Bonjour les amis !After 2 days of transit in Lima, we’ve just arrived in Ecuador where we’ll stay for 3 weeks. Time to give you a good update, particularly since Andy is currently in bed trying to recover from a stomach bug AND a serious sun stroke ... it’s only Day 3.... .

He discovered that a shaved head, although very convenient for travelling, makes you very vulnerable when you spend the day under the sun without a hat. All that without mentioning the state of his feet covered in blisters (whose picture I have of course taken and will post onto the website, as soon as I understand how that works). Thats about it for my strong & adventurous traveller of a boyfriend !!! :) But to reassure his mum, not to worry, he sees the funny side of it and remains in good spirits !!

Now, what about Lima .... Colours, smells, colours, noise, colours, frantic traffic, colours... Our hotel was in the old historical centre, which has quantity of churches & old spanish colonial houses. Most of those colonial houses have been restored and turned into museums and they´re simply breathtakingly beautiful. Painted in bright colours, they´re often built in a square shape with a fresh, airy patio at the centre and huge wooden balconies stunningly carved . The historical centre is the main tourist attraction of Lima and it is contained between 2 huges squares : Plaza Mayor, where you can find the Lima cathedral and the palace of the Gobierno (which is where the Peruvian presidente lives) and Plaza San Martin, which his a huge place surrounded by stunning white buildings of French influence . On this place you can also find the very expensive Hotel Bolivar where are served the best Pisco Sour in town. Pisco Sour is the most famous Peruvian cocktail . It is a mix of the alcohol pisco (haven’t found out what alcohol that is), egg white, sugar canne, lemon and probably something else. One word : delicious !

We went there after our first day of exploring Lima. Exhausted and still stunned by the time difference, the alcohol went straight to our heads and after only half a glass we were feeling incredibly drunk and giggly ...that is the moment a Peruvian TV journalist chose to enter the bar, making a documentary about Pisco Sour. She clearly zoomed on the only 2 tourists there to ask their opinion on this national beverage ! Andy, drunk and not speaking Spanish could only beam at her and myself as drunk and blinded by the camera light could only master a "that tastes nice"....... So much for meaningful cultural exchanges...

As for what else is to be visited in Lima, well there isn’t much really... The old historical centre is pretty much the main attraction. Kind of surprising for a city of 11m inhabitants. Outside this centre, it´s simply streets after streets, where people simply live and where they don’t recommend tourists should stroll. At no point we have felt at risk, but we´ve been amazed by the amount of police, guards, security and army who are posted at each street corner. In some richer neighborhoods outside Lima, all the house are surrounded by barbwires and most streets have their own private guards heavily armed. There is clearly a lot of poverty around and from some parts of the city you can spot far away the shanty towns that grow on the hills surrounding Lima. Surprisingly there are not many beggars in the streets but many kids working (waxing shoes, selling sweets...etc). But again, no one is hassling you, as soon as you say no with a smile they immediately back off. And if anything most people are simply keen on chatting with you to understand where you come from and what you’re doing here.

Before leaving yesterday we also went to Miraflores, which is a town near Lima by the Pacific, where the guides recommend you stay when visiting Lima because it´s safer and that’s where you can find all the restaurants and nightlife. As soon as we arrived we knew we wanted to leave. Nothing authentic. Tourist trap. Rich Peruvian community leaving there. The only thing worth doing is taking a stroll down to the beach up to the pier to dip your feet in the Pacific and then get out of here as quickly as you can....

Thats pretty much it for our update. Most of you will have stopped reading by down. I´ll try to download our pictures if I can so you can visualise what the hell we´re talking about above if you didn´t have the energy to read this journal ! Next update probably won´t be within the next 2 weeks. We´re leaving to go sailing in the Galapagos Islands in 2 days and after that it is direction the Amazonian forest .

You all take care !! Lots of love Andy and Soph