Dear all!

We're on Day 2 of our adventure, having arrived in Lima on Monday evening after a mammoth 23-hour journey door-to-door. The weather is hot, the city is bustling and the food is tasty!

So far we've just been trying to get to grips with Peruvian life and culture. Yesterday we visited the Museo de la Nacion (big old national museum) where we saw lots of Inca ceramics, saw a very moving exhibition on Peruvian terrorism which pretty much destroyed the country between 1980 and 2000 and the story of the 'disappeared people' in recent years, and learnt a ton about Peru's pride and joy... la papa (the potato!). Did you know there are over 4000 varieties?? We've also seen a traditional artesan market (it reminded us of israeli shouks), with vendors trying to get you into their particular store, with the offer of the "best price" in the whole of Lima. although we managed to resist!

Today we visited an amazing pre-inca archeological site, complete with pyramid, burial grounds, llamas and guinea pigs (which are apparently very tasty and nutritious) and a hallucanagenic cactus called San Pedro, because like St. Peter, it can open up the gates of heaven. Later we may hit the beach for some sun!

The city is really colourful and unusual - each house is completely different to the next, a real mish-mash of styles! The roads are a complete nightmare, though. The general rule seems to be beep the horn when another car is in your way, beep your horn when you want to change lanes (without indication!), beep your horn when approaching any junction, and if you're a taxi, beep your horn at every pedestrian in sight!

Thats all for now folks... we're moving on from lima tomorrow, so more updates to follow soon.

All our love

Joel and Mel xxxx