Lima is a city of contrast. There are smart areas with fine old buildings in the centre with smartly dressed well off people, then the outskirts are dirty, untidy areas with partly fallen down houses and extreem poverty.

As in many of the big south american cities the driving in Lima is crazy and you probably have to be a lunatic to get behind the wheel, there also seems to be a competition between drivers as to who can honk their horns the longest and loudest! Some roads don´t bother to have white lines on them as even when they are there no-one takes any notice of them. Our taxi driver one day was especially crazy, going in left hand lanes to turn right in front of a lorry, trying to squeeze into spaces there was no way he was going to get into and cutting up anyone who came anywhere near him!! We went to an area of the city called Miraflores and found a large arts and crafts market. There were lots of beautiful local paintings and handicrafts, not the usual rubbish souveniers you find. Unfortunately we couldn´t buy anything as we´d have to carry it around the world with us so we had to be content with a look around. In the evening we went out for dinner and came across a group of people protesting about something with banners etc. Very shortly we also met a large group of policemen with riot shields and huge cannisters of tear gas running in the direction of the protesters! By the time we finished our meal though all was peaceful so obviously nothing much came of it.

After departing Lima we headed for a boat trip to the Ballestas Islands. They have been nicknamed in the past as the ´poor mans Galapagos´ and certainaly they don´t have the variety of wildlife that the Galapagos Islands do or the rare species. They do however have a great concentration of wildlife in such a small area. We saw Peruvian Boobies, Pelicans, Sealions and penguins all in huge numbers and even some dolphins swimming alonside our boat. The air was often thick with birds and we had been warned to wear raincoats to protect ourselves from bird poo!