Lima, Peru - part I

weeeh.. I'm here :) Arrived in Lima last night (Friday the 22nd of June) at 12... plane was late for more than an hour and the plane ride was VERY bumpy. at the airport there was the usual long line for the customs+immigration and then about 20 minute wait for the luggage. at the airport maria (from cs) was nicely waiting for me... now when i think of it i'm not sure how would have i managed to get to the hotel otherwise... there are all kinds of warning signs about travelers safety and how we should only use the transportation provided by the airport. well anyways, maria's friend gave me a ride to the hotel. apparently my hotel is not in the nicest part of the town.. the streets looked a bit deserted yes :) and the room is not very modern to say the least... but, there were no bugs found at the first inspection round conducted by me so i'm fine with it.

set an alarm for myself at 10:30 in the morning.. looked out of the 11th floor window where my room is located.. well... i'll post some pictures later (hopefully) so you will see the ghetto as well :) and the air is even worse than in Bangkok.. the sun does not shine even in the morning here :( i guess some of it is because of the ocean as well, but i can feel the pollution too... not much air to breathe around here. anyhoo.. after taking a shower i walked downstairs, exchanged some money, wrote down the address of my hotel so that i can make it back here later on and took a cab to maria's place who i was meeting at 1pm. exchanged some travelers cheques and went through quite a trouble to buy a phone card... ugh it is difficult when you don't speak the language. but now i have 2 phone cards (one for only land phones and the other for land phones and for mobiles) and one mobile phone :)

my number is 933 09 115 .. i can send 500 SMS's for free and call to CLARO customers/land phones in Peru for 99 sols :) YAY i'll try to SMS to some of you (i think i only wrote down my brothers phone number though)

ok.. so i have spent the whole day with maria who has been taking me around in Lima. first we went to Miraflores where we had nice lunch and now we are in the center of Lima by the cathedral and presidents residence. my hotel is close by here as well.

tomorrow morning i will take a plane to cuzco. i'll try to post more from there... depending on how badly i suffer from altitude sickness. tomorrow is a huge festival there so i'm not sure what is open at all... and as i hear then Cameron Diaz will be in Cuzco for the festival as well :)

ok.. we will be moving on now. all the best to all of you :)!!!