Bye Bye South America

And so we reach our final destination in South America, and complete our coast to coast organised tour.

Lima Suburbs

You'll be relieved to read that this is just a short entry because we only had one evening/night in Lima before leaving the continent and setting off on the next stage of our journey.

Lima's a big sprawling city that is home to 45% of Peru's population and most of its wealth. It is usually shrouded in coastal mist 9 months a year, but when we arrived in late afternoon, the sky was pale blue and there was a weak sun struggling to warm us with its rays. We took advantage of the weather and walked from our hotel down to the beach.

Pacific Coast

Coming into Lima on the bus we passed miles of outlying shanty town-like suburbs, but the area we stayed in was a residential leafy area with mock-tudor houses, big hotels and expensive restaurants. The beach front development had the exact feel of Brighton Marina so we felt quite at home. We had a snack overlooking the beach - the grey sea and brown pebbles continuing the Brighton theme - then we played some air hockey and arcade games. It was great! It was also about the extent of our short sanitised Lima experience.

Refusing to give up on her trusty walking boots which you may recall got annihilated in the sand dunes, Angie sent them off to be mended in Lima. They were in a really bad state with the soles almost completely detached from the uppers, the leather peeling away and the insoles unravelling. Three hours and 6 quid later they were returned to her from the grave, all glued, stitched and polished.

In the evening we had a slap up goodbye meal with our tour group and ended up in an English style pub on 'gringo alley'. Here we learnt that an Aussie guy (srangely absent from the last supper) that had been part of the group for 3 weeks and who we had found negative, rude and arrogant, had been disliked by most of the rest of the group as well, but no one had talked about it. Nice to know we weren't in a minority after all. We bade our goodbyes to the rest of the group (we'd became particularly fond of the two Canadian grannies) and got 3 hours sleep before heading to the airport.

We're really looking forward to travelling independently and at our own pace again. Being on an organised tour certainly takes the stress out of sussing out transport and finding a room, but that is replaced by the 'stress' of having to hold chirpy conversations with people you don't really have much in common with!

We've seen so much diversity in South America in terms of people, culture, landscape and wildlife. It's difficult to hold it all in our heads at once, but highlights have got to be: close up encounters with all creatures great, small, furry, feathery and scaly; witnessing the power of Iguassu falls; the preciseness and order of Inca ruins; seeing snow-capped sky-scraping Andean mountains and volcanoes; sunning ourselves on tropical Brazilian beaches; and sharing in the energy and resilience of the Latin American people. It can also be a frustrating and dirty place to travel, but the rewards always seem to be just around the corner from the disappointments.