We left Cuenca on a 6 hour bus ride to the border. From there we found a guy who showed us where to walk to cross to border to Peru. We arrive in a place called Huaquillas where a guy in a cab helps us out by driving us to immigration to get our exit stamp for Ecuador and entry stamp for Peru. This guy called Roberto helps us to do everything, which is fortunate as we didn’t have a clue what we needed to do. He took us to Tumbes where we could catch a Bus to Lima. It wasn’t until we arrived in Tumbes that we found the catch in his top quality service. He wanted to charge 80 US  dollars per person for the whole service which is extortionate. He didn’t seem to budge, but we held our ground and got it for 10 dollars per person which wasn’t so bad.So from Tumbes we caught a 18 hour bus with a company called Flores to Lima which had food and films provided as part of the service. It was really good and we slept surprisingly well.

Once we arrived in Lima got a cab to a hostel called the Stop and Drop. Once there the cab driver started to say that this place was expensive. We went in and got asked for the prices and proceeded outside to discuss where to stay, when suddenly another guy off the street turns up with a leaflet describing a new cheap place to stay. The cab driver and this other guy were pestering us saying their place is good and cheap. Then suddenly, the hostel owner from the Stop and Drop comes out and argues with the guy off the street and taxi driver for taking away their business. At this point, there was a lot of commotion. All we wanted was somewhere to stay and didn’t really need this hassle at a 8 in the morning having just come off a 18 hour bus journey. It was hectic, but in the end we just went with our original decision and go with the Stop and Drop hostel. Quite frankly, we was glad the hassle was over and that we could get more sleep. We never did a huge amount on the day we arrived apart from sleep and eat and a quick look around Miraflores which was the city where we was staying at just outside Lima city centre.

The next day we had more thorough look around Miraflores. We strolled around the parks, eating ice cream. Miraflores is pretty much the rich area of Lima and consisted of mainly expensive high street stores and restaurants. We moved away from the centre of Miraflores to the beach which was long and full of surfers. Quite a contrast seeing the beach so close to a busy city. The beach was busy and full of people paragliding. After the beach we had time to visit an old ruin called Huaca Pucllana maintained by independent local companies. We thought we would get a taste of the ruins we will be like on the Inca Trail but there was a vast amount of ruins to be seen. It was more like one mound of steps and a few walls. We finished off the day with a very nice chinese buffet. The food here was very nice with to my surprise, a lot of more traditional chinese dishes.

Having taken a look around the local area we were staying, we moved on to see Lima City itself on the following day. The was much more busier that Miraflores. It definitely felt less safer and more dirtier. But there was more interesting sights to see here. We first visited the Presidential Palace where we got to see the changing of the guards which involved lots of guards playing music and marching. It didn’t look too professional and well rehearsed as I thought it would be. It was free so I can’t complain too much. We visited a few of the many cathedrals there. More interestingly, we visited a bull ring, but unfortunately, it was closed so we couldn’t see any shows. We strolled around the rest of the city seeing many statues and monuments before we grabbed a taxi back to Miraflores. The roads in Lima are crazy. We got stuck in a sea of cars which must had involved about 10 lanes of cars when the road was only supposed to have about 4 lanes. All you could hear was honking everywhere. It seems so much more chilled on the roads back home in England.

We got back from the hustle and bustle of Lima City and had the urge to try out Ceviche which is a local dish here that consists of raw fish cooked in lemon juice. There is a well know street in Miraflores called Pizza Alley which is a street that only contains restaurants. We walked down this many times in the last few days and you get constantly nagged by workers of the restaurants to go in their place to eat even though you are not hungry! They try to entice you in with free stuff which influenced our decision to at down this street. We simply walk down the street and try to get as much freebies as we could. In the end, we choose a restaurant that provided a free beer and a pisco sour each. These went down quite well with the Cerviche we ordered.

The last day in Lima, we simply relaxed in the hostel’s lounge area watching DVDs until we moved to a luxurious hotel called the Mariel where we would meet with a GAP representative and group of people who would be travelling with us to the Sacred Valley, along the Inca Trail and to Machu Pichu. I think the day’s relaxing activities was a good call as I think we needed a break from sightseeing and I think we would need to rest our legs for the big hike along the Inca Trail.

All in all, Lima city was a nice place to visit, but for me 3 to 4 days was enough for me. I look forward to leaving the city to move on to something new. So back to nature for us all and we can look forward to camping again on our next adventure on the Inca trail.