I meet my '10 day tour' group in Lima so decided to get here a day early and check out Peru's capital. Well what a shock to walk out of the terminal building to a dense cloud of smog, proper smog! The petrol octane rating here is far worse than our engines back home and consequently the runnish they churn out makes what would normally be a beautiful city a haze of smog. Nevertheless I checked into the hotel, only to read the various warning notices on the wall regarding how dodgy the city is . Sad and shocking though unfrotunately a sign of the times for a city so poor. Fortunately I meet a chappie from Sydney, staying in the same hotel as me, who was willing to show me around as he had some time to kill. There are two main central areas here which are fine historic buildings and are in such contrast to the rest of a pretty grotty city. However, the people seem friendly and so far day 1 has gone OK!
Next day was spent meeting the rest of my tour group, who are mainly english (girls) with an older canadian couple. They are all great. We had a quick city tour by our guide (it seemed as though I had missed a lot of places!) and in particular visited the Museum of the Spanish Inquisition. The evening was spent celebrating our peruvian tour leader's birthday by having drinks at his house (with his family...). Then 3 hours sleeo before we have to get up for our early morning flight for Cuzco.
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