Arrived Lima, Peru

Hi all!

Last night after I wrote the blog I gave Elena and her family a present to say thank you for having me; some Maxwell and Williams Australian bird coasters. Then they gave me a Chile keyring to remember them by which was really nice :)

We enjoyed pizzettas for dinner which were delicious and then the jet lag hit me hard again (and I had already crashed for 20 minutes while waiting for the blog to post - oops!). Sitting around the dinner table with Elena and her family was really lovely but it did make me miss my family a bit. But I love them, they love me and they'll be at home as soon I get back :) it's just an adjustment I have to make that I won't be seeing them for a while. Love you all xxxx

Went to bed (made it 'til 9.30pm - woo!) and then woke at 3.30am for my flight to Peru. Alejandra and Elena kindly drove me to the airport and dropped me inside. We said our goodbyes and I headed through security. I really enjoyed my time in Santiago and can't believe how quickly this adventure is going already. Feels like I just left yet it's already been 3? days (I'm so confused by the time difference that I forget!). I'm so grateful for the kindness and generosity shown to me by Elena's family, I will never forget it! Hope to see you guys again in the future when you visit Melbourne!

My flight was fairly good. We took ages to board, there were heaps of Spanish announcements and no English so I thought I was having a repeat of my bad luck re flight cancellations in the past...but thankfully not! I was in a row with a boy who was maybe 8 and his mum. The mum spoke no English, but as soon as the boy heard me say I was from Australia he started saying "what the f***" and other swear words to try and get a reaction out of me! I pretended I couldn't hear him and he started to get angry, I had a bit of fun with that haha. My Spanish is getting slightly more advanced (very very slightly). I ordered myself a water in Spanish on the plane (look out!). 

When we landed I put my grumpy face back on that I began to perfect in Greece last time. Travelling alone as a girl, as much as it shouldn't, makes you much more of an easy target especially if you are young. Everyone wants to come up to you and pressure you and thinks they can get away with it. But the grumpy face worked again, I navigated my way through all the taxi hawkers without much trouble and found the reputable one my guidebook suggested. A 50 minute cab ride to my hotel cost me $20 Aussie - wish it were like that at home!!

My first impressions of the city were that it was quite dirty and confronting, but I had heard the neighbourhood near the airport was a bit like that so expected it a little. As we got closer to my neighbourhood; Barranco everything started to look a lot nicer! But much like Chile, everyone seems to have high and scary looking fences!

I got dropped off ok at the hotel. My roommate who I'll be sharing with all tour doesn't arrive until tomorrow but reception tell me her name is Rachel and she's from the UK. Looking fwd to meeting her! I did some washing and then couldn't decide what to do for the day so went to reception to get a map and some ideas. There was a girl sitting on the couch here, and it turned out she's on my tour! Her name is Courtney, she's from Wagga Wagga but lives in Brisbane and has just spent four months in Wisconsin on university exchange. I followed her in a cab to the Museo Larco. Here we saw lots of pottery and Peruvian artwork. There was a very strange but humorous 'Erotic Gallery' with water jugs with very strange figurines on top. I'll let your imaginations join the dots...we had a good chuckle while the security guard and tour guide looked at us and shook their heads haha. 

We headed back to the hotel and by chance another Aussie girl was checking in that reception! Turns out her name is Ashdyn and she's from Launceston and guess what....she's on our tour too! Haha. Both are really lovely girls and I had a great day with them. Very happy I met them as I was in for a very boring and lonely afternoon!!!

The three of us then set off for a walk around our local neighbourhood called Barranco. Courtney directed us to a rooftop restaurant which had a lovely view and we tried a local specialty - cevichè. This is raw fish marinated in various spices and juices. It was nice but very rich and I couldn't finish it. We also tried Pisco sours - what a waste of $6, it was disgusting and I had one mouthful! Oh well, we (and our waitress) had a good laugh at ourselves!

Then we walked along the coast up to another neighbourhood, the main tourist one, called Miraflores. The beach here is the Pacific Ocean, but by Australian standards it's not a nice beach at all. It's pretty much brown dirt and pebbles. The cliff faces are pretty cool though! Lots of people paraglide along the coast here so that makes it a bit more picturesque too. We eventually got to 'Lovers Point', and Courtney asked a lady in Spanish (she's quite good at Spanish as she studies it at uni) to take a photo of us and the lady said no....how rude! Everyone else here so far has been really nice. So we got a nice man to take one instead while the rude lady watched!! We all laughed loudly to get our point across :P

Finally we walked to a market Ashdyn had seen a few days ago and I bought my magnets for Lima and a Peru one too. The collection is steadily building already! Gonna need a second fridge after this year! 

We were all wrecked at this point so headed back to the hotel and I've skyped nan and pa - they did it! Yay! So proud! I'm now typing the blog and pretty much falling asleep. It's now 8.14pm and I've been up since 1.30am in this timezone. Errrrrgh!

Had a great first day in Lima and really happy I've met such nice people already!

See you tomorrow,

Love

Claire

Xoxox