Lima

Guys,

We are writing this from an internet cafe in Lima. Firstly Rach wants me to set the record straight about my last entry as she has actually done loads of preparing for the trip. I make it eight weeks in fact as that was the last time she set foot inside work!

Now thats out of the way let me tell you about our journey to South America. The plane journey was OK, but our first flight from London to Madrird was delayed after security stopped one of the flight crew from boarding the plane - which reading between the lines means they stopped the pilot because he was drunk. On the next 12 hour flight Iberia only fed us two small meals so we got to Lima hungry and knackered, but to my surprise both our bags arrived with us so a big thumbs up to Spanish bag handlers.

I had booked a taxi through the Hostel over the net to pick us up from the airport, as if you look on the Foreign and Commonweath website for "travel advice" before going abroad you will be convinced that you are going to be mugged at knifepoint the moment you get off the plane or driven down an ally by a rogue taxi driver to be robbed by his mates. This meant we were pretty paranoid at the airport and although other unlicenced taxis tried to get us to go with them for less money we went with our semi official man. However although he had my name on a bit of paper outside the airport there was nothing on his car which made it stand out like a taxi! In fact i'm sure he was moonlighting with it from his day job as a stock car racer since it was missing body panels and stalled whenever he breaked.

During the entire journey we expected the car to swerve off into a small alley and be held up by masked men (when he did veer off the main road for the first time I did squeeze Rach's hand a bit tighter) but we made it OK and just went to bed. Downtown Lima which we drove through is pretty rough and most of the buildings look like they are held together with the Coca Cola and beer signs on them. Everytime the taxi came to a stop we prayed that the decrepid building outside the window was not infact our hostel, but thankfully we eventually arrived in Miraflores where we are now as that is the better part of town.

First day in Lima has been a bit of an eye opener. Not sure what I was expecting, but to be honest this isn't a must see stop on the tourist trail - there is pretty much bugger all to see or do - unless taxi spotting is your bag. We reckon there are at least 9 taxis to every car, but the difference to London is that they actively tout for trade. They slow down as they approach us and beep their horn to alert us to their presence in the event we actually want a taxi despite us sitting at a cafe looking like we are not going to move for hours. Busses also are pretty dodgy. They are either very old ex-USA school busses painted in multi colours or minivans crammed full of seats. One bloke drives whilst another hangs out of the side door shouting at us to get on his "bus"! We haven't used one yet but we need to do a bus journey tomorrow so will see if it works. There are no bus stops so you just stand there and wait to be shouted at I suppose!

On the plus side we have had a three course meal for $2 with a bizzare muled wine tasting ice tea drink thrown in for free, and will probably spend the afternoon getting drunk or going for a nap.

As long as we make it through the second night alive I'll write some more when we get to Cusco on Friday. This however involves an internal flight so high dramas so I expect something to go wrong between now and then.