Upon hearing that the bus from Huaraz to Lima was about 8 hours long we decided that it wasn't worth spending a day over, thus the overnight bus. Just before boarding we grabbed some street food. This was the first time we'd done this and for some reason I was fascinated by it. It was fried chicken and chips and it was actually pretty good. They had a wheelable stand that had a frier in. With 5 s/. less in my pocket (£1.25) I had been filled with some good food.
After being approached by seemingly every Peruvian bus company trying to sell us tickets on their bus we managed to get one for only 15 s/. each (£3.75) for the trip. In hindsight I wish we'd have asked more questions about the bus as it turned into a bus from hell (the fires of hell). This bus had zero air conditioning. As a result of this and the 50 breathing (most of them at least) Peruvians, every single window on the bus was filled with condensation from the sublime heat. It was roasting. But you couldn't open the window if you were going above a certain speed though as the sound would be horrendous. I spent half of the night trying to tactically open the window at the right times to provide enough cold air to keep me from melting. As a result of my services to the members of the bus I barely slept... again. We ended up arriving in Lima at 5am (the bus only took 6.5 hours instead of 8). Normally a bus arriving early is a great thing and you can get on with your day. This was not one of those times. We had informed our host that we'd be arriving sometime around 8am. This still gave us three hours to kill in the dark morning light. Thankfully we found a cafe with relative ease and stayed there for about an hour and a half watching the same news cycle go round and round. This involved a traffic accident and a robbery of a hairdressers featuring heavily. After becoming part of the furniture in the cafe we decided to leave and find new pastures. At one of the plazas we found ourselves a friendly cat to keep us company until it hit around 8am.
Despite arriving at about 9am to the accommodation we still managed to wake up our host. We had been warned of his friendly dog. This dog is awesome. No amount of patting is enough for this dog. Perfect antidote for a lack of Charles.
After a nap we decided to explore and see what Peru's capital city had to offer. We wanted to see the sea and get to the beach. Maps had told us that it was just beyond one fence. We saw a few people duck underneath the flimsy fence and head down a sandbank and onto the beach. Thus we thought it would be a great idea to follow...
It wasn't a great idea. So it turned out that area was pretty much a building site and we were essentially trespassing. We had a chat with one of the workers who was very friendly and told us where to go and to be careful. We eventually made it out, being careful to avoid the locals rummaging in the rubbish for spare metals.
After escaping this area and finding our way onto the proper beach we sat down on the rocks and watched as the waves crashed onto the beach in awe of it's power whilst throwing rocks at it. This was until we were interrupted by a security guard on a 4x4 who told us that we were in a dangerous area and had to move (not again). We moved about 100 yards down the beach to where he said it was acceptable.
After wandering the streets of Lima for a while and getting to grips with yet another new place, we found ourselves a fresh juice cafe at the back of a market. I went for melon and papaya mix, Emma went for cocana and pineapple mix. We thought that it would be just the one glass each for the combined 10 s/. but the friendly owner gave us each a small jug. I must have had about half a melon and this easily constituted my dinner. All that was left was to find some churros for dessert. This was found to Emma's delight.
An interesting first day in Lima. It's very odd for a capital city. It doesn't feel overly imposing. More exploring tomorrow.
