Buenos Aires to Lima - Planes & Peru

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Not much to report from today. We woke up at 0700, packed our gear and caught a cab to the airport for our flight to Lima. The plane had the smallest sitting space I’ve encountered on any aircraft ever, I couldn’t sit at all without having an indentation of the seat in front embedded in my kneecaps. I managed to move to a vacant exit row as soon as the seatbelt sign went off.

Jo had arranged for someone to collect us at the airport and take us to our hostel. We were shown to a beaten up Toyota Sprinter with no seat belts, indicator lights or suspension. The guy was nice enough but a complete maniac behind the wheel, struggling to overcome severe understeer on most corners. We had thought the driving in Buenos Aires was pretty average but this was really something else. Just to add to the atmosphere the car was spilling fuel somewhere and it smelt like it was going to blow at anytime.

Against all odds we made it to Barranco’s Backpackers Inn in the district of Barranco just a few miles south of Miraflores, Lima. We had a quick walk around the area and had a chicken sandwich, hamburger, coffee and tea from a local cafe. We also tried the local soft drink Inka Cola which looks like yellow PowerAde but unfortunately tastes like pink hubba-bubba. The whole lot came to S11.50 soles (NZ$6).

I stopped at a local dairy to buy a new lighter - I’d been flogging Jo’s for three days - and tried to pay with a S20 sole (NZ$10) note. The shop keeper signalled to me as if to ask for smaller change, I pointed to a large chunk of pizza that she heated up for me - and I still got S18 soles change!

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