It only took a few days in Lima to realise these next few months in South America are going to be amazing. We are overwhelmed with how friendly, open and hassle free the Peruvians are, particularly for a capital city! After familiarising ourselves with a few practicalities and necesaria espaṅol we are now on an overnight bus to Cusco and the heart of Peru.

By now we're pretty good at getting by in countries where English isn't the first language, but we were caught unprepared by the overall limited English spoken by locals even in the tourist industry. We shouldn't have been surprised, but English was barely spoken at all on our El Salvadorian flight, by our taxi driver into Lima or by the hostel staff. Even most of the guests at our hostel seemed to be from Spanish speaking countries, or at least know a lot more than us! We have since been doing some lessons on the laptop, and fortunately some of it is starting to stick. At least it's a little easier to pick up than Mandarin or Hebrew!

Our initial entrance into South America was amusingly pathetic and has proved a steep learning curve. We encountered our first complication at the LA airport when our connecting flight company, TACA, refused to let us board until we produced an ongoing ticket out of Peru. As we planned to travel from Peru into Bolivia overland, this proved a little inconvenient. TACA refused to help us book anything other than a flight with their company but assured us that 'this happens all the time' and if we book a refundable ticket, they will refund all but $50. With the plane nearly boarding, we gave in and booked a flight but couldn't help feel that the whole system was pretty ridiculous. Ah, the joys of crossing international borders!

Our second complication was trying to find a hostel in Lima. Being low season in a tourist destination we wrongly presumed that we didn't need to book a hostel as there would be plenty of options and hagglers waiting for us... What we didn't take into account was that we arrive at four in the morning, and people in South America generally seem to be more organised and into pre-booking... Luckily our taxi driver was very patient and happened to know a few contacts and after five failed attempts, managed to find us a room! It seems that it pays to pre-book sometimes over here!

We spent our time in Lima adjusting to the tropical heat, learning Spanish and practicing it with the waitresses as we ordered the cheap and satisfying 'Menu del Dia' at a sample of local restaurants. We also got vaccinated for Yellow Fever (a requirement for some South American countries) at a nice, clean 'Laboratorio Clinica'.

Lima, and particularly the suburb of Miraflores where we stayed, was a pleasant, fun-loving, family-friendly city to wander about. We enjoyed meandering up and down as we checked out the beachfront shops, the central market and gardens and everything in-between. We satisfied our stomaches and minds with a very rewarding visit to the Chocolate Museum. This little place was a combination museum, artesian chocolate factory and cafe. The friendly staff (who spoke English!) explained to us all about the Cacao industry in the tropical developing nations of the world, and how the fermented and dried beans are exported to all the richer, more developed nations of the world. They made everything from cacao tea to a variety of deliciously natural chocolate bars and flavoured liqueurs in-house, not for profit or export but purely to demonstrate the process. We were inspired to try pretty much everything they produced, and think we might even attempt to grow our own cacao tree one day and make our own!

Lima was a good initiation, and it looks like the next few months in this continent will be full of surprises. We thought we would spoil ourselves and book the luxury bus from Lima to Cusco, considering it is a 22 hour bus ride, and so far it looks more comfortable than most of the airplanes we've been on! So in comfort and much anticipation we are starting to wind our way up the mountains to the historical city of Cusco.