It was my first day waking up in a hostel and to be honest it was very easy but I suppose that was the jet lag. Kate and I went upstairs to get our breakfast which was delicious- banana, bread, jam, butter and a chocolate pancake! However, it was pretty carb heavy so the next day I passed on the pancake. Some guy approached us asking if we wanted to do the walking tour but we were so tired we decided to skip and walk around ourselves. Since doing the walking tour the next day I think our walk was way longer! We walked around Miraflores along the coast which reminded me of California (not that I’ve been). Everyone was running, playing tennis or working out. We learnt and definitely observed that Miraflores is a very wealthy place so we definitely started our backpacking flashpacking, especially with our 15 sol local beer ! After we decided to go sort out the Peruvian hop to take us from Lima to la Paz in Bolivia, which I am sitting on now writing this! It cost about $219 which I thought was fine as I could use the $100 my dad gave me but the women rejected them as they weren’t perfect which was annoying. Therefore, the Peru hop fork out left me feeling a bit dry but I think I need to start getting my head around big expenditures and exchange rates as they have to be done.

Our next plan of action was to find food which proved more of a challenge than anticipated. I think it was more because we have no clue how much should be paying food wise here. In my head I imagined food for £1-£2 but this isn’t the case especially in affluent Miraflores. We ended up in a market which reminded me of borough market, perhaps because it seemed familiar. I ordered ceviche with rice (paella rice) which was absolutely delicious! Full and happy we returned to the hostel where we sat down with two girls – Hope (from Manchester) and Stephanie (American). A little bit weird but Stephanie reminded me so much of my aunt Erin it was uncanny apart from the age difference! They were super nice and then we were joined by Ellie (a solo American traveller), we meet Ellie again tomorrow. Ellie was travelling the world for a year or so “until she ran out of money!” We all sat down and drank huachina pale ale (pale ale is a huge thing here) which was yum but very strong 6.8% so I was pretty drunk after the one! Our new friends decided to stay in the hostel for the BBQ but we decided to go and get an Uber to Barranco for some yummy burritos. The burritos were delicious I got carneria with every filling but I struggled to eat it all as it dripped all over me. After dinner we decided to walk around and we ended up getting a drink but I don’t think we enjoyed it that much as were both still pretty jetlagged.

Day 2 in Lima we got up early had our breakfast and went off on the Lima walking tour even though our Australian roomy said it was crap. Personally, I thought it was great but it did make me realise I need to invest in a hat! Funny story – when the Spanish colonised Peru they wanted a statue of a woman with a flame (can’t remember the exact person) but llama (a flame) in Peruvian is the animal so the statue is pretty funny. Another thing that was great about the tour was getting the public bus which fully immersed us in Peruvian culture! At the end of the tour our guide Clara asked us if we wanted to leave downtown Lima and get taken out to Miraflores which we decided against as we were mesmerised by how much cheaper the lunch was here. Ellie from yesterday and an Australian girl Bridget joined us for lunch and we all got the menu del dia for 8.50sols which is £1.94! Ellie and Bridget then left to go seen the catacombs but we were pretty tired so decided to head back to the bus station which we could not find. This was probably the first big problem kate and I have encountered- our lack of common sense as we should of asked the tour guide how we got back. It was fine though as I started jumping up and down when I saw two people from our tour who seemed to be having markedly less trouble locating the station. The next thing was the whole palaver with the bus ticket, so it turns out they have an Oyster card system. Getting off the bus and finding our hostel was our second issue! You see kate and I were advised to not get our phones out so we’ve returned to olden age and use maps. Ultimately we fell back on our proven method of stalking a splinter group from our tour – thankfully they had a little more initiative than us.

The evening was nice and chill we just stayed in the bar after a nice nap and tried our first ever Pisco sours. Pisco sours is delicious however I got a bit carried away and now I have a headache. Maia (turns out Martha is not her name) and Alex (both from our room) joined us for some drinks. Alex and Maia are both doctors and were spending their whole time together so we thought they were falling in love – turns out Alex is gay. While I was napping, kate was drinking so we had to go get her some drunk food from this sandwich place everyone was recommending. Believe me South American culture is so slow I think it took 30minutes for her to get it! Kate ordered a ‘mixta’ sandwhich neither of us new what it was, maybe a bit of everything? But it turned out to be a ham and cheese toastie for 11 sols.

The next morning began with a early rise to get the Peru hop to paracas. One thing I’ve noticed about kate is she easily panics and has this panicked face which I find very funny which probably isn’t particularly beneficial to the situation! We were told the bus was picking us up at 10:30 and when we got to the reception it was 10:25 and were told the bus was there. Kate suddenly gets into a frenzy and again I didn’t help by telling her to “chill”… I think these will be the only times that we clash.