Hi everyone.....as you know arrived safe and sound. After settling in to our budget hotel two pounds n fifty pence per night sorry actually its one pound and sixty pence a night, still learning to convert the currency. (no pound sign on this keyboard). Went to a very posh hotel in Lima for drinks and a snack, l think they cost a lot more than my digs!. A lot of the buildings here are colonial with a strong spanish influence both in design and fixtures and fittings. The roads are hair raisingly scary! I,ve never seen so much traffic, some of the main roads appear to be about five lanes per side, so crossing is an adventure in itself. people dont appear to follow each other in lanes they drive anywhere! Been to visit a local fishmarket where l saw lots of Pelicans hanging around waiting for scraps. . Didnt recognise a lot of the fish there. Not seen much of Lima yet, not really a city person, its like a lot of major cities in parts, grimy, smoky and busy! Hopefully l,ll get round to visiting the museum, Limas great as a base though to stop off pick up or exchange clothes etc from my main suitcase, the hotel is kind enough to store your luggage in a storage room. Am looking forward to going out to Satipo which is a colonist town on the edge of the lower amazon. The town l believe is made up mainly of rainforest mountain people. Am looking forward to going to the places where hardly any tourists go, l,m so fortunate to be visiting the hiddens gems of Peru and meeting a lot of indigenous communities. Got my jungle experience coming up, hope l,m up to it physically....the weather in Lima at present is like our autumn. The next place is tropical so l will need a day or two to acclimatise, Mike booked our coach tickets today, his daughter Yaz and her friend Loz may be joining us on the expedition, they did the first one in June, Loz took video equipment, cameras etc to film the Ashaninkas in thier mountain villages. This is all in aid of supporting these people to retain thier way of life in the rainforest. Coach sets off at 9pm for an overnight trip over the Andes...approx 12hrs. Be interesting to see if l,m affected with the altitude, also wondering what these mountain roads are like? Yes as you probably can tell l,m excited and still adjusting to being here, and is this for real! Well folks next stop Satipo! Comments much appreciated....lovely to read them when l log on and know that l,ve plenty of company on my journey. xxxx
