Entries about lima

One of the big concerns people have about travelling alone is whether you'll make friends; everyone says you will but you always hope it will be true for you. In the first few days of my trip I met a bunch of interesting people, spent a morning or an afternoon with them and then we've all gone down our respective roads. So here's a little about my trip so far, told through the people I've met.

Some of you will be unsurprised to know that I made plane friends: on flight one - Heathrow to São Paulo - I made friends with the Czech girl living in London who was nervously on her first long haul flight. Having broken up with her boyfriend before moving to London she is finally living her dream to travel, both living in another country and seeing the world outside of Europe. It got very deep, in the only way it can at 3am when you've both seen several films already and can't sleep. We said goodbye at international transfers when she went to find her connection to Buenos Aires.

On flight two - São Paulo to Lima - my Peruvian neighbour helped me with my landing cards. I practised some Spanish, learnt about his family and his relatively new commitment to the Seventh Day Adventist church and at the end of the flight we said our farewells and he wished me a good trip and off I went. After many hours of flying, and some heart to hearts, I was on my way.

I was met by a hostel taxi driver and delivered to my hostel in Miraflores, Lima. The hostel was quiet when I arrived so I spent the afternoon wandering to the Miraflores beach front and exploring generally. When I got back to the hostel I had been planning to visit El Parque de Agua, but somehow found myself going with two new friends to the stadium to try and get tickets for the Peru-Chile World Cup qualifying match. Turns out the park with all the fountains is right by the stadium, so I managed to see some of the lit up fountains. Hopefully I'll visit on my return to Lima.

We managed to get tickets, and so we found ourselves in a long queue to get in. It turns out you're not allowed to wear a belt in the stadium (I hate to imagine what used to happen when they let belts in...), so off came mine. This proved interesting when we proceeded to run to find some seats (you get tickets for an area and have to find seats there). We ended up with great seats in the northern stand, made friends with the Peruvian families around us, high fiving after Peru scored, joining (/attempting to join) in with the uni varsity rugby match style chants and generally having a jolly good time. It wasn't what I'd planned but it was definitely fun!

The next day involved a walking tour of the older Central Lima. About a 20 minute bus journey away, it feels like a different city. More colonial buildings, more culture, it's a calmer place than Miraflores. I ended up having lunch with five German girls from the tour, four of whom were vegetarian, so we found a veggie place to eat.

And that was Lima. I enjoyed my visit but was happy to be on my way to Huanchaco, where I'll be based for a while. The bus journey to Trujillo is mostly through mountainous desert with a few towns along the way. With it being over 8 hours long I was glad for the comfy seats and plane style refreshments they bring. I had two seats to myself so I spread out, watched the films, and enjoyed the views (and slept...).

At Trujillo bus station, I was met by Johannie, the Otra Cosa volunteer coordinator and Jorge, my host for the next two months and brought me here to Huanchaco. I met my new housemates and some of the volunteers that evening and some more on Friday at the volunteers lunch. I'm looking forward to getting to know the local people here, the other volunteers and exploring northern Peru.