Arrival and Journey to Peru

---

Hey guys, welcome to our first travel blog from Peru!

We left Heathrow on Fri 20th at 7.30am, customs and security went fine and after a quick coffee and emotional farewell with Mum and Dad we were on our way. We flew to Madrid to make our connecting flight to Lima,Peru. We had fun trying to remember what the currency was after queing at a cafe to find out they didnt take card or US dollars! We finally found a cashpoint and spent our hard saved money on some soggy croque monsieurs! After making our way to the gate we found our flight was delayed by aroud 2hrs (great) we spent lots of time on the phone with our bank who had managed to cancel one of our cards with our spending money on. The bank shall remain nameless (I'll just say it rhymes with Mationwide).

It didnt get much better on the flight, Jen started whinging she was hot and then cold, and I also had to tolerate some of the worst films of all time, namely Australia (sorry Nan I know you like it but its crap). Our lack of spanish didnt help with the flight attendants although I managed to master the translation for Coca-cola.

After arriving in Lima we jumped in a taxi with a cool cabbie who took us to our prebooked hostel in Miraflores (20mins south of Lima). I'll spare you (mum especially) the gory specifics but it was adequate accomodation for the night, although a cat did try to jump in our room from a very high up window (which we couldnt close - final rabies jab had not been completed at this time).

Next day we had to get our final rabies jab as we cocked up the timing at home, and we made our way to a nearby clinic. Medical vaccinations, foreign visitors, developing country and language barrier is not a good combination and it was very challenging to communicate what we wanted. Luckily we found an english speaking doctor (what a legend) who had learnt english at university. Jab completed we set off in an effort to find as many stray dogs and cats as possibly...to get our moneys worth obviously. lol.

In the afternoon we moved to another nearby hostel, which was much nicer than the previous one (this new one had a sink!!!) and Jen managed to find a shopping centre (great) where we had lunch. The centre was built into the cliff on the coast (Miraflores is right on the beach) and was very pretty. Here I managed to make a very schoolboy error of leaving a bank card in a cash machine. An hour later when I went to pay for something I realised my mistake and we rushed back to the cash machine. Obviously it wasnt there. As we were talking about what to do next a security guard approached us and said the word 'mastercard', and then led us to a room where lost property is kept. Crisis averted, thanks to the very honest and helpful nature of the Peruvians!!

Next stop tomorrow is to meet up to begin our tour of the continent!!

We'll keep you posted and try not to make too many cockups!
Peace

James and Jen

---

Comments

[Barry Jenkins]

Glad to hear that things have (hopefully) got sorted. Sorry Jen, but I would have put money on it being you with the bank card. Good to hear from you last night on the telephone. Hope you have a great tour with the wrinklies, maybe mum and I should think about going? Obviously was just a glitch as the travel blog site is now working again this morning (Mon 23 March). Best wishes Dad xx

[ann whitbread]

Hi guys, Glad you have made your first destination safely. So far early days but do hold onto that bank card! Have a wonderful trip enjoy yourselves,. Be in touch soon The whitbreads x x

[jamesandjen]

Hi Ann! Hows things your end? We are good here, in a nice hotel in Arequipa and gradually climbing altitude. Any further wedding plans? Cheers Barry. I knew u guys would think that hence the reason why i put both of us so u'd ask the question!