Oppphhhh.... Today's been a bit stressy... Started up heading to the local hypermarket and buying a towel (left mine at home), but not without watching the France-Uruguay quarter final on one of the flat screen TVs for sale. Caught the rest of the game, before checking out and heading to the airport... The Viva Air queues to check onto the plane were probably the worst i've ever been in. It took about 40minutes. And I was far from the back. To make things wor...

I made my way out of the gringo trap of Huacachina (But not before a banana pancake breakfast) on a tuk tuk to the neighboring city of Ica. Ica is as monstrous as Lima. An earthquake flattened it 10 years ago and it's still recovering. It's a dodgy place heaving with traffic and stray dogs. Once I got to the centre I tried to get a taxi to the Bodega Tacama. The 1st taxi I came across had no idea what I was on about but luckily the 2nd had heard of this place. ...

Another lonnnng day... Thanks to my body clock being thrown by the time difference, I was up quite early at around 7, taking in the fumes and beeping horns of Lima's highways. Soon, I said goodbye to the 1900 Backpackers and made my way to the Cruz del Sur bus terminal. Cruz del Sur Is the largest and most prestigious Peruvian bus company - the Emirates of the Peruvian highway. Unfortunately, they're also a stickler for the rules. Officially you need your origi...

I made it to Lima! It was another 6 hour slog down the Pacific coast of Latin America to reach Lima, although luckily I had several Big Bang Theory episodes to get through. Entering Lima was a breeze, but getting my transfer was rather surreal. Because Lima's international airport is actually situated in the drug-trafficking centre of Callao - one of the largest ports in the Western Hemisphere - its generally best to get an airport transfer rather than trust on...

So it begins! Check-in went quite a bit smoother than last time. That was probably because mum wasn't there to steal my cabin baggage... Still had to put my bag in a special place though - Heathrow doesn't like bags with straps! Thanks to Dad's paranoia about Heathrow traffic jams I made it there before check-in had even opened, so had 4 hours to perouse the wondrous Heathrow Terminal 4! Better than being late I suppose... The flight however, went very quickly...