Sunday 19th August

It was an early start at 3.45am to get my flight from Santiago to Lima, Peru! I met two older Australian men who were on a spiritual around the world tour which included Machu Picchu and Stonehenge. They delighted in telling me they were going to take a flight around the South of England looking for crop circles. They had chosen to stay in Santiago last night and had got bad vibes from the place so were glad to leave. Interesting.

Lima has around 8 million people in it and there are large sections of shanty town which I pass through in a taxi. My hotel is a haven of tranquility and I find an open air shopping centre built precariously into the side of the cliff with nothing but the sea below. Surely that´s not such a great idea in a country that regularly has earthquakes? The pebbles on the beach are black and make a great strong sound as the sea rolls over them. People are paragliding and buying expensive clothes and jewellery. A stark difference to the poverty I?ve just seen.

I wander around trying to find a place that sells plug adaptors but no luck. I catch up with Simon on Instant Messenger and then head to bed for the best and longest nights sleep ever.

Monday 20th August

I go back to the shopping centre to find an adaptor as more shops will be open as it´s Monday. I get chatting with a 19 year old girl from Devon, Kelly Mitchell, and we have lunch together. It?s a lovely way to spend the afternoon. Then I head over to Hotel Stefanos to see if anyone from the tour group is there.

The hotel is much better than I expected. Ok, so there?s no hot water but the room is clean and the hotel staff are friendly. I meet Brett and Shannon. Brett is one of only two guys in our 9 person tour. He is from Bournemouth and Shannon, his wife is from Canada. The live on the west side in the Rockies. How fantastic. Then Jenny arrives - she´s flown in from Perth. Jules, my room mate for the next 2 weeks appears next. She´s flown in from Chicago. Then we meet Jose, our tour leader and head out to dinner.

We try the local drink, Pisco Sour which is a combination of Pisco, lemon, sugar water and egg white. Hmm - not bad.

We´re off the Lake Titicaca tomorrow via Puno which is the highest city in the world. I wonder how I´ll cope with the altitude.