Arrivals

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The guy who took us from Lima airport to our hotel only conned us by an extra £20 or so which was fine and acceptable after the journey we'd had. I'm never flying Air Europa again. No booze and no on-demand in-flight entertainment, rather one average sized screen at the front of the plane playing the new Muppets movie. Which I actually quite enjoyed. Donna and I also didn't appreciate the intense rattling of the plane during the frequent periods of turbulence.

It was quite thrilling to fly over the amazon though which seemed to take forever as it's so vast. And approaching Peru and seeing the Andes through the aeroplane at sunrise was quite cool.

Our hotel, Second Home Peru, is 100% beautiful. A Peruvian artist's residence covered in his artwork with lovely gardens featuring his sculptures, a sunken pool and two gorgeous chocolate Labradors. We have a suite overlooking the Pacific. The sound of the ocean from the terrace is just wonderful.

After checking-in, Donna suggested a tandem paraglide down to the beach. Instead we got a taxi to a cafe I had read about in the Wallpaper guide to Lima; El Pan de la Chola. Although it was lovely, great coffee and fresh bread, it did look a look like hipster East London. All stripped down wood and 'antique' light bulbs. There was also a group of Australian women of a certain age in tennis outfits who I suspected of being diplomats' wives.

We then walked all around the Miraflores area up to the Huaca Pucllana which is an ancient Inca temple built about 500AD. We didn't know it was closed on Tuesdays though, so we had Pisco Sours at the bar next door Instead of going in. That was nice.

Next was the Asociacion Mario Testino in Barranco (where we're staying). It's a beautiful colonial mansion with each room devoted to giant prints of Kate Moss, Madonna, Gisele etc. Oh, and an entire outhouse given to Princess Diana.

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