We woke up at around 4am... wide awake! Our body clocks all over the shop!
We did manage to go back to sleep again at around 5.30am and woke up about 8.30am. So we did almost have 12 hours sleep!

We both had showers, I washed my hair and realised I'd forgotten my hairdryer... great! I have a hair towel wrap so that's going to have to do for the trip! Hopefully the sun will dry it in most places, don't know how I will fair off in Cuzco if it's raining though?

We went for breakfast around 9am; juice, teas, bread rolls, butter and jam. A standard breakfast around the world it seems, in hostels and hotels that we stop in anyways.


It was cloudy and we had just come from -5 degrees, the weather forecast wasn't hot so we didn't put sun cream on.... (to be continued).


We went downstairs asked the receptionist how to get about and what to see, he pointed us in the direction of the metro bus and the Downtown area.

We were expecting it to be difficult to get about, but we weren't ready to pay through the nose for a taxi just yet so we decided on trying the bus, it wasn't what we were expecting! There was a whole platform for it, a metro card system to get in which we had to top up with 2.50p/s for the two of us per time we rode the bus. It even had to own lanes with snazzy yellow pavements either side. We jumped on and took the bus to 'Colenma' stop where the Downtown area was that the receptionist recommended.

We walked around and found a lovely little square, with some gorgeous old buildings and lots of pretty flower beds everywhere! It was obviously a symbolic place but to us it was just a lovely peaceful and pretty area! We walked up the street the guy told us to go up, it had mainly clothes shops at the beginning with a few lovely cathedrals a little further up.

We strolled into the plaza de Armas square, it had some incredible yellow buildings and a lovely atmosphere. There was a huge cathedral at one end and the presidents house the other side which looked like the Buckingham Palace of Lima. There were loads of fire engines parked up around the square and what we thought must have been a funeral for a service man but after a while we were not so sure, maybe just a Sunday service?

They were all lined up outside for ages stood in heat - they must have been boiling!
It was lovely to see it all though and a brass band outside the steps all dressed in white! We were a little nervous to go inside but when we did sneak around the door we couldn't see any coffin so we don't know what it was all about.


We experimented with the cameras and the different modes on them, in between being the main attraction to a bunch of school kids asking us to answer some questions for them whilst being video recorded to help with their English studies, we didn't mind at first but this happened at least Four times with the both of us and it wasn't a fast process. When we quickly made an escape we walked up the presidents building and listened to the marching band going around the courtyard, they were opening up the big windows, I'm guessing for the president to sit on show to all the people.

We walked out of the square, came across a lovely looking courtyard with 'happy Hour' on its boards. Well... it would have been rude not to so we went in had a spot of lunch and of course a beer! Scott found the football, turns out they're obsessed with it! ...great!

After two beers and some traditional meals, ceviche - fish dish (raw Tuna I think) in milk, banana crisps, sweet potatoes which was delicious! Scott had lomo saltado - beef stirfy cooked in soy with rice.

We noticed some music and funny masked people dancing down the street around the courtyard so we went and had a nose! They were very strange looking people! But funny as hell to watch dance and make a funny gruffle noises.

Turns out when we were stood on the metro waiting for the bus we bumped into a tour guide and he told us that the festival was in so many words carried out to take the mick out of the Spanish that invaded them years ago and how they overcome them. It's all a little strange!

(Continuing with the weather update) ...s*** its hot!! And boy do we know, standing on the bus stop we have all of a sudden realised that we are looking slightly blush colour. At this point it was hot - bloody hot! And we were feeling it, by the looks of our noses, we were part of Santa's gang! Scott had his t**t tan going on with a very perfectly oval shaped tan on his neck, I also had a bit of a t**t tan with y bra straps and perfectly round chest tan! Great start to the holiday lol, Scott is in a little pain with his neck so we decided to not go to the beach today and head back to the hotel instead, it was 4pm by the time we got back anyways and we were meeting at 6pm so we just chilled and I had a nap.

We met in the lounge area at 6pm, 5 were still arriving, Scott was one of two boys. With 7 of us being girls!
Renzo is our tour guide, he seems really nice along with all the others! His name is Italian and wants us to pronounce it with a rolling 'r' hehe! He's funny!

He ironed out the know fact that pedestrians are 'not respected' here and cars don't really like to stop at crossings and read lights, makes perfect sense of what we have seen already! Haha.
Also, toilet paper. We have to put it in the bin next to the toilet - whoops! Praying we don't have an over flowing toilet tonight that's not going to be pretty!!
The only place in South America that you can flush toilet paper down the toilet is Quito airport, that's crazy!

We did a meet and greet, everyone spoke their names and broke the ice. After the briefing we all went for dinner together and tried a local dish of chicken and chips (Peru is the maker of Nando's) only this chicken tastes better and is way way cheaper! It's called 'POLLO A LA BRASA'
We went to a place called Rokys, the salsa band that we playing had stamina, that's all I can say! They were loud and in full force the entire time we were in there! They did not stop!

Because the football had been on they had run out of beers, meaning we had to settle for water and Coca Cola.. not good, not good at all!

Absolutely shattered again, so after food we all went back to the hotel. We were meeting at midday tomorrow so we had a little time in the morning to sight see.

Me and Scott were asleep by 9.30pm again! What is wronged with us...

Looking forward to beginning the tour tomorrow!!