Ginny and Duncans Big Adventure

Lady with the llama We had until midday in Lima, so SJ and I were up early to head into central Lima: the Old Town.  We'd met the last 2 of our group the previous evening: Kristen, a Canadian and Mike, from London, the most senior of the group. We set off at 8am, having decided to travel the proper backpackers' way: by bus.  It was actually much easier to figure out than expected and with Lima Oystercard in hand, we descended to the express bus highway with the Monday morning rush hour throng.  4 buses later we squeezed ourselves in and 20 minutes of careering down a narrow bus lane, we alighted downtown.  We had a 2 hour walking tour to follow from our guidebook, beginning at the Plaza San Martin, which boasts a statue of some famous lady or saint with a tiny llama on her head (it was supposed to be a crown of flames, but the word for flame and llama just happen to be the same...), through some decrepit but beautiful streets, to the Plaza de Armes, where, beside...

Ginny and Duncan's Big Adventure has lost a key element: Duncan.  Having had a lovely Christmas at home with Lucas, Eva and the Sutcliffe family, Ginny took off on her tod, on a 6 week adventure in South America, while Duncan started his new career at The Slow Cyclist.  The following posts in this blog are therefore a new chapter, and as I didn't take any laptop with me to Peru and Ecuador, these pages have been posted after the event.  That said, they are a realistic reflection on what happened during those 6 weeks as they've been transcribed directly from the old-fashioned-hand-written-diary which I kept during my travels. I arrived in Lima after a 12 hour flight and slightly alarming taxi ride from the airport to our hotel in Miraflores, a busy, upmarket district of Lima.  It was 8am and I couldn't check in until 2pm, leaving the distinct possibility that I'd be roaming the streets of Lima for a few sweaty hours before being able to shower.  Thankfully, hav...