Lima

Today started somewhere over the pacific ocean at about 40,000 feet. After watching a couple of movies I allowed myself a bit of sleep which unfortunately didn't last too long. I'm not great on planes after having a particularly bad flight a few years ago, so sleeping on them never really works out. Saying that it was a really great flight, very smooth, that ended with us landing in Santiago, Chile. We were finally in South America!

Unfortunately all we saw of Santiago was the airport as we had one final flight onto Lima, Peru. 32 hours, 4 flights, 5 airports, and we were there.

After picking up our luggage, and finding our shuttle bus we were soon driving through
Lima towards our hotel. We checked in, had a much needed shower and met our tour Leader, John Smith (yes he is Peruvian and yes that is his real name). He suggested a place to eat beyond the city square (where the above photo was taken) and after a delicious meal it was back to the hotel where I waited for Holly to join us and the real adventure to begin.

Due to the time zone difference we actually got two 5ths of December, so I'll also tell you about the next days activities that was technically the Peruvian 6th of December, but the Australian 7th of December, that way after that I can be on correct Peruvian time.

Holly and Willy arrived somewhere around midnight, and after a very sleepy catchup we succumbed to sleep. Our next day then started with a city tour of Lima. It was very interesting and made even better by the enthusiasm of our guide, Paola. We visited a couple of incredibly impressive churches that included a trip down into the cysts, where hundreds of thousands of bones remained with some being turned into patterns and artwork down in the dusty and low ceilinged darkness. Following this we went to their history museum where Paola told us some of the fascinating history of Peru, including about the Inca and pre-Inca times.

We had a night-in that evening, that involved food, drinking and card games, and supporting one of the members of our group who had heard some horrific news from back home. Dinner near the city square once again followed