Lima Wha? (Lima, Peru)

Well it feels too early, but we've been in Ecuador a week and we're back in El Centro del Mundo, Quito, preparing ourselves for our flight to Cuzco via Lima. We had to leave Chugchilán on a packed bus at 3 in the morning, on a big bumpy road, 500 foot cliffs on our left, speeding down the road, with our packs and a large tank of gas strapped to the top and bouncing loudly on the roof everytime we hit a big bump. Quite the bus ride. 6 hours later, via Latacunga, I'm back in Quito, waiting for our rooms to open up so that we can put our stuff in. Next, Laundry. Beautiful... Clean... Clothes....

And like that, with a puff of wind and one last night of salsa dancing, where we met our sala teacher from earlier in the evening, we were gone, and the Ecuador portion of our trip was over.
Quito didn't want to let go of us though, and just as we were taking off, a thunderstorm hit and we had to return to the terminal for an hour. The flight was bumpy the whole way, but I was kept good company by Julio, a 44 year old Argentinian oil driller who sat next to me. He taught me spanish and I taught him english. The highlight was where we looked up his hometown in the lonely planet and I had to translate to him that his home was 'not interesting to tourists', and then promptly explain why it would say such a thing and that it was written by a few people.

We arrived into Lima with me having a 9 hour layover and Ben having 12. We met a very talkitive taxi driver named Ibarra, who showed us around the city at night, the historic center, the beach. We logged into a hostel, me for just 4 hours of sleep, before Ibarra came back and picked me up. We parked outside the airport and entered through the back entrance so that we wouldn't have to pay taxes.

We didn't see much of Lima, but I feel from what I saw, that I'm quite pleased with what I got. A 3am tour around the colonial center, impecably preserved, is about all I would want. It was strange to be at sea level though.