Did I ever think I could go travelling alone? No. Did I ever believe I could do South America of all continents solo? Also no.
Not that I am really travelling alone as I have joined a tour, but to arrive in a country such as Peru not knowing a soul is probably the scariest thing I have embarked on in my life and I can now say that I did it.
I did my best not to think about what I was doing until it was crunch time and I had to walk out of Lima airport and find my driver. It was 8.30pm at night and although the guy clearly had my name written on a sign, I was still apprehensive to trust him. He, barely speaking english, and I barely spanish somehow managed to communicate for me to wait by my bag whilst he paid for parking, then to follow him to his car (which he decided to get out of at the boom gate as we were trying to exit the parking lot and leave me in it - what?!), but he got back in and we headed to the hostel.
Driving in organised chaos, people everywhere, blue police lights flashing every 50m - to say I was freaking out would be an understatement. We narrowly missed a bus (phew!) then 5mins later were almost driven off the road by a taxi - I don't know whether I had gone into shock, combined with only about 3hrs sleep in the past 43hrs, but for some reason I could barely keep my eyes open. This was easily fixed however when we were stopped at a set of traffic lights and in front of me I see a child about 5yrs old going up to a stationary car begging for money through the window. Further up the street on the other side of the road l see another boy about the same age doing the same thing. What an eye opener! The houses are mostly small square shape structures with cracks running down them, concrete and bricks eroded away and so many exposed wires running from house to house. There are loads of old cars with the stand out being the vw bettle. With no trains, only buses, these tend to be mostly run down and completely overloaded with people.
It's funny to think how a decision of what car we want, how annoyed we are when our aircon or heater isn't working, and how much we moan about cityrail when the train doesn't arrive on time - and these people have very few to none of these luxuries.
I can't say that I didn't expect this kind of poverty, because I did expect it, it's no different to south east Asia really, but it never ceases to be a reality check when you place yourself within it.
In Lima apparently it never rains. Our tour guide told us they get 13ml in one year. It is a rather gloomy city, so in order to cheer each other up the people paint their houses bright colours, and it really is a remarkable thing to see from a distance the bright blues, greens, yellows, pinks, etc.
The minimum wage is US$400 per month - some of us make that in a couple of days and others even luckier in 1 day.
Today we left Lima taking a 4hr bus ride to Paracas. We drove along the freeway with one side desert and the other ocean - incredible! So much sand! We could not believe that people were living in the small huts both hillside and at the foot of the sand hills. There were communities with stall like houses boxed in, surrounded by nothing but sand and farms. Chicken farms out in the middle of no where. In some of the communities you could see children playing soccer with goals made of wooden frames and dust being kicked up everywhere. In the bigger cities we saw moto-taxis. Like the tuk tuks of south east asia, these little 3 wheelers are a primary source of transport costing $1-1.50 taking you anywhere. The best were those that were pimped up with spoilers, stickers and rimms - at least better than any pimped up datsun or echo back home!
Only day 2 of my 67 day tour and feeling like I have seen so much, but I know I am only just scratching the surface. Tomorrow begins with a boat ride to see sea lions, penguins, dolphins and hopefully flamingoes, followed by tastings of Pisco the local liqueur and finishing with sand dune buggies - the adventure continues..