Days 224 to 226 - Monday 1st to Wednesday 3rd May 2006

After waiting around in Arequipa for the whole day we caught an overnight bus to Lima. This bus began with such potential! Comfortable seats, decent legroom and right at the front. I was hoping after Bolivia and Peru for a decent bus to travel in comfort. Unfortunately as we left Lima and got into the country, this became yet another horrible journey.

As we got into the country it became obvious the driver was a maniac and he also liked to have the heating up very high. So therefore as we sat sweltering, we were also sweating as every bend we seemed to go up onto two wheels. Invariably at these bends we were also on the wrong side of the road as we were performing an overtaking manouvre. Not a very comfortable feeling when you are being thrown out of your seat every two minutes, and even less when heading around blind bends and seeing oncoming traffic directly in your path.

This was made all the worse as we were right at the front of the bus and had an excellent view of all the corners we were nearly not maing it around, as well as all the cars and trucks we were nearly hitting.

Given the difficulties of the heat and of remaining in our seats, sleep was hard to come by but eventually when the road straightened out I managed to drop off only to be woken at 6am by the steward putting on ‘The Princess Diaries’ at maximum volume for our viewing pleasure. With great luck we mananged to see all of that great film before we pulled into Lima bus station and took a taxi to the district of Barranco for our stay in the original and best of the Point Hostel chain.

After checking in an a bite to eat we set out to take a tour of the capital of Peru. We walked from our suburb district Barranco into Miraflores, passing the newly built apartment blocks overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Arriving in Miraflores I headed straight for the British Embassy to collect my Passport. In Cusco they had told me that I would be able to collect my Passport in 10 days. This being 11 days from that I was looking forward to recieiving the decent Birthday present of a shiny new Passport.

This being beaurocacy of the highest order, I wasn’t overly suprised when they told me it wasn’t ready and wouldn’t be for another day or two. I had planned on staying around in Lima for the weekend so it wasn’t really an inconvience at this point.

We had a wander around the Miraflores district before taking a taxi to the city centre. The main plaza was large but not as impressive as others in Peru, and the city streets were dirty and noisy. I liked it. We ended up wandering around the city for a good few hours looking at some of the buildings and other squares around. We stumbled into Chinatown where we had a decent feed for pennies, before going to an indoor market, Polvos Azules.

This is the market where all the stolen goods from Peru end up and it is pretty decent. All brand makes of every item you can think of from watches to laptop computers are on sale at really low prices. The stuff is a mixture of fake and real stuff but the fakes are generally pretty good. I bought a new bag to replace the one I had “misplaced’. After a decent browse we went back to the hostel and ended up in the attached bar, drinking until the wee hours before heading a club.

For this reason I woke a little fuzzy headed on the day 26 years after I entered the world. I had a quiet morning before treating myself to the national dish of Peru, Ceviche. This is a selection of raw seafood marinated in lime juice and peppers. Although I mistakenly ate one of the hottest chilli’s ever, the ceviche was delicious.

I spent the afternoon relaxing ready for a night out on the town. Much tequila was consumed in the Point bar befre we headed out to a club called El Dragon and had a few more beers. Compared to my last birthday when I was sat at a desk in Felixstowe, 26 beats 25 hands down!