The Sharmagoo Odyssey

Hello People

So we´re out of Lima, the land of the constantly beeping taxis (trust me, they beep to see if you want a ride, when dropping someone off, when changing lanes, when letting someone in, when berating someone, and i´m convinced sometimes just for the love of beeping ). Nice place, if not a little too polluted for my liking.

After a 16 hour bus ride (only made bearable by the fantastic cinematic experience of ´The Peaceful Warrior´(*ahem) and Peruvian Bingo (all in Spanish, of which we only know numbers 1 to 10...we didn´t win)) we´ve landed in Arequipa. Great place, full of character and fewer taxis!

We´ve tried the local cuisine of Osterich Carpaccio and Alpaca burger (Sue was opposed to me eating Alpaca to start with until i told her they were responsibly for thousands of Peruvian deaths every year...vicious i tell thee, just look at the photo! Giving the Alpaca death stare)

One more day here and then another bus ride to Cusco to prepare for the Inca Trail. Sue is trying to get me to have a Peruvian haircut...i´m less convinced though

Gotta go now, already spent 10p on internet access!
Sharm

Afternoon all!

Firstly, apologies for any random puntuation in this post...the Peruvian keyboard is a little different to ours¿`Ñ

Our journey over was relatively uneventful, apart from being adopted in transit by a rather mad old Peruvian lady with stripy rainbow coloured socks - we named her Mildred as it seemed to suit her. She latched onto us as we were the only other people she could find heading for the Madrid-Lima flight and she wasn´t sure where she was going...quite why she thought we knew I'm not too sure but she followed us nonetheless, all the while jabbering at us in loud fast flowing Spanish despite being told by an air hostess that we had no idea what she was saying-Bradders, she's obviously been to your school of speaking to foreigners!

We arrived in Lima and were met by a chap called Fermin who was to take us to our hotel....what's one of the first things we saw? A Manpower office...something for you v- sorts to bear in mind should you fancy a change of scenery!!

The hotel we're in is absolutely beautiful-amazing works of art everywhere and stunning views across the pacific...not strictly what you could call backpacking, and sadly I don't think our budget will allow us to stay in places like that all the way around, but it's a nice start after 15 odd hours of travelling!

Day one in Lima took us to the centre which is full of beautiful old buildings such as the presidential palace and the San Francisco church and monestary. The walk between the two is where we saw the dog wearing a coat, hat and glasses. Actual glasses too, not even sun glasses...most bizarre.

We spent the day strolling around before heading back to the district called Miraflores and from there we walked along the coast back to Barranco where we're staying. All in all a lovely start to the trip! The Peruvians are all very frindly, even if they do drive like people possessed....makes Parisian driving look like something Miss Daisy might be involved in!

And that's about all I have time for right now - Sharm will be here with the next installment soon

Love to all,
Magoo xx

It's upon us. Tomorrow we embark on 113 days of traveling around the world, and I really can't wait! However, after 10 months of planning I still didn't realise we'd have to be up at 5am tomorrow to catch our flight, I've bought most of my gear today, and in two nights time we have nowhere to stay and little idea of where we're going next! Awesome.

So, first stop Lima, a city that I have in my head as being a cross being 3rd world poverty and modern day consumerism. I bet I'm wrong on both fronts, but then what's new? Luckily Sue has managed to wangle us emergency exit seats for the flights over, and for those that know us I'm sure you'll agree we need the leg room!

But I won't bore you with too much detail, I'm sure we'll be able to keep you posted by the magic invention of the World Wide Web. Hopefully you'll manage to stay in touch with us for the time we're away, and please write back, it'll give us something to do after we're bored with each other

Sharm

31 hours and 45 minutes to go....