Return to Lima

Such a relief to have left a hot and sticky Iquitos. The hostel we stayed the last couple of nights was not good, although it did have cable TV for the girls, it was a tiny, noisy sauna.

The flight to Lima was the best flight I have taken. The plane was not that high so you could see all the jungle and the Amazon and it´s tributaries winding around. Then suddenly the jungle ends and flying over the Andes, the snowcapped mountains at times being alarmingly close! Seeing turquoise and emerald lakes, it all looked very beautiful.

Arriving in Lima not as good. We had decided to stay in the centre on Lima as it is cheaper by taxi and we want to go to the market tomorrow. The guide books say that Lima airport is dangerous and to only take the official taxis but we thought we knew better. I had seen how much the average price was to pay for the centre of Lima and we were sticking to that, all of the official taxi services were saying it was 10 soles more (in real terms $3.00) so we kept asking until a guy said he would take us for 20 soles. A couple of other taxi drivers were saying to not go with this guy as he was unsafe but we ignored them, thinking they were just touting for business. We left the airport and immediately the police tried to stop the taxi, the taxi driver sped up and nearly crashed straight into another car and then continued speeding. Jodie was yelling at him to stop, Mili was just yelling, I was bemused and didn´t know what was happening except I thought maybe he had gone over a light. The police chased after the speeding taxi and eventually overtook and did a u turn to stop the taxi, the police jumped out and the taxi driver was still trying to get away. Mili was screaming for us to get out which I was ignoring as we were in the middle of a motorway. Anyway a police man jumped in the taxi when he saw us in there and tried to get the keys off the guy and they were fighting. Mili was screaming to get out and I was screaming at her to be quiet and it all turned into an American TV cop series. Eventually the keys were taken off the guy and the police got us out and found us another taxi, telling the driver that he was going to ring the hotel in half an hour to make sure we arrived safely. I was very upset that just for saving a bit of money I had put us in a very dangerous situation... maybe he was going to rob us, maybe worse, or maybe he was just an illegal taxi driver who would have delivered us safely, I´m not sure. We were very lucky that none of them used guns. I think we had all become a bit nonchalent to dangers around us, so I just have to think it is a good thing it happened just to heighten awareness and luckily we are all safe and live to tell the tale!

The centre of Lima is actually pretty nice, wonderful architecture and lots of huge buildings... a bit like London. We are about 5 minutes from the main square. The hostel is like a museum, it is jam packed with paintings and artifacts and enormous. Girls obviously hate it and think it is a cemetery, as there are huge Roman busts everywhere (there are a few skulls in reception!)
I think it is amazing!

Have had a really bad throat last couple of days, am hoping it goes by itself without having to find a doctor.

An early night tonight in a lot cooler Lima (about 20 degrees, so much more manageable!)