Population: 15 million Area: 283,560 square km (3 times bigger than Ireland) Currency: US Dollar (€0.69) Timezone: GMT -6 hours Capital: Quito Population of Quito: 1.5 million

We left Lima on a gruelling overnight bus. My legs are not made for this - even with the semi-cama space. It was 8ish hours to Trujillo, then we tried to get a combi (local bus) to Huanchaco but failed so haggled a taxi instead. Huanchaco is a sleepy surfing town about 15 minutes outside of busy, dusty Trujillo city. It being the off season for beaches, the town is quiet enough. At night we had trouble finding a place to watch the Copa America. I think we found ...

We've managed to cover most of the bases over the last few days - sightseeing, clubbing, walking, beach, shopping malls. On the first day, we got our first glimpse of the trip of the Pacific Ocean, at Playa Costa Verde. The waves are good enough to surf, and there's a couple of schools down there. After that we found ourselves in a shopping mall, called LarcoMar. We were starving and our culture levels took a nose dive when we got lunch from Burger King and a C...

Well, we made it. After over 26 hours of travelling we arrived at the hostel in Lima. Of course, our room isn't ready for another 7 hours, but we didn't realise that would happen until Heathrow. It was a clever moment. So were currently crashing in the hostel reception with about 6 others who appear to have the same problem. First impressions of Peru, even though it's still dark, are as expected. The areas we drove through in the taxi were mixed between old an...

Population: 29.5 million Area: 1.3 million square km (15 times bigger than Ireland) Currency: Nuevo Sol (€0.25) Timezone: GMT -6 hours Capital: Lima Population of Lima: 7.6 million