Hola from Lima

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Well after months of planning we finally made it to the southern hemisphere despite all attempts by American Airlines to prevent it!

We had a lightening strike in Miami (no for once not the baggage handlers) - but serious weather preventing the baggage from being unloaded for several hours, for health and safety reasons. As a result it got very wet standing out in the rain, then had to be collected and checked in through customs in Miami and put back on to the plane in double quick time for the next leg to Lima.

Result late arriving in Lima, one lost rucksack and very frustrated and tired travellers trying to beat the system in Spanish!

Advice, never travel on American Airlines, service poor/non-existent and cheerless. Chartermark is certainly not a feature in the States. We were also challenged by customs for carrying fruit and vegetables in our luggage (admittedly having only just consumed it to escape the wrath of customs !) not once but twice during the long wait for the baggage - what happened to putting a stop to the cocaine trade

We stopped in central Lima a couple of nights at a hostel to get ourselves acclimatised - the rucksack thankfully turned up during that time , but to really rub salt in the wound, we were charged 2 dollars for the privilege!! But at least we now had our gear and were raring to go.

So enough of the saga that is American Airlines.

Lima was quite a culture shock - like a shanty town in alot of parts and the drivers are mental! Lane discipline - what´s that ?. It´s like a formula 1 race track but without the glamour of high performance vehicles! Most of them should be on a vehicle scrap heap - all beat up and no rubber on the tyres and we entrusted our lives to one of these for a day.

We had a trip to a brilliant Peruvian National museum which explained the context of Peruvian history -there is a whole lot more to it than the Incas - with lots of very early and strange civilisations with huge pyramids along the coastal strip, rock art, mummies, textiles and beautiful art work - a literal gold mine to explore. I can´t wait.

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