Lima exploration

Hello everyone!

As I was about to get into bed last night I heard a knock at the door, and my roommate Rachel had arrived! She is so lovely. We have a lot in common. We are both 22, both love to travel and have both done the Indochina Discovery tour I did in Asia! She's from Bath in England. I'm very lucky to have such a lovely roommate! If we are paired together for the duration of the tour (sometimes they swap people around) then we will be sharing until Buenos Aires when Rachel departs which is on February 10. 

This morning Rachel, Courtney, Ashdyn and I had "breakfast" today. I say "breakfast" because literally all it was just bread and butter and pineapple juice. Filled up on it nonetheless, I won't turn down free food!

Then Ashdyn went to a cooking class and Courtney, Rachel and I set off for the day. We started off going to Huaca Puclluana, some ruins. But you had to go on a tour (which didn't start for half an hour) which we didn't have time for so we just poked our heads in and had a look! Pretty cool looking. 

We got back in a taxi and went into the city. We went to Plaza de Armas which is the main square in Lima. We spent about an hour people watching, watching a seemingly never ending 45 minute changing of the guard and having a quick look at the main church and the presidential palace. Had a really random moment where a man walked up to us asking what "shake up" and various other English terms meant. I think he was becoming a tour guide or something, was very random!

We then met a walking tour. Usually when I do these while travelling I love them because you get to see the basics in a city and learn some background history about what you're looking at. This one was not like that! We walked literally 200m in an hour, the guy talked at us so much we had no idea what was going on and didn't see anything. So we left with two hours to go, best decision!! Instead Courtney took us to a few churches and showed us around, then the three of us went on a tour of the catacombs at the San Francisco church. The first time I went to catacombs was in Paris when I was 18 I was completely freaked out, but now it doesn't really bother me! Saw lots of bones and lots of nicely decorated tiled rooms. 

After that we went and had lunch. We picked a local restaurant which had no English menu and picked random meals! For 8 soles ($3ish) we got an entree, a main, some bread and some jelly! We later were told by our new guide that anything less than 15 soles is not good and probably dodgy - oops! My tummy feels ok thus far though and it's been like 7 hours! 

We then went to Plaza San Martin and while taking some photos of each other in front of the statue got partially stalked by some Peruvian guys who kept whistling and motioning us to call them. We cacked ourselves and so did they haha. I've never been called beautiful or whistled at as much as I have in the last few days. But we're in a group so I don't feel in danger, just a bit creeped out!!

Our last stop for the day was to a shopping centre. I was on the hunt for a pair of denim shorts because for some stupid reason I didn't bring mine. I only brought two pairs of pink shorts which I realised don't go with half the tops I brought (also pink) and found a cheap pair for $23! Only clothes I will allow myself to buy this whole South American trip. All set now!

Then we got a cab back to the hotel and chilled out for a bit. I mentioned that I liked a show called 'Pretty Little Liars' to Courtney and Rachel and it turned out Courtney likes it too. So she downloaded the episode that came out yesterday and we all watched in our room. Something really scary happened and we all screamed and pretty much jumped out of bed, then laughed so much we cried! Am having such a great time with the girls I've met already, really great :)

Our tour meeting was at 7pm. Our guide's name is Carla. She's Peruvian and seems really nice. Our group seems fairly good, mostly Aussies, two Germans, two Swiss, two English and one Canadian. We all had dinner together and everyone so far seems quite nice. I've got pretty high standards for tour groups after having such an amazing time in Asia, Greece and Scandinavia and making such amazing friends. But so far so good! We were given a Peruvian itinerary for the next three weeks. We have so much on! Going to be a great start to the trip. Stay tuned for lots of epic adventures to come. 

So tired now, but forcing myself to stay up later each day to get used to the timezone. 

By the way, from now on I'm unsure what wifi will be like but I'll do my best to post most days. There are a few days of camping coming up though where I won't be able to post. I'll let you know in advance so you know why I've disappeared!!!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox