We made it. So far, so good.
We arrived safely in lima on the first, at about 8 ocloack in the evening ( about 1am english time- its quite an odd feeling, chasing the sun round the world!). The flight was surprising good, for an 11 hour flight time, due to a free and random upgrade to business classs, the champagn and wine was flowing. Still not bored about gloating over this piece of good luck.
Lima is a crazy city. Driving from the airport, the people seemed to be living in severe poverty, with some rooting through piles of rubbish at the roadside. And the high ways are an experience- after about 4 taxi rides, it seems having a seatbelt is considered a luxury, which was a bit hairrising, as the peruvians main road skill is to honk there horns at any moment, whilst doing anything, and use of indicators is minimal. And i dont know how most of the cars were still in one piece, they were so old and battered...but it was all very exciting!!
We spent a day wandering around lime. we saw some beautiful things, like the San Francisco Cathedral and ajoining monestry, with its interesting catacombs, the Plaza de Armas, were there was, for want of a better word, very pretty military parade taking place, but we have no idea what it was for- but the band was playing, and the horses were trotting around, so it was very nice!
Also plaza san martin was worth a look, as the colonial buildings were amazing. The heat got the better of us ( and the syun burn, as a person who say remain nameless packed after sun for the day, and not sun block!), and we got a 6am flight to cusco on the third. This would not have been possible, as we had not arranged anything, had it not been for the lovely and helpful staff at the point hostel using their contacts in lima at 5pm the night before, to get us on a flight.
Now in cusco, and it was surreal- feeling rather silly driving through the streetsk, as i had not expected real cusco peruvians to still use traditional dress. So many of them still do, its pretty special.
Anyway, as it çs rpouring with raina s i write, this, im going to wake clare and break the bad news we may not want to hire a bike to travel around the country side today!Oh well!
