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Date: 19th October - 21st October 2006
We were up at 5:30 this morning setting off on our way to the capital of Peru Lima. We stopped for lunch which was put out by Rusty himself with the help of Pete as it was their turn as cook team, Rusty had been shopping for it the day before while we were doing our white water rafting (the lucky b***** got away without doing a dinner though as we are back in a Hotel tonight.) We arrived in Lima at 4:30 ish, it is a big bustling city with over 8 million people living in it which is almost a third of the whole population of Peru! Driver Steve told us to be extra careful here of pickpocketers and leaving our bags on the street when getting off Doris, this kept us all on our toes but no one actually had any trouble while we were here. The Hostel we were staying in was called the Roma. It was very basic, Rusty was sharing with Rich and Brad and had quite a nice room with a shower and toilet, Mel and I however wern´t so lucky here, we had a room that just had a tiny table 2 small beds and a locker bit like a prison cell haha but we didnt mind at all its only a place to rest our heads! The corridor next to us was actually outside and our door had a big gap under it, the window above the door wouldn´t shut so I went on a mission round the place and found a step ladder and bought it to the room so I could close it hehe, and the group shower down the corridor was always cold. On the plus side the beds were quite comfy :) Later on that day Mike (the tour leader) gave us a short tour of the town just to get to know where things were, he just showed us where we could eat and where the main strip was for shopping and going out. After that we went to change some travellers cheques and a load of us grabbed something to eat from the McDonalds on the main strip! was nice to get something where we knew what exactly what we were going to get and man did they have nice toliets he he he. Mel and I went on a mission to find a place where we could come and burn a new photo DVD the next day, we seached everywhere but no one did DVD here which was quite hard surprising since it was the capital and we had found places at much smaller towns. We eventually found a graphics place and after lots of hand signals, poor spanish and a little diagram from me that kicked ass hehe we arranged for us to come back the next day at 1 and we could use his computer!! That night we all met up in the foyer of the Hostel to go to the Bowling alley nearby, it was a little way so we had to queue up for taxis. This was a mad expereince they just drive like mad lunatics over here, I was more scared than doing the bungie swing off the bridge in Banos, my life rushed before my eyes at least 3 times. The bowling alley was in a huge complex which was cool, we had quite a few lanes as there was a lot of us and played 2 games. Mel was loving it as she beat everyone there by getting the highest score of 142, everyone was stood around watching her last few shots, well done Mel. After that we went on a little pub crawl, Mike took me out between 2 clubs to show me how he negotiates cheap drinks by saying he is bringing in 25 people to a place which was cool. We visited a Karaoke club which was funny and as usual it all ended up with dancing on the tables (seems to be becoming a theme for this tour hehe.) Finally before coming back a load of us grabbed a pizza at this nice little place.
Next morning think the whole of the Doris gang had a lie in, when we got up we grabbed some cheese and ham croissants before going to the graphics place to meet the dude we had "communicated with" the day before. This was hilarious, the guys in the place thought we were mad, the main dude left us with his computer (which was pretty slow) while he went on lunch, but by the time he got back we still werent finished so he basically finished off burning the DVD´s using Nero and doing his work at the same time while we waited. Think they quite liked us though as they gave us some posters that they were working on and also a free cake hehe, after about 2 and a half hours we were finally done.... phew! After that we went and had a late lunch at this little cafe which had the nicest vanilla milksakes ever, man thay kicked ass and had chocolate syrup round the inside of the glass to boot, the place was cool although Mels chicken was not cooked properly at the bottom it was half roar which has put her off for a while. That night we tried to see a movie at the Cinema with Felix and Deb (Russ was out on the razz again) but we couldnt find one we wanted to see that was in English (with Spanish subtitles of course.) We went to one of the pirate DVD places and bought the Butterfly effect. Back at the Hostel we hooked up Nathans CD burner that plays DVD´s and watched it in the main room with a few others.
Next day we had a guided tour of the City which was quite interesting. We learnt that a lot of the houses are yellow, red and blue as there is a law that the houses have to be painted bright colours that dates back from when the Spanish invaded and found the city dull as it is always cloudy. We saw the main Governement building where the guards wear Argentinian uniforms out of respect as when Argentina freed itself from Spanish rule its army came over to Peru and helped them gain their independance too. We also visited yet another church called San Francisco which was huge, the most impressive thing was the catacombs that were full of human bones, I took a sly photo as you werent allowed and when I heard a woman from another tour tell me off I legged it smacked my head on a low ceiling almost knocking myself out!! thats Karma for you hehe. Later that day Mel and I went to a fabric shop with Debbie and Felix to see if we could get costumes made for the fancy dress night coming up in Cusco, we wanted to be Fred and Wilma and Deb and Felix Betty and Barney. The guys in the shop seemed to find it quite amusing but they seemed up for the challange, we got the fabric and this othe dude took us away to a little shop place to get measured up. Poor bloke seemed a bit stressed that we needed them that night as we were leaving early the next morning but he agreed he would be done by 10. That night we went out for a meal to meet the 6 new people on the tour who all seemed sound and then loads of us went to a bar down the road. This place was a little madder than we thought and me and Nathan were moshing to the local band playing Nirvana hehe, me and Felix also popped out to get our costumes. They were really good and the dude had even put zips on the backs for the girls. We didnt stay out too late as we were leaving Lima at 5:45 next day.
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