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Tues 13 March
Well it was hardly worth going to bed - we had to get up at 3.40am for our flight from Santiago to Lima (typical now I think I have got over the jetlag and can actually sleep at night). A few people had told us that Lima airport is manic and full of dodgy taxis so I had contacted the hostel beforehand to arrange an airport transfer. On arrival there was no nice man holding a board with our names on it so we thought my telephone conversation with the hostel owner had perhaps not gone as well as I'd thought (well he was speaking in Spanish and I was speaking my best pigeon/guidebook Spanish!), however after about ten minutes we found our man so it can't have been that bad. We got to our hostel, the Inka Lodge in Miraflores, which was a great little place, more like a hotel than a hostel (apart from the usual bunkbeds although at least we have a private room). We soon found that no-one in the hotel spoke much English though but luckily we got chatting to an English guy staying there who did a bit of translating for us. A nice lady took us to a local laundry were we managed to leave our washing and establish that it would be ready later that day - who said we can't speak Spanish!
Our friend Marie was now on her way from Birmingham to Lima to meet us for our last two weeks...... or so we thought. Luckily I thought I would make use of the free internet in the hostel - good job I did as one of my e-mails was from another friend trying to let us know that Marie's flight had been delayed so she had missed her Amsterdam connection, so she was being diverted to New York causing her a 12 hour delay, and to make matters even worse they had left her bag behind in Amsterdam - nightmare! Ed & I had a walk into Miraflores and were pleasantly surprised to find it is really quite nice. It was also good to find that food is cheaper than in Chile - we had some pizza, a strange jam/jelly dessert and an even stranger purple drink but it was only 10 soles (around £1.60) so we couldn't complain. We think the drink was Chicha Morada, a fermented drink made from purple sweetcorn - try it, you might like it..... not a lot! We even saw some raw purple sweetcorn in a supermarket - weird! We walked to a sort of clifftop park which overlooked the sea, lovely views and some very 'Gaudi'esque mosaic curvy walls and seats (you will know what I mean if you have seen any of the Gaudi buildings/park in Barcelona). Lima definitely seemed more 'South American' than Santiago - bustling markets, mad drivers, beeping horns, car alarms blaring, beggars, but then again more Western chains (Burger King, Starbucks etc.) but we won't hold that against it.
Wed 14 March
No rest for the wicked - we got a taxi to the airport at 5.30am to meet Marie. She eventually walked through the gate at 6.30am and I was pleased to see a big smile on her face despite the delay and the fact that her bag was still in Amsterdam. It was so great that Marie came all the way to Peru and it was fabulous to see her again after more than five months. Originally Marie was planning to come with us for the six months but couldn't due to work commitments :-( We got a taxi back to the hostel where Marie was pleasantly surprised after having people joke that she should sleep on the floor at home to get used to hostelling....... it's not that bad, honest. After being served some breakfast at the hostel we had a walk into Miraflores where we were quickly accosted by three different groups of schoolgirls who wanted to ask us questions relating to their studies, who said we don't look Peruvian!? Marie needed a beer so we went for lunch at a nice restaurant overlooking the sea. We then got a taxi into central Lima where we were dropped off at the main square, Plaza da Armas. We went on a tour around the San Francisco Monastery and Church including the underground catacombs which contain an estimated 70,000 skeletons (all the bones are separated into piles - the big piles of skulls were quite eerie!). We had a walk through a souvenir arcade - there are so many shops all selling the same things! We then talked Marie into trying a Pisco Sour, just the one was strong enough to make us a little wobbly so we decided that was enough for the time being. We then saw the remains of the city walls at Parque de la Muralla and had a coffee - caffeine needed by all. It was then time for another trip to the airport (Ed & I's third time!) to collect Marie's bag, it took us about ten minutes to choose a taxi as they all looked pretty dodgy but we got there in the end. Once we got to the airport Marie was taken through Customs and it was another hour before she was finally reunited with her bag - hooray!
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