So we have made it to the captial of Peru - Lima - and we are pleased to report that the buses have got considerably better (we´ve just got off of one where we were actually laid flat), wine actually exists again and we recognise some of the food.

We arrived on Thursday morning to a foggy Lima. A friend of Madeleine´s Mum had offered to put us up so first thing on the agenda was getting to her apartment - no mean feat as the taxi driver appeared to be looking to us for directions. But it was worth it when we got there - Sonia was incredibly kind to us, and we had the luxury of a hot shower, sofa, tv, kitchen, fridge - all those home comforts we´ve been missing.

That afternoon we caught a combi into Miraflores - the city´s modern area full of restaurants and cafes and bustling with people. From there we went on a tour of the city, stopping at the Cathedral on the Plaza de Armas for a tour, including the crypt where there is a collection of skulls and bones of previous priests. We also saw the presidential palace with it´s brightly-dressed guards outside, the justice palace, the art museum and many of Lima´s parks.

On Friday we completely failed to do anything in the morning - laying in until 10 and not getting out of the aprtment until 2 - it was bliss! When we did finally get out we headed up to Pachacamac - an ancient citadel on the outskirts of Lima that is thought to have first developed in 100AD, with various cultures adding to it right up until the Incas in the 15th Century. The bits that had been excavated and reconstructed were fascinating - and it was slightly eerie being in this derelict citadel in the middle of the desert. Until, that is, you turn the corner and see the coast and the modern day developments there.

This morning we had breakfast with some of Madeleine´s Mum´s old school friends, which was fun. There was a disappointing shortage of embarrassing stories but it was nice to meet them all and there was plenty of laughter around the table.

And this afternoon we have mainly been sorting out transport plans. The original plan was to head south and then east across to Puno and then enter Bolivia around the southern edge of Lake Titicaca. But protestors have shut the border crossing and have now taken over the city of Puno, so we are now going to head to Arequipa (stopping at Nazca for the lines) and then Cuzco before getting a flight to La Paz (in Bolivia). At least that´s the plan - after the palava (hmm, is that how you spell it?) we had in the travel agency trying to book the flight who knows?

Anyway, after that, and the Champions League final, we had time to squeeze in another visit to the Plaza de Armas and a trip to the Monastery of San Fransisco where we had a guided tour around the museum and catacombs - which are full of the bones of an estimated 25,000 people - morbidly fascinating. And then back to the apartment to grab our stuff and say goodbye to Sonia before catching the night bus to Nazca.

Oh, and sorry, no photos as the connection here is ridiculously slow and threatened to take 104 mins to upload them! Be ready for lots of bad Nazca lines pictures in the next couple of days though.