Peru

We arrived in Tumbes (border town of Peru) about 4pm, found resonable place to stay and were quite impressed it wasn't the normal shit hole these border towns are! In fact we spashed out on cerviche in a restaurant that night! Also managed to book cheap flights from Lima to Cusco! Otherwise not much else happened other than waiting for our flight out of there the following evening! The airport was worth seeing though...just a small hut and a control tower at the end of a long dirt track!

We arrived safely into Lima, about 9pm at night...all the stoires about bogus taxis, etc. appear to be bollocks! Found accomodation in the form of the Hotel Espana...filled with old statues, pictures, and tonnes of dust! Lima entertained us for at least two hours, given our lack of interest in churches and museums! But we did find out the cinema only costs 65p...so went and saw film about magicians with Michael Caine and Scarlet Johenson. The following day we went to see some Inca ruins outside of the city....took about 2hours to get there and even then we had a 30min walk through arid desert to get there.....reminded us of scene from Iraq! Wandered around for about an hour and then caught a quicker bus home, only 1.5hrs this time! We were back for late afternoon so filled the rest of the day with yet another movie...Cry Wolf...not such a good one this time, but hey it was even cheaper, only 50p! And that sums up our stay in the Peruvian capital...other than to say its all still really cheap, filling up your belly for only 65p!!!!

Flew from Lima to Cusco early on the 23rd, arriving about 10pm...was shocked to find a girl holding board with my name on it as we walk through arrivals! Turns out this guy I'd chatted to in Lima had forwarded my details on....she was offering a free lift to a hostel so we accepted, not such a bad decision as she found us alright cheap accomodation! First day was spent finding our bearings, including where to get cheap eats....turns out Cusco isn't as touristy as we have been lead to believe....still able to get hearty 3 course meal for only 65p! Also found our tour company for Inca Trail.....and it does exist!!! Went out in the evening for a few drinks but rather wish i hadn't....we hadn't suffered any altitude sickness prior to that, but i threw up twice that night.....Chris however was fine, of course! (Chris: 'When it comes to alcohol - no problemo!)

We had 3 days to fill in Cusco, aclimatising, so we did the necessary visiting of all the Inca sights, some good, some not so good....of course we weren't going to pay for the organised trip so off we went to find the local buses!! We saved 5 pounds each and it was lots more fun!! Also on our tour of the surrounding area we headed for the small town of Tipon, where we had been told you get the best Cuy (Guinea Pig)! Got the bus there ok, had a pretty good feed although its quite a lot of hassle for not much meat! The best part of the evening by far was trying to get home....for some reason although the buses let people off they wouldn't let anyone on! After 30mins there was quite a crowd of us and still no bus! Then a truck pulled up and opened a side hatch....we all piled in....in side was a wooden interior with a tarpaulin roof, an old rickshaw tied up that they were transporting, and about 30 people crammed in like illegal immigrants! This is what travelling is all about!