The Final Post

So this is the final post, which means it is the final countdown until we return home to cold, miserable England. However I think to us that feels more like Christmas and after four months here in South America we are about ready to return. So here is our last week:

Day 1 Monday - This morning John's Uncle Jorge arrived in Lima. Unfortunately I was still (and still am really) suffering from a bad stomach. However with Jorge being a chef he recommended some foods that would help with my horrid tummy. So I was on soup and rice for the day. Everyone else however tucked in nicely to a huge feast of Ceviche which John enjoyed a great deal.

In the evening John's Uncle taught us a great game called 'Cukuladora'. We don't know the actual name but it sounded like that. This is one card game we are bringing back to the UK.

Day 2 Tuesday - Today we took another mirabus tour to the ruins of Pachacamac on the outskirts of Lima. On our way to the ruins we stopped off at a little cafe/resturant place where we witnessed traditional Peruvian dancing with a horse. The horses were obviously the main stars. When we arrived at the ruins we saw many ancient temples of the Lima's, Wari and the Inka people. It was very much like the ruins in Pucllana we had seen earlier in out travels. The day was lovely, sunny and hot which meant when we returned we had pink cheeks.

Day 3 Wednesday - The morning was spent roaming Magdelena (a nearby province) for spices and other food stuffs we wanted to take back to the UK. Returning back to the house with bags of Chifle and Aji's of numerous colours, we greeted Jorge with birthday wishes as today he has turned ''28'', apparently. We all were treated to a lovely Chinese lunch in the center of Lima, although a painful journey there. Unfortunately our eyes were bigger than our bellys and we ended up taking most of it back to the house.

After a little rest in the house we spent the rest of the night celebrating Jorge's birthday at his cousin Moshe's house with a bbq and TWO cakes!

Day 4 Thursday - We met up with Jorge Luis and others from the AAVAP dog charity for a lunch at a polleria resturant today. We spent the lunch discussing ways in which we could furthur help the charity when we are back in England. We also discussed what there future plans were for the Charity and we gave a few of our ideas. We are very excited about helping AAVAP and all the abused and stray dogs and cats in Lima.

In the afternoon we went to the park to have some frozan yoghurt in the lovely sunny weather. The first time we have had a sunny christmas!

Day 5 Friday - Hot again today so we sunbathed out the front of the house. When we were nice and crisp we returned for lunch. After lunch the sun had gone and so we took a stroll to the local cinema and saw 'The Hobbit', the first of three, which was as expected a great movie, but just as long as the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

In the evening we took a taxi to Barranco to try out a Mexican resturant we had read about online. For John it was the best Mexican he had had, even beating one he had been raving about in St Pancras Station. The place was run by an Englishman, so concluded that English make the best Mexican burritos.

Day 6 Saturday - John's Nanny's neighbours, Gabi and Cecillia and there parents took us out for a day at the beach, San Bartolo. It was a short journey out of Lima and a little town with a big resort, including a pool, slide and beach chairs and umbrellas. It was sunny throughout the day and we even swam in the ice cold sea to the platform just off the coast. We had a picnic there and returned home brown and partly sunburnt. We showered off the salty water and were invited for dinner and drinks.

Today we have been lazing in the local park and had Chinese again for lunch. No more blogs now as we return home on Thursday night. We are very excited to see everyone! See you very soon.

Vicky and John
x

Week 16 - Relaxing in Lima

This week was fairly chilled as we are coming to the end of our time here in South America and thus our budget is on the low. Here is how we spent our 16th week here in Lima:

Day 1 Monday- Today was a fairly groggy day and with that I too felt under the weather, so the morning was spent relaxing in the house. After lunch we decided to walk down to one of the local cinemas and booked ourselves some tickets to see the new film 'What to Expect when you're Expecting' which turned out to be a less than amusing film. We should have gone to see the new James Bond movie 'Skyfall' which half of facebook had been raving about, however with popcorn so cheap we counted it still as a success.

Day 2 Tuesday -  We spent the whole day in Lima's City centre mooching around the Mercado Central. The market was quite dangerous so we held onto our bags, but there were a lot of very very cheap items, including bags, wallets, belts, clothes, food and doggy outifts. I personally was looking for a little Christmas outfit for Rocky, but luckily for him there were none in his size so I settled on a nice red leather collar instead (I hope he likes it).

We stopped for lunch at a fantastic Chinese where we tried the 'Dim Sum' which I have decided is now a personal favourite of Chinese cooking.

We ended up returning home late that day, absolutely knackered from our day at the shops, and made hot chocolate and played Jenga....or as it is pronounced in Peruvian: Heeennngaaaa! (I was terrible and ended up the ultimate loser).

Day 3 Wednesday - Today we decided to take a trip to the Parque de Kennedy to the famous diner called 'Lucha' where they claim to sell 'Peru's best papa fritas', so we ordered a large papa fritas and fresh strawberry shake. We then took a stroll around the local markets and shops.

Day 4 Thursday - In the morning we went for what was supposed to be a stroll around the local golf club, however it was far longer than we initially thought so we ended up building our appetites for lunch. We ate out for lunch at a little resturant with typical peruvian food. Good price! Only 8 soles!

After our lunch we went back to the market where we brought our final gifts for friends and families.

Day 5 Friday - We spent the morning decorating the house, successfully building the christmas tree and putting out endless 'niknaks' around the living room. Now it feels like Christmas!!

After lunch we had a nap as we were preparing for our nights festivities.

We arrived at Jose's house ready and raring to go at approximately 10PM and made our way along with the rest of his amigo's to the University. We queued up to hop onto a bus to take us to the Univeristy's biggest end of exam party of the year. At the fiesta there was plenty of free alchohol and music. After partying the night away we arrived home around 5PM absolutely knackered.

Day 6 Saturday- RECOVERED - including KFC

Day 7 Sunday - Today John's Tias took us to the Regatta Club on the beach (although the sun did not have his hat on) and we had a fantastic buffet lunch at the Chinese there, where we stuffed our faces (a bit too much I think). We then returned to Tia Nini's house where they enjoyed coffee and we enjoyed water and special digestive tea for our over full stomachs.

After our tea we went on a mission of sorts, to find John a golden star for the top of his Christmas tree. After many stops at many different markets, at around 5PM we finally found the star suitable for his majesty (he is one picky boy).

Hope to see you all soon
Only one more blog post to go...

Vicky and John

Week 15 - My Birthday!!!!

So this week John was feeling a lot better and good because it was the run up to my birthday in Peru. Here is week numero 15:

Day 1 Monday - This morning we decided to go for a stroll down to the beach, however the way we originally planned left us stuck on a road as no paths led down so we had to take another route. The second route took us down a staircase in the cliff side and onto the beach of 'death'. We named it that way by us due to the large amount of dead animals found on the beach, jelly fish, crabs and two birds. Not the nicest of beaches we have seen on our travels. We then walked back which got our appetites going for lunch.

After lunch we finally got the call that there was enough wind for us to go paragliding! So we packed the camera and headed down to the Parque del Amor were we took off tandem style. It was actually a really smooth ride but still seemed 'un-real'. We highly recommend this for anyone....they even take dogs up. (Imagine Rocky up there).

Day 2 Tuesday - Today we went for lunch at Maria's house (Johns grandparents maid) which gave us a look at the shanty towns in Lima. Apparently most people do not even have running water, and the houses reach all the way up the hillside, so we had to take a very scary coca taxi back down (rocky ride). Maria's house was by far one of the nicest in the barrio as was funded by there daughter who is now a professor at the university. We ended up getting back home late that afternoon as the journey was long.

Day 3 Wednesday - We accompanied John's Nan this morning to Magdalena, an area of Lima where shopping is very cheap. It was very good for spices, condiments and food stuff in general but we decided for the rest (clothes and jewlrey) was not as nice as other places we had seen.

In the afternoon we tried baking some cookies in the cooker where just a mere half turned out edible.

Day 4 Thursday - We were up nice and early today as were heading for Lunahuana. We ended up getting three buses and one taxi there taking us a total of 4 hours. When we arrived in the little village we were greeted by the intense heat there and surrounded by vineyards for sweet wines and pisco. The river Canete runs along this village and we found an english speaking guide to do white water rafting. It was just us two in the boat and the guide and the 50minute journey was so much fun. We even had a swim in a natural pool. After we tried some of the famous and highly recommended prawns fished from the local river which were lovely. The journey home was another 3 buses and a taxi and we arrived late in the evening.

Day 5 Friday - My birthday today and was awoken by my parents on skype singing happy birthday and some surprise birthday gifts! (I even got a gift from the monster dog). I then recieved a surprise breakfast from the parker family!

After my special lunch we went to a salon to get my nails done and hair done for the fiesta that evening and I even convinced John to get his hair done for my birthday!

In the evening I had a nice fiesta with Johns family, lots of nice food and a chocolate cake specially made bye Johns Auntie Tati.

Day 6 Saturday - Late morning we took a taxi to Parque del Amor and walked along the coast till Larcomar where we ate lunch at a chinese. We then walked up to Parque de Kennerdy where we found a handicraft fair going on so we took a look around. After our mooching we ended up at the english pub (which apparently is run by a texan) with me ordering a cafe and John with a beer.

Day 7 Sunday - In the morning we took a ride down to Palvos Rosado where we mooched around the centre full of cheap fakes. We were looking for a specific present for a friend but where un able to find it but instead purchased some music.

For lunch we ate out a little cafe with Johns grandparents. It was very cute and quiant and I managed to have a vegetarian dish! Lasagne!

In the evening we were invited to a girls 22nd birthday party, a family friend.

Miss you all
Vicky and John

Week 13 - Mancora

This week we set off to the sunny north of Peru, heading for Mancora, a town known best for its fantastic waves for those surfers and kite surfers. Here is what happened:

Day 1 Monday- It was a sunny day when we awoke and so we spent a lot of time basking in the sun outside, although by midday it was too hot and we had to vacate our grassy patch for lunch. We booked our tickets for Mancora for Tuesday afternoon and as we were saving money spent most of the day relaxing.

When evening came around we accompanied Johns grandparents and some of his relatives to a local church as it was a special day in rememberence of those family members who had died.

Day 2 Tuesday - We brought a whole bag of food from the local supermarket and then packed our bag and headed to the bus station for our afternoon bus up to Mancora. We went cama which has more spacious seats than usual for the comfort on a 18hour journey.

Day 3 Wednesday- We arrived in Mancora at approximately 10AM and hoped onto a tuktuk taxi to our hotel which we learnt was actually only a 2 minute walk down the road. Our hotel was not quite as we had expected, cold salt water showers did not exactly make us feel clean and the pool was nice and cloudy with no way out as the stairs were broken (john learnt this after he jumped in). However it was the cheapest hotel on the street so we were happy with our £5 per night deal.

After we had settled we headed to the best beach in Mancora called Los Pocitas. It was a lovely clean deserted beach however there was a lot of wind and no where for John to swim as there were many rocks. However the rock pools were warm and so you could sit and relax in one of these natural hot tubs (as long as you found one without any fish). We drew some pictures in the sand and brought an ice cream and after that decided to head back to our hotel to try out the beach in front of it. This beach was Mancora's main beach and really is only for surfers as the waves were too large to swim in. However we still managed to sunbathe a little.

Later in the day we spent some time in the cloudy one way in, no way out  pool which we were certain would dissolve our swimwear.

For our evening meal we went to a resturant on the main strip right by our hotel run by an elderly couple who were ever so sweet. It is so cheap here and being right on the seaside all the dishes were fish based so ceviche for starter and fish and rice and salad for main with fresh lemonade all for 8 soles = £2!

Day 4 Thursday- Today we decided that bathing beside the pool for the majority of the day was our best option as we had begun to get sick of removing sand from our towels and clothes. We had the pool pretty much to ourselves which was nice, but only because most people were put off by its cloudiness. We met a nice english couple who we arranged to meet later that evening with a couple of their friends also.

For lunch we went back to the main street for another meal deal along the coast with a cool beer to wash it down with. We then returned to the poolside for some more tanning.

After dinner of Burritos at a cute take away place, we headed out for a few beers on the beach and met a man named Jon (without an H) who told us about his work as a film set designer in New Zealend. He had apparently worked on The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings etc. It all sounded amazing. After a few beers we went back to our hotel room to meet the guys we had seen earlier that day and spent a few more hours out with them sipping cocktails and downing beers on the seafront. We ended up back in our room late that night.

Day 5 Friday - We slept in until check out came around as we were a little fragile from the previous night. We had all swapped facebooks and so hopefully we were to meet up with one couple again back in Lima. We packed up and headed out for lunch again grabbing a bargain meal deal. We then mooched around the local arts and crafts market. After we searched for our bus stop and waited for our returning bus to Lima (altough it was 2 hours later than we had originally thought :().

Day 6 Saturday - There was a lot of traffic when entering back into lima which made our journey another 2 hours longer! UGh. When we finally returned noone was in the house but the chocolates from Johns mum had arrived! There is no greater chocolate than cadburys so the afternoon was spent relaxing and munching on junk food.

Day 7 Sunday - Today John was under the weather....we fear it is food poisoning from either the bus food or one of the seafood dishes from Mancora, either way Johns grandparents and I are nursing him back to life...he will be soon his normal self.

Vicky and John

Week 12 Paracas and AAVAP Charity

So this week we spent the first three days in Paracas a lovely seaside town south of Lima very close to Ica, Pisco and Nazca. In fact you can see the town of Pisco from Paracas and you could even walk there if you wanted. We also spent Sunday with homeless doggys for AAVAP Charity. So here is the breakdown of our twelvth week in Peru:

Day 1 Monday- We got the bus to Paracas today; a mere 4 hours so really nothing in comparison to our previous monster journeys. When we arrived in Paracas the bus stop was nothing but a hut so not your typical station. We realised soon that Paracas is a very small town where everything was in walking distance and being by the sea there was sand everywhere, it was nice. We walked 600m down the road to our hostel 'The Backpackers Hostel', although every other hostel was similarily named, so could have been confusing had we not received previous instruction from the owner, Alberto. Alberto was a older gentlemen, fluent in English and very friendly. After we had settled into our very very basic room (but it was cheap) Alberto showed us where the best places are to go eat in Paracas. We then booked with him our excursions to the Ballestas Islas and National Reserve for the following day.

We made our dinner that night, pasta n' sauce, and then made our rolls for the following days lunch. Early night as early start.

Day 2 Tuesday -  Up nice and early today to visit the Ballestas Islands (Spanish for Crossbow Islands). We went by speed boat which was fun but pretty darn chilly due to the wind. On the way we stopped briefly to see the Candlebra. These are lines in a sand dune thought to be made by the Nazca people and have remianed in tact as the wind only blows on the opposite side of the dune and it never rains in that place either. Some say it looks more like a cactus which personally I would agree with, and apprently they used to eat cactus or drink it too at that time and so it really makes more sense. After this we carried on to the islands which inhabited thousands of species of birds including pelicans, peruvian boobys and penguins! We also saw many sea lions which were lazing about in the sun. The only down side to the island was the smell, with that many animals I guess it can be expected there be a lot of excrement.

We returned to shore at 10 and had a quick rest as at 11 we were off to our second booked excursion to the National Reserve of Paracas. This is a vast desert area home to 8 different habitats and many beaches. We first visited a museum which told us about the Paracas Boom in 19th century where the excrement of guano birds created 80% of the countrys income as it was craved by England and France for its use as fertilizer. We then visited many beaches including the Playa Roja, a beach with red sand! We also saw the Cathedral; a rock formation off the coast, however only half remains as half fell down in the 2007 earthquake.

We ate out in the evening enjoying a seafood rice dish and mussels with a yummy salsa on top.

Day 3 Wednesday - In the morning we visited the mini arts market in Paracas. Only a few stalls however but John managed to get a few gifts including Tejas for his mum. Yummy!

We got the bus back to Lima this afternoon, however we had two annoying French women in front of us so the journey was not as pleasent as the first one.

Day 4 Thursday - We went for Lunch today with some of Johns family friends or relatives....we are still unsure. It was very tasty!!

We spent the afternoon organising our trip to Mancora next week. Mancora is known for its fantastic beaches being right next to Equador!

Day 5 Friday - This morning we visited the Museo de la Nacion in Lima. It was free entry surprisingly, as it was such a grand place. We saw a lot of artistic artifacts from Peru ranging from the Pre-Colonial period (where pots and clay statues of figures were used to honour the Pre-Colonial gods) through to the Post-Colonial period where you saw the influence of the Spanish, Flemish and Italians in their artworks (where religious paintings were the main focal point). Personaly my favourite was Post Colonial where many artists stepped away from traditional religous art and begun to paint anonymous images on the famous backdrops of peru e.g Amazonian fauna and the Andeas mountain range.

In the afternoon we made pancakes or panqueques for Johns grandparents, although they preferred to smother them with manjar blanco (very sweet condensed milk) rather than the traditional lemon and sugar John and I are used to.

In the evening we went with Jose, Sebastian and Luciana to a pub in Barranco. We drank beer and played games and even got our photo on the wall (we were the only ones in there). We then went to try apparently the worlds best french fries, however nothing can compare to English fish and chips in my opinion.

Day 6 Saturday - As we returned late the previous night we had a little sleep in in the morning. We then headed to the supermarket to buy our packed lunch for the following day as we were going to AAVAP dog charity all day and would need food to take with us.

In the evening we went to Johns cousins 13th birthday party at his house on the outskirts of the city. They have a beatuful fluffy Samoyed Husky dog. She was called Luna and so friendly. We did spend a lot of the evening however trying to work out whom was related to whom.

Day 7 Sunday- Today we were up nice and early to go visit the dog shelter with AAVAP; a charity organistion run by Univeristy del Pacifico. We all met at the university and then hopped onto a bus and headed out of Lima to Callao where the shelter is held. We got off and immediately herd the barking of many dogs. We got given some rope to create a collar and lead from, and chose our dog from a selection they had out for us. It was difficult to catch some and some really did not want there collar on them! Once we had our dogs we went out for a walk down the beach in the sand dunes. It was a lot more nakering than we thought although my dog powered through, Johns kept taking breaks to roll over for a tickle. Being untrained, occasionally a dog would get loose and you would see its walker run past after it. We never lost one however because we were there pack so I doubt they would have run very far. We each carried water bottles and containers as well so we could give the dogs water at each rest point.

When we got back we were given a tour of the shelter where we met more animals like Alan the Ostrich who ate corn out of our hands. Soon we learnt all the animals brought in were badly treated in the past. We also learnt often when the dogs are not found for the shelter the government takes them away and kills them. Very sad. The government also does not help with these such charitys and there are no laws against animal cruelty in Peru and so they have very little money and the dogs live off rice most of the time. We decided that when we return to England with the information of AAVAP we would try do some fundraising for the charity, as most of the shelters' money comes out of the owners own pocket so they still lack the basics like enough food and care for the animals.

We returned home to shower as we were filthy and rest for the evening as we were exhausted!

Miss you guys

Vicky and John

Week 11 - Halloween in Lima

So this is our eleventh week in South America. It is just flying by....there are only 7 weeks left in Peru!

Here is what happened this week:

Day 1 Monday - Since Halloween crept up on us quickly we took a trip into Miraflores in Lima to try and find some sort of half decent outfit to be seen in. We searched some of the fancy dress stores and in the end settled on the idea of going as zombies. We both had white t'shirts we no longer needed that we could distress and brought some face paints for our faces.
   Later on we went back to the markets in Lima to search for more gifts for you lot! We spent most of the time searching for a very very very specific jumper for Johns mum which was unsuccessful.
   In the afternoon we went down to the beach front in San Isidro for a pleasent walk. When we returned back to the house we went straight out again for Anticucchos at apparently Lima's best resturant, serving only antichuchos and choclo....therefore I only ate choclo....John was very happy (he still claims his Nannys is better).

Day 2 Tuesday - In the morning we took a local bus to the center of Lima to visit the main plaza. We ended up at Plaza San Martin the next plaza. The two plazas however are joined by a walkway full of shops much like Avenida Florida in Buenos Aires (but with less people shouting cambio every five seconds). Once we finally arrived in the main plaza we visited the Cathedral. Very grand and inside lay the bodies of many important religious figures, including that of Pizarro the Spanish founder of Lima. We were given an english leaflet which had details of each section of the cathedral, however it was so poorely translated we could make neither head nor tail of it so our knowledge is nonethewiser.
    After lunch we spent the afternoon distressing our clothes with rocks and using a mix of kethcup and nesquick to make our fake blood stains.

Day 3 Wednesday -  We woke up to the sun shining through the fog so we thought we best make the most of it and headed to a local plaza to do a bit of sunbathing! After we were nice and toasty we came back to cook lunch for Johns grandparents...'in a bag' chicken so fairly easy recipe so really we just chopped the veges up and chucked everything together. After lunch we started to get ready for the Halloween fiesta including using up our 'Superior Ron' rum from a few weeks back (:S). We had no white paint so used talcom powder and suncream to make one... gave a creepy effect because it did made our skin look pretty dead with it flakin off our faces! We met our friend Jose and went to another Jose's house for the party. Along the way to the house party we realised that people didnt make as much of an effort if at all of dressing up and for one night we ended up being famous, cars stopped to take our photo and even kids parent hid there eyes so as not to look at us....must have been pretty scary haha. At the fiesta there were lots of sweet and lots of alcohol and even more dancing! It was a great night and we ended up home at 5am!

Day 4 Thursday - Day spent in bed nursing hangovers!

Day 5 Friday - In the morning I went with Johns Nan and got my nails done again for 2.50! After this we met Johns Tio Tito and went to the center of Lima to a certain street where they sell nothing but musical instruments! Johns Tio is very good at bargaining and I managed to get myself a present for my brother and John got his xmas gift of a guitar...which he is now obsessed with and wont stop playing (he even talks to it).
   In the evening we went to Johns Aunties house, Tio Titos daughter, for a BBQ where we met alot of family, with a lot of names! It was a fun evening and we practiced our espanol alot!!

Day 6 Saturday - Today we spent the majority of the day hoping for wind as these are the conditions we needed for paragliding...however it never came so this adventure is for another day.

Day 7 Sunday - At midday we went to the zoo to see the the animals with Johns nan. We saw hippo's, tigers, lions, wombats, birds, monkeys etc. It was a lovely day however the only thing that ruined it were the vast amount of children. I propose there should be a day for children and a day for adults! We went for Chinese lunch again!! After this we brought some limons and made homemade lemonade...Yum.
   Later on we packed for our trip to Paracas on Monday!!

Miss you all
Vicky and John

Week 10 - Buzios and back to Lima

So I am on the road to recovery today. I was ill for the last post as you all should know and John had to take over my station. I think you will agree he did a good job (although it did take him all day to perfect it).

This week we were in the town of plentiful beaches called Buzios and then mid week returned to Lima...so here is our week numero 10:

Day 1 Monday - Today was our second day in Buzios, which is apparently to Rio what the Hamptons are to New York. We awoke to an amazing breakfast, one much better than any other breakfast we had delved into on our travels, including exotic fruits, croissants, cakes, hot chocolate, a variety of teas, cereal which personally I had been longing for and all sorts of breads. Being on a budget vacation we also sneakily stuffed a couple of bananas and croissants into our bags to take away for lunch, after all it was a all you can eat buffet....we were just 'very hungry'.

The previous night John had rented a buggy which we were allowed for a day and a half, so when we were ready we hopped into the yellow vehicle and drove down to Buzios's natural beach, which would not have been feasible to get to on foot. We had tried to visit the night before but with my poor map reading skills and the lack of daylight we failed at our attempt. When we finally found the beach where we saw some fisherman feeding the segulls with cut offs from the fish they had caught and a few vultures were lurking around too...they truelly do look evil. The beach was very pretty but however it being deserted and the smell of fish put us off a bit so we went back to find a busier beach with less of the fishy smell. After midday we came back to enjoy a crepe in the center of town for lunch. We then relaxed beside the hotels pool until the evening where we ventured into town to eat at a nice resturant serving mexican burritos and nachos.

 

Greedy seagulls

 

 

 Our little buggy

 Brazil! 

Day 2 Tuesday - It was a lovely breakfast again today and we nicked a few more bananas and bread rolls for our lunch. We decided together that the first beach we had visited on Sunday was infact our favourite of the beaches so far, and with it being in walking distance (and we were no longer in possesion of the buggy today) we planned on spending the morning relaxing on the Azeda playa. We got ourselves a couple of chairs and a couple of beers and relaxed by the sea until midday came. After we had gobbled up our stolen rolls and bananas we headed back to the hotel. We washed off the sand and then jumped straight into the pool. Just as we did yesterday we spent the afternoon sunning ourselves at the poolside....it was actually quite nice to not worry about sand getting in every nook and cranny. After the sun dissappeared we decided we should start packing as in the following morning we were to return to Lima. An early night tonight!

 

 Basking in the sun

 

 

Photography

 

Day 3 Wednesday - We returned to Lima today, so it was a 'lovely' bus journey back to Lima followed by a taxi drive to the airpor,t where we were sent back and forth until we were finally in the right queue and on our way back to Lima. We arrived in Lima late in the evening and we were nackered. We were greeted by the happy faces of Johns grandparents and were soon back in the apartment and sound asleep.

Day 4 Thursday - After a gruelling journey back from Brazil the previous day we spent most of today relaxing. It was however, being close to november, my time of year to get ill and just on time I awoke with a horrible cold. I did feel I should have taken the lead from the group of Janponese OAPs on the plane who wore there masks during the flight. So with my iinfluenza/malaria taking over my ability to function, John had to step in and write the blog.

At lunch time I managed to get myself out of bed and to a neat little chinese place down the road. It was really tasty...2 courses each and drinks all round for a mere 40soles which is 2.50pounds per head! Now try getting a deal like that in England. We returned to the house and slept again. In the evening we downloaded a film by Oren Peli, the director of Paranormal Activity, called the Chenobyl Diaries....it was actually pretty good.

Day 5 Friday - Today I awoke with an even worse cold....I swear its malaria even though we haven't entered the Jungle. So with nothing planned today I spent the day again in bed with John at my beck and call, bless him. I slept most of the day so there really is not much to report here. In the evening however John managed to get in contact with a hockey team. Turned out to be the National hockey team! They invited him to trials that evening. When John returned he told me they wanted him to get a Peruvian passport and join the team straight away! John does want to point out there are only 6 teams in all of Peru however I could still say my boyfriend is wanted by the national hockey team of Peru. (noone needs to know they suck)

Day 6 Saturday - Took it easy in the morning as still recovering from the lurgy. For lunch we were treated to a tasty peruvian 3 course meal at a resturant called Cherry, owned by a family friend hence everything was on the house! When we returned we started to plan furthur excursions in Peru. One thing we both agreed on is that we want to go Paragliding here in Lima! Exciting!

I have been craving hot chocolate for a while so in the afternoon we ventured down the supermarket to purchase the nessecary ingredients (and some unessecary ones aka marshmallows). This was the perfect medicine for my recovery....

Day 7 Sunday -  We spent the day at the arts and crafts markets in Lima searching for gifts for friends and familys. We were rather successful and we even purchased a big round llama skin rug for our future house (12pounds each....bargain). I cannot write about much else we bought as you lot will all be reading this!

Hope everyone had a good week
Miss you all

 

Vicky and John