ceviche and Inca Kola

Having spent our last night in Brazil in Sao Paulo airport, trying to grab an hour´s sleep here and there on table tops, it was a massive relief to get to Lima and discover that we had managed to book ourselves amazingly nice and comfortable accommodation! So nice and comfortable, in fact, that we had a hard time tearing ourselves away from Hostal El Patio, though within a day or so, we'd eaten some ceviche and drunk some Inka Kola (OK to try once, probably won´t be bothering again, depends how much you like drinking bubblegum really), and foiled a robbery attempt, so you could say we were straight in there with the full-on Limeño experience!

The robbery was definitely of the "sneaky" variety, as I gather they are here, rather than the "give me your cash or I'll stab you" variety - well-dressed types sitting at the next table in the restaurant and trying to distract you with ostentatious comings and goings, that kinda thing - but Becka's wise to this restaurant lark by now and had her bag strap firmly wrapped round her leg, thankfully.They left pretty sharpish, too sharpish for us to have words, which is probably a good thing, I guess! The food is definitely looking promising here anyway, possibly more exciting than anywhere we've been yet. In fact we were slightly surprised at how much we enjoyed Lima, though we have mainly confined ourselves to the more salubrious neighbourhoods like Barranco and Miraflores.

There's no shortage of cab drivers in Peru, though most of them aren´t actually cab drivers, they´re just chancers who have stuck a "taxi" sign up on their car. It´s more or less a question of choosing a car that looks like making it to its destination, and then haggling over a price before the journey starts, then settling back and relaxing while the driver beeps his horn all the way there. (Peruvian cabbies LOVE beeping their horn)

We´re now up in the north by the coast (it seems just the other day we were gazing out over the Atlantic Ocean, and now we´re looking out over the Pacific). The views on the bus journey from Lima to Trujillo were spectacular. There was onboard bingo - I very nearly won us tickets for another trip with Cruz del Sur (by far the most expensive and best Peruvian bus company, we´re having no truck at all with bus rides from hell with drivers falling asleep at the wheel or random passengers getting on board to rob people so we´re sticking with them wherever we can!!)

We're spending a couple of days by the sea in Huanchaco, which "hasn´t entirely lost its intrinsic fishing village appeal" as our guide book says several times (I liked this quote enough to repeat it to Becka numerous times while wandering around). Lots of surfers, and fishing boats like this (which locals have been using for 4,000 years!):

More importantly, it`s the site of Chan Chan (which we visited yesterday), the biggest city in Peru before the Incas turned up and took over. Our guide gave us a wealth of information about it all, including lots of gruesome stories about human sacrifice, we both enjoyed the visit hugely.



Unfortunately it looks like we won't be able to compare it to Machu Picchu as... it`s closed until at least mid-April. Becka was close to inconsolable when we found out. Still, there's plenty more of Peru to enjoy over the coming weeks. And after getting used to Brazilian prices, it feels like we can actually afford things again, as well, which makes a nice change!!