First day in Peru, a breath, sorry, a storm of fresh air !

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elevation 3,820m but a world of difference from the frosty heights of Bolivia.
only 3 hours in something like a tourist bus ... it had nice seats and a man that gave instructions on what to do at the border, took us to his mate to change money - the others are dodgy apparently - took on a guy in the middle of nowhere who was useful enough to provide details on his hotel etc etc .... that was Bolivia.
now is Peru.
people smile at us. wish us a good afternoon and are generally happy and pleasant.
within moments of arriving in Peru our first random act of kindness occurred.
an israeli traveller spotted us the cab ride to town (we had no money yet)
the second random act of kindness occurred only moments later when the hostel we were enquiring at informed us they were full.
the kind lady booked us into another hostel and gave us the cab ride to get there.
upon arriving at the next hotel, we were thrilled to find luxury under our newly shined, though still thoroughly dirty and dusty boots.
the kind lady at the previous hostal had arranged a 50% discount to the room rate, bringing the price into budget.
yippee.
into the room and more surprises.
a heater and a bath.
we can´t remember the last time we saw a bath.
i am hoping that with a heater in our room tonight, breathing may be assited and it maybe actually be possible to sleep through an entire night.
fingers crossed.
we had lunch at a local cafe that proved tasty and finished with coffee that tasty like coffee.
yes, real coffee.
and they had cake. it was delightful.
our israeli friend also popped in, so we were able to buy him a coffee to return his earlier random act of kindness.
we booked a tour for tomorrow morning with a lady who joked and smiled with us.
we bought a bottle of water off a lady in the street who wiped the water bottle clean for us with her own skirt and then didn´t mind one bit that we didnt have the right money. she happily gave us change (change is unheard of in boliva)
we walked to the top of a hill, took in the vista and slid down a slippery dip.
we watched the footy final (champions league, real football so we´re told, but Liverpool lost) in a pub with a beer - ok, here peru slightly lets us down. the cusqueña isnt terrific, but still drinkable.
day 1 rating of Peru - ¡ muy bien, muy bien!

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