SOUTH AMERICA - OUR LAST CONTINENT!!! Destination 16 - Peru & and the arrival of mum and Ian! That morning after our last slop of refried beans and 4 hour earlier than most arrival at the airport we checked into our Taca plane, only a small plane but I got front seats, phew! Valiumed up we had a good flight, Ads got lots of free beer so that's always a good sign and as we flew towards Peru the sunset was just amazing it was as if hot red lava was floating in the sky! Coming in over the city we were astounded at the size of it; it spread for miles into the distance and reminded me of our arrival in LA. Coming out of the airport the man with a large sign with our name on it was kindly waiting and soon we were being whisked through the city towards our hotel in the safer more touristy area of Miraflores. Ads managed to chat with the driver in Spanish about football of all things and we learned that in Peru, Beckham is not liked but Michael Owen is the man... The city wasn't up to much really, grey and rather drab with most areas that the driver travelled through he kindly told us not to go there! Security was rife around all the houses and in many ways it was like being back in Guatemala City.... Soon we had reached the coast and zoomed along towards our hotel, which on arrival was luxury for us, thanks Ian and Mum! Expecting banners, balloons, cake etc.. for our arrival as mum and Ian had already been exploring the Amazon for a few days, we were told that our 'arrival party' was out to dinner... boo, I was so excited about seeing them but there were no where to be seen! Eventually mum and Ian arrived, having unfortunately not got our e-mail about our cancelled flights and early arrival, gob smacked to see us waving from the hotel room; it was big hugs all round then a few beers from the local shop to celebrate! It was so good to see them and we couldn't believe that 5 months had passed already since we last had; time is just flying now.... The next day we wandered around Miraflores, it was an ok place, very touristy with a posh mall and no reflection really of Peru but we found a Starbucks so mum and I were very content and spent most of the day catching up. That eve was our 'welcome meeting' for our 5 week Kumuka trip to Santiago and on meeting the rest of the group, just like our Nepal trip, we liked everyone immediately and could see that it was going to be lots of fun! Phew, a group can really make the trip and we knew straight away that we were with a good bunch. Mixed ages (mum was chuffed as she wasn't to be the oldest!), the Irish dominated not the ozzies this time including an Irish girl Carrol, an Irish couple Teresa and Cieran and 2 mad Irish guys, Barry and Tom. Bizarrely on walking into the group, Teresa and Cieran were actually Barry's parents neighbours but had no idea that the other was on the trip, a pretty unbelievable consequence to say the least! Then we had Bo a Kiwi/ozzie guy and Bylinda our ozzie tour leader who seemed a real scream and lots of fun. The rest of the group we were due to meet tomorrow and on hearing about them, they all sounded very mad so we could see the trip was going to be crazy....... That eve we all got to know each other some more in a local café place, it was good to know no one else had trained for Machu Pichu either!, then crashed to bed ready for the 'official day start' of the trip tomorrow. Day 2 - Lima City Tour Bilynda had arranged for taxi's for us all into the centre so soon we were bundling ourselves into the heapest of heap cars with our driver comfortably surrounded by an iron cage which reflected the safety of the place....not! On racing through the streets, Tom had noticed that our taxi actually had flat tyres so it was a good start to the day and a good introduction to local transport!! The driver was suitably nuts, there seemed to be no adherence to sticking to the lane lines on the road or even going in the direction of the white arrows either, thank god all of us were pro's after Nepal and India and hence didn't scream too much at the near misses... In the centre we then headed off for our city tour suitably lead by yours truly.... Me!!! Well I was cheaper than the 25 dollar tour you could too, the only difference was I was rubbish! The city centre itself is actually surprisingly really nice, lots of ancient colonial coloured temples, buildings and beautiful squares lined with restaurants, we were pleasantly surprised. Many temples later we ended up by the river and the view across the city was quite a different story completely, coloured shacks and slums lining the hill which overlooked the city highlighted the poverty here and soon we would see a lot more... Heading into the main square dominated by tuk tuks, small yellow battered taxis running round, the beautiful cathedral and tanks for protection!! we ended up finding a great set menu for all of 7 soles, this basically consisted of a starter, main and the electric iridescent yellow 'Inca Cola' for just over a pound, result! Mum had meat soup which had a pasta/water consistency with a lump of meat floating in it which after saying it looked like a piece of hedgehog, she couldn't eat for laughing so much....as long as it wasn't guinea pig!! Ads, mum and Ian then went exploring the catacombs/tunnels under temple San Francisco which I pleasantly declined and sat in the small square watching the millions of pigeons flying round, all you needed was 2 huge stone lions and it was like being back in Trafalgar Square! We then bumped into Carrol, Teresa and Cieran for cappuccino, watched the rather funky 'changing of the guards ala John Travolta' style then headed back to meet the rest of the group and have our first Kumuka trip meal! The last 5 to join us were fab, a lovely ozzie couple Jody and Mal who like us had been travelling for a fair few months (across America on a Harley!), another Ozzie guy John, a totally crazy cool Columbian girl called Luiza (who at her arrival meeting produced the rather large knife she carries with her!) and a wicked American couple Robert & Aggy who at over 70 have more energy than all of us put together!! Back into the mad crazy taxi's it was, this time with my face almost pinned to the windscreen in first class back to Miraflores for dinner. Some of the group then went salsa dancing but for us it was back to the hotel for a few beers (cup of tea for me and mum!) and to bed. Unfortunately at 3am in the morning on the way home, the salsa dancing party animals passed a guy who had just been killed near the hotel, nice!Think it might be time to leave Lima now.......