We arrived at Lion backpackers shortly after midnight and said goodbye and wished the other Peru Hoppers all the best on their ventures, all but Christina who was stopping in the same hostel as us. Drama struck me straight away as I couldn't find my passport to check-in. My thoughts went back to packing my back at 5.20am in Arequipa drunk. I hadn't needed my documentation since then and the last time I had spotted it was on my bed there, surely I had packed it hadn't I? Would Wild Rover still have it if I had forgot it, on the outside I played it down and was calm but inside my mind was racing with possibilities, could I get a new one, would I have to go home and finish my travels prematurely. It raced through my mind as I ascended the small thin winding staircase to our room and all through the night. I wanted to empty my bags straight away but at 1am I thought that would be unfair on the others sleeping so waited until the morning where I found it right of the bottom of my rucksack. I could have not have been more relieved.

After the traditional bread and jam breakfast accompanied with Peach juice, the worse kid of juice in my opinion we set out a plan for the day. First stop would be an internet café so Christina could print some documents, then it was to Peru Hop headquarters so we could give the some feedback and also pick up a free t-shirt you got for going with them. It was red and had on the front Eat, Sleep, Hop, Repeat. I was pretty sure I would never wear it, but it was a good reminded of the journey. Christina then needed to go to LAN Airways to enquire about changing her flight and then it was time for the main event of the day we were off to Gamara market. It would be here we would try a toad smoothie. On our way to the toad smoothie stand there was various weird happenings, street roulette, and a guy with two lizards and a python in his suitcase. It was a weird market and full of hustle and bustle. We decided to cut to the chase and ask where we could find the Jug de Rana (toad juice) and after a bit of charades, google translate and bad Spanish a woman took us to one of the many stores that sold the Peruvian delicacy. Once again the idea of doing this cultural eating came from the program of Hamish and Andy and they didn't make it sound pleasant. If you are a big into animal rights or a bit squeamish you may be best to start reading again a few paragraphs down because as we ordered two small toad smoothies the chap pulled out a toad, smacked his head against the sink two sickening blows and then skinned the frog alive. To make sure the frog was dead before going in the blender he boiled it in some sort of soup. This was then added to the blender along with quail eggs, water, honey and various spices. This was then sieved leaving a green not very pleasant smelling juice. With Christina filming the whole proceedings we counted to three and chugged the green fluid. The taste was one I could not compare to you, but to give you some sort of idea of the drink the texture was similar to warm gone-off milk. Despite it being drained in my drink especially it was fairly bitty. But on the plus side the toad smoothie was an aphrodisiac and as the man behind the counter put it, good for an erection and sex. It was just a shame I didn't have a lady friend to test out the theory. With the toad in the hole so to speak we were off on our next adventure - guinea pig racing. Once again it came from Hamish and Andy and is simple where a guinea pig is in a box spun around and then enters a box from 1 to 12 at random, if it picks your box you win. It sounded fun but despite traipsing through the market for the best part of an hour we failed to find the rodent sport. Putting that disappointment behind us we decided to go to the beach. We decided on a taxi instead of messing around with buses and metro's and Juan with his Ferrari seats offered us a good price. What should have been a simple thirty minute journey ended up being a two hour tour of Lima and instead of going south Juan for soe reason thought we wanted to go North, maybe to Colombia as he was saying that a lot and we were on the North American highway. After eventually realising we were heading the wrong way we corrected Juan and headed back. He soon got pissed off though as we ran into the mass amounts of Lima traffic and then as we were close to the beach hit a blocked off road. With the road blocked we and the sun setting we decided to head closer to the hotel where we could get some food, angering Juan again with our change of plans. I did my best to keep Juan happy with my singing and dancing and think I did a reasonable job, and it was only our guilt that we gave him ten extra soles for his troubles. I eventually stopped my pizza craving with a trip to Pizza Hut and then it was back to the hostel. Unlike most hostels we had been staying lately the hostel was quite. Very quiet infact there was only Earl and myself downstairs watching rubbish Peruvian TV we couldn't understand and me having writer's block on my blog's.

If you were to stay in Lima I'd definitely say to stay away from Lion backpackers. Many things contribute to this, the horrible winding staircase, the fact it's dead, the average age of people in the hostel must be about 54 and most of all there obsession with giving out peach juice for breakfast in the morning. Use Orange, or apple, or pineapple, or strawberry. Anything but peach! We already decided to check-out after I made the peach juice discovery as we wanted to be closer to the bus terminal so after booking our bus to Mancora for the following day we checked into our new hostel called the 1900. It was much better than The Lion Backpackers but still not the best. Lunch consisted of the Lima's popular street food papa y huevo, this basically translates to Potatoes and egg, it was very god for only two soles, but didn't fill me so got a hamburger for two soles from the stand next door all of this was washed down with a fresh orange juice. With my appetite for now fulfilled we made our way to San Francisco Church. The church is stunning; there is a great collection of Colonial Art in Latin America. The library emits a musty smell cognisant of its history and age. The 25kg books made from lamb skin pages and wooden covers are very impressive. But the highlight is the underground Crypts known as the Catacombs. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed in the crypts where people religiously buried their dead in a public tomb beneath the earth. "Ashes to ashes dust to dust" became all too real as we saw the bones of the dead stacked systematically upon each other in the catacombs beneath the city of Lima and it was interesting and eerie at the same time. The one other thing that struck me was that it would be a dog's heaven down in the crypts with the amount of bones down there.

After a short siesta we met Christina and went to the Magic Water Circuit in Lima. The Magic Water Circuit is a collection of water features / fountains. It's been well documented through these blogs that I have a soft spot for water features, and to prove this point I turned down a big football game at the National stadium between Sporting Cristal and Universitario to go the water park. With the football stadium next door to the park is was a constant reminder of my loss of man points by visiting the water fountain park but to be fair I was still childlike in the park, much like when I'm at a zoo, or Christmas morning. The fountains you could run through dodging water I would do along with the kids raging between 4 and 15, the tunnel I had much fun trying to stick my head through the sides and the rest of the fountains were a great spectacle. The park also puts on a show with lasers and the main fountain, to me they could do with modernising the show a little more but I'm just nit picking. Its class and everyone who visits Lima should go. The only problem is, is that is only open Wednesday to Sunday so make sure you don't go to Lima on a Monday or Tuesday or you will miss out on the best thing to do there. And if you have doubts about my suggestions of its brilliance Christina wasn't sure at first but during the walk around I heard say things like "Wow", "This is Amazing", "Adi, I will never doubt you again" the last one may or may not be true.

After the amazing water fountain park we said our farewell's to Christina who was going to catch a flight to Buenos Aires and we headed off for some food, chicken soup as usual followed by spicy chicken and rice. We were then off back to the hostel where we chilled knowing there was much madness to come at our next stop - Mancora.

So until next time stay safe and take care

Adi

xx