A perfect 8 hours flight bring us to Lima. Since we were arriving after midnight we arranged to be picked up at the airport by a taxi from the hotel. As first thing we want to get some cash at the arrival hall. I approach a bank, which says they are not exchanging, I need to go to the exchange booth. All right, I go there and they say they take only cash…there is an ATM just on the side where I can get some dollars which I can then exchange. Excuse me??? I’m in Peru and I should get dollars from the ATM (+fee) to be changed 10 cm away from another fee? No thank you. As we get out I see a guy holding a “Lara Ferrighi” board, which makes me laugh and an ATM which gives a maximum of 400 soles (which is about 130 dollars).

Just 20 minutes later we reach the hotel in the nice quarter of Miraflores, right on the coast. The ride is spectacular, but the smelly sea is taking over all senses. We have time to overpay the taxi driver in the excitement of being there and done. We set the clock ahead by 2 hours and go to sleep since we are meeting our personal guide at 10.30. Juan Carlos (it: Carlo) guided Valentina when she was here and was really valuable to us. A great guide and a funny guy! Thanks Vale! So after chatting a little bit we take a taxi to the Museo de la Nacion where they have an exposition of pictures taken during the Internal Conflict (1980-2000).The collection is touching as well as the history of terror which closely resembles the war against the mafia in Italy in the 80s. After a quick taxi ride through the extremely crowded outskirts of Lima we get into the central part of town, around Plaza de Armas. Walking around is actually relatively pleasant, but still hot! We visit the Museum of Gastronomy where we can appreciate a Peruvian version of the Last Supper, where the main course is a guinea pig.

The last stop in town is to visit the Monasterio de San Francesco where under the church there are some perfectly conserved catacombs. They still bury Franciscan munks there nowadays.
The desert begins just outside Lima, and the houses are therefore built as close as possible to town, even if they have to climb up the dry mountain.
On our way back to Miraflores we stop at the colonial quarter of Barranco. Here it feels like being in a quite small city with a great view of the ocean.
So peaceful, but still very hot. I and Andreas are shiny like mirrors. Drinking liters of water every day, is just helping us to keep going!
Before leaving Carlos we stop for a beer at Miraflores to say good bye to him and get to a small restaurant for some food before the fudbol clasico: Chile-Peru. Tomorrow we will continue to Paracas, few hours south of Lima.