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So, easy enough getting to Lima from Quito, although check in at the TACA desks at Quito is unfathomably slow. Tip to anyone else coming this way: don't be conned into using the premium rate taxi services that confront you as you leave customs - just round the corner is the standard cab service (still authorised, officially sanctioned et al) which will charge you half the price. First impressions as you drive into the city are that it has something of a fixation with American brand names, mostly fast food but also fashion labels and restaurants. Lots of bright lights and an endless drone of car horns blaring like a badly tuned orchestra. Spent this morning just wandering around the Miraflores district, drinking Inca Cola and trying to find seomwhere that will give me bank notes of less than 100 Soles. There's a nice park and the occassional notable church, but I didn't really have time to explore properly. Will have to look again when I'm back here in a couple of weeks.
It's 1:20 in the afternoon now. We were supposed to have left for Pisco at 12, but some kind souls have decided to go on strike and protest by blocking the roads south out of Lima. Still hopeful of getting on the road early this afternoon, but we'll have to wait and see.
Update: It's 3:04 am on Saturday 3 December. I am sitting in the hotel lobby waiting to get on the road. With luck, we'll be in Pisco by 8 and vaguely back on track. Just hope I can sleep on the bus. On the bright side, after we established that we weren't getting out of Lima yesterday we went out for a guided tour of the city. As well as the usual historic buidlings and squares, the highlight was going to a park full of fountains and light shows. It's pretty impressive what you can do with jets of water and a colour filter.
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