Peru is the last country on this trip - bringing me closer to the final destination of London. Here I met my sister for another walking trip, like Nepal. The flight from Hawaii, to San Francisco, to Houston, to Lima was long long LONG! After being in Oz, New Zealand and the United States, South America was a welcome return to crazyness, though on a lesser scale to Asia. I jumped in a sunshine taxi, windows down, latino music blaring from the tinny speakers - I soon remembered that I needed to brush up on my Spanish. My sister had booked a hotel for just one night. We were to fly to Cusco the next day to begin the Inca trail.
The flight to Cusco was delayed, by at least 4 hours. We sat in the small, busy airport and sampled the local beers. I also tried ceviche, a Peruvian dish of raw fish marinated in citrus juice and served mixed with chilli - very very tasty, if a little harsh on the stomach. Eventually the weather clears and we're loaded onto a little plane, with posh cream seats, that's only 3/4 full. The flight's bumpy due to the turbulent cloud over the mountains. It's so bumpy that if not for the seat belts our heads would be bouncing off the roof. We're given cute little Peruvian airlines boxes containing lunch. The landing's great - skirting under the clouds and around the hills, then down valleys before landing. I could feel the altitude and cold as soon as we're off the plane - at the back of my head was a little concern about altitude sickness - flying straight to 3400m - but we felt fine. Maybe being at 5000m in Nepal five months before, or 4000m in Hawaii one month before had helped.
