By the time our transfer to the airport arrives, we will have been in the hotel for only 13 hours. Our 1515 flight eventually left the ground at 1715, stopping at Arequipa on the way. Arequipa sits at the bottom of two massive snow capped mountains in the middle of what seems to be a desert. It is the stop-off point for Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world and the next stop for the rest of the group we left in Puno, although they were going by bus.

We are back at sea level now which would make it easier to breathe were it not for the additional oxygen being matched with additional levels of pollution. It was another interesting ride from the airport, with the driver at one stage requesting Sue to take her bag off her lap and put it out of sight. I had tried to give Lima a second chance, but my first impressions remain. Sorry to all the citizens of Lima.
The room in the hotel is huge and easily 3 times the size of the room we had on our first visit and features a king-size bed. However it is at the front of the hotel, above a busy intersection with only a thin pane of glass between us and the mobile cacophony. Diagonally opposite us is a modern looking office block belonging to a government ministry. Across the street we look down on the unfinished rooftop car park of a bank where a woman is doing her washing in a plastic tub. It is somewhat of a contrast.

I am sitting in a musty little room in our hotel. We were dropped here after a wild ride from the airport through some very depressing suburbs. Many of the building appeared fortified and several of the factories had what seemed to be guard towers on the top of their walls. The city seems much poorer than Santiago, it is very polluted and many of the taxi-bus vehicles are falling apart. The horn works in all of them though.
Our hotel is on a quiet (that is a relative term) back street but has a big iron grill door at the front which is opened by reception. Again it is a first impression, but it doesn’t seem to be a safe or inviting town. Sue says she doesn’t think I am a good traveller and I think she may be right. We were meant to meet our tour guide today for a pre tour meeting but we are the only two on the tour at this stage. We have been given instructions on how to get to the Amazon Jungle and after we are finished there, we will meet our tour guide in Cusco, (4 days into the tour). We must leave soon and go see the changing of the guards at 1200 at the end of the street.

The changing of the guards was a classic exhibition of pomp and ceremony. The military band stood just inside the iron barred fence, facing the palace and played various tunes, one of which was probably the National anthem and one which started the same way of the Rocky theme. The guards marched in a way where one knee was lifted high while the next step saw the leg kicked above the head. At one point they played “el condor pasa” and condors were released from the tower and circled the palace. Very impressive. I am wishing now that I had read a little more on the history and politics of the country before visiting.Everywhere you walk in town there are police, however it doesn’t make me feel safe, it makes it feel like a police state.
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