Buses, sickness and getting lost.

I spent the past couple of days navigating the bus system, getting lost, and getting sick.  Buses in Lima are insane, they basically fill the roads and its almost impossible to understand where they are going.  Plus I swear all the buses were built for people half my height, they are so small.  I basically stood by the side of the road asking each bus that came by if it went to where I wanted to go and waited until they said yes.  On the buses people are constantly getting on trying to sell you things.  You could pretty much buy anything you wanted in Lima from a street vendor, and apparently La Paz in Bolivia is even crazier.  Then I tried to buy a bus ticket to go down the coast which was incredibly complicated due to my lack of Spanish.  After several attempts by the salesperson I finally figured out that I had to buy a ticket the day of the bus, they wouldnt sell me one before.  Central Lima was interesting though, it is full of old Spanish buildings that are now either very run down or have been renovated into modern shopping centers – it seems a bit odd.  Then at the main Plaza de Armas I watched some kind of procession and had an awesome and super cheap tour of the catacombs.  Then back to my hostel where I suddenly started feeling really sick.  I had read about how food in Peru often makes tourists sick because of bacteria that they usually arent used to.  It was pretty crappy to get sick on my second day here though.  I dont think I will eat chicken again for the next 4 months.  Being sick meant that I spent today sleeping in the hostel, and am going to go down the coast tomorrow to Arequipa, skipping one of my initial destinations.  Im excited to go to Arequipa though because from there I can finally do some trekking, which is really what I wanted to do in Peru.

First day in Lima

My first day in Lima was pretty low-key.  When I arrived last night my roomates had just come back from a late night excursion to the local supermarket to buy the wierdest fruits they could find.  We then had a feast of various Peruvian fruits, which were described as various things including melons, brains, pumpkins, monkey brains, tart and acid tasting.  It was really nice to arrive and have some friendly people to share a room with.  Unfortunately they all left today, and the hostel is pretty empty so I spent the day wandering around Miraflores where I am staying, which is a suburb of Lima.  Lima is not the nicest city, which is why I´m only spending a couple of days here.  It is in a constant haze of pollution and humidity, but the ocean is nice so I spent most of the day there talking to people trying to sell me surfind and para-gliding lessons and wandering my neighbourhood.  The evening was really fun though because I came across a local outdoor theatre where there was a huge crowd of locals watching performances.  It seemed as if anybody could jump up and perform if they wanted to, and it was entertaining even though I couldn´t understand a word.  Now I have to decide what to do in the next couple of days because the next city I was going to was apparently hit badly by an earthquake last year, so I have to figure out where to go next.

Arrived!

I have arrived in Lima safe and sound after an amazing send off at the airport (thanks to jason, kyra, rob and jas).  I´m sharing a room with an australian guy, french girl and japanese guy – we laughed about the fact that none of us are even from the same continent.  They have all travelled all over south america and were giving me lots of advice about the places I am planning on visiting.  Just a short post for today as I am pretty tired so it´s time for bed.