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 Chinese fast food place. Oops!

We semi-redeemed ourselves that night, going to a local place on Parque Kennedy. The park is a bustling place but it's not "Gringo central", as Lonely Planet said.

We fully redeemed ourselves the next day. After spending about 3 hours looking around Barranco for a food festival that didn't exist (even the tourist office had said it was on), we hit a restaurant full of locals called La Canta Rana (the singing frog).

Barranco was also where we had scores of giggling school kids shouting "Hello Gringo" at us. It's weird, even middle aged people pass us on the street and say "Gringo". Nothing else, just "Gringo". Sean, if you think you're going to be different then dream on.

We've also been to Central Lima, the older part of the city. That was on Sunday, so there was a fiesta on. A procession of dancers and statues were pouring out of the Cathedral and around the Plaza de Armas. It was kind of like the procession in the Godfather Part II, but without the pinning money to Mary part. And no one died.

That night we also managed to go to a nightclub. It being Sunday, most of them were closed, including the one we were sent to first. Three taxi rides and an hour or so later we got to a place with about 6 other people in it - our group of 12 or so quickly livened things up. Two bottles of rum might have also had something to do with it.

The weather is crap, but still a better winter than Ireland. It's been permanently overcast since we got here, with a small bit of misty rain. No sun yet, but Callanan still managed to get a bit burnt. Importantly, it's warm enough to wear shorts, so he gets to flash the calves.

The Copa America is on too, although the matches have been boring enough. Peru played yesterday and drew, against Uruguay.

This is our last day in Lima. Were getting an 8 hour overnight bus tonight, heading north to Trujillo. We were trying to decide between which of Trujillo and Chiclayo to visit, so we just decided to both. Well probably spend two days in each, then onto Mancora.