Lima - Peru

I have now left Buenos Aires and landed in Lima - Peru. Here is a map of my route so far. It is a bit poor but I am doing this from an internet cafe!!



3rd October 2004

A bit of an emotional roller coaster of a day. My flight to Lima left a 08:40 so it had to be an early start. A sad goodbye with Sara as she was heading back to the US on an evening flight. We will be meeting up again in January (four months!!!) when I land in California.

My flight was delayed but once we got going it only took 4 hours to reach Lima. They showed "Stepford Wives" on the flight; not particularly impressed but yet again the brilliant Christopher Walken stole the show.

For the next 4 months I will be joining up with a group and travelling from Lima all the way to the southerly tip of South America at Ushuair. Along the way we will be learning spanish in Cusco, trecking Machu Pichu and undertaking local community work. It should be an amazing few months. Here is a link to the trip I will be doing:

http://www.ventureco-worldwide.com/patagonia.htm

I was met at the airport by a driver and one of the tour leaders as I have arrived a day before the rest of the group. I checked into the hostel and set off exploring Lima for the afternoon. I felt strange exploring on my own after 3 weeks touring with Sara. As it is October there are religous marches taking place on Sundays this month. Today´s march was to the god of miracles (I think that is what the local I was talking to said!). Anyway many of the local streets were shut and processions were taking place. It was quite entertaining. I am still waiting for my camera to be brought out so no photos as yet.

4th October 2004 - 5th October 2004 (Lima)

I met up with a couple of guys from the trip this morning so we have spent the day looking around the city and aclimatising. The rest of the group flies in this evening and the tour proper starts tomorrow. Spent the evening watching some videos with the guys (Leon and The Mask of Zorro). Zorro was crap but Leon was excellent and a great performance by Gary Oldman as always.

Woke up in good spirits and met the whole group for breakfast. It was good to catch up from the build up weekend and exchange stories. They all wanted to hear about the Rio robbing and now have complexes about walking around the city! We had our first briefing by venture leader Paul who told us about the next four months and what to expect. Over the next week we are travelling to Cusco via Arequipa and visiting the sites along the way. I will provide a full update on my next posting. The group also brought out a replacement camera from the folks back home so I should be able to start adding some pictures to the site. Spent the rest of the day doing some chores and being with the group.

Next posting will be from Cusco in about a week so stay tuned for more..........