Lima

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Lima has a population of 8 million and is divided into a number of sectors, many of which are too dangerous for even the police to patrol. Knowing this made us quite nervous about going there but we were based in the Miraflores area which is the main tourist haunt. Both here and the central square, Plaza de las Armas, had a heavy police presence. We set off early to visit the Huaca Pullcana, the ruins of a 1,500 year old civilisation, all of which remains today are walls and structures made of adobe bricks. We also negotiated the local buses, which have the roads they travel written on the side of them. Whilst we were aboard our driver had a steely determination to outrun his competition, much to the chagrin of the other driver. Their tactics were downright dirty, at one point the conductor of our bus leaned out the window and grabbed the driver of another bus as he was pulling out, and shook him violently to upset him and slow him down. Once off the bus, we walked towards the Plaza de las Armas. On the way we walked along a street full of printing shops which obviously isn't frequented too often by tourists as we became a source of great amusement and many requested that we take their photo in front of their printing machines. Later that evening we sampled the local brew, Pisco sour. Not for the faint hearted!!

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