actual football.
The police were ruthless, they would run in hitting the trouble-makers with their battons (and not holding back at all!). The atmosphere was exciting, fulled with bright orange flares and crackers being let off.

We decided that with 10 minutes left and score at 3 vs 1 to Universidad, that we would be sensible and leave early expecting that their would be some trouble. All but two of us left (Mennos and an american chap whose name has escaped me). We were in the taxi going home, listening on the radio when the team scored two goals to equilize. We were guttered that we had missed all this excitement.
Later at the hostel, Mennos reported that after the match, the police had had quite a task controlling the opposing teams. The police had tried to help them get out the crowds as quickly as possible, but even then they still got to experience the effects of the tear gas that was thrown into the crowds to disperse them !!! So in the end, we were glad that we had ducked out early!

The Peruvian people in Lima really gave us a great welcome and so friendly. We had many random people thanking us for visiting their country! Often people would warn us to watch our belongings and seemed to be looking after us.

After nearly a full week we really had to drag ourselves from the comfort zone of Home Peru!

Becks and Ben left us to go onto Pisco (famed for its low budget cheap man´s Galapogas) and we headed 1 day behind them, aiming to catch up with them further down the coast.
We booked a short 4 hour bus trip to Ica, to head for the famous sand dunes for some serious sand boarding!

We are still behind in our Travelblogs, but at least we have caught up country wise! It is now 5 June as I write this, but at least we are still in Peru!

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