Ok, well finally made it to Peru! The journey was something else! 12 hours on a plane is not my idea of fun! However there were a few highlights including the comedy security staff in Heathrow as well as coming into Lima over the Andes. It was so beautiful seeing the brown tops of the mountains poking through a sea of glorious white clouds.rnrnAnyway, we were pretty glad to have booked a taxi to take us from the airport to our Hostal in advance. It was absolutely chaotic outside the airport that evening. The drive through the outskirts of Lima itself was one of the scariest experiences of my life. It didnt help that our taxi driver had warned us that he?d had his taxi smashed in at traffic lights a couple of months before when taking some people to their hostal. Spent much of the journey clinging to my seatbelt whilst we pelted at breakneck speed to Miraflores.

The Hostel (Hostal el Patio) that we are staying at is really nice. It has a real hacienda feel to it. The room is lovely with our own little garden, great bathroom and shower and the staff are really helpful. The breakfast is rather good too - various breads, teas (including coca tea which I tried for the first time this morning), pineapple, fruit juice, coffee, etc. We are quite smug about our choices so far!

Today we plan to wander around Miraflores. We?ve just nipped into an internet cafe just of Kennedy Square (not as impressive as we?d hoped), to try to book accomodation for our stay in Cusco and to catch up with email, etc. We?ve also been to the AeroCondor office in Miraflores to confirm that our flight is still going ahead. So we leave Lima on Friday to head South and into the mountains, as we fly into Cusco and prepare to do the Inca Trail.

Tomorrow we are hoping to do a bit of touring of Lima and visit one or two of the museums. Our hostal runs some tours so we will probably book it through them. Anyway, enough now! I have to start looking for hostels in Cusco!rnrnPeter