Lima

We left Cuzco by plane. After paying the airtport tax (which all seems like such a dodgy operation to me) our flight was full and slightly delayed, but uneventful.

We arrived in Lima and prepaid our cab. We had decided to spend some of the budget surplus we had made by not booking the right dates in Aguas Calientes by staying in a posh place in Lima. We stayed in the Hotel COuntry Club Lima. Very Nice. Fizzy pop on checkin!

Checking-in, Wiseman style

We did almost nothing except read, eat and sleep on the first day. It was lovely.

Also, by some miracle, the computer screen, which had gone so wrong in the Bolivian Altiplano - seemed to have magically fixed itself. Amazing.

The self-fixing computer

Day two in Lima found us unwilling to brave the sights, so we decided instead to go to the posh shopping complex in Miraflores.

We had a USofA day. Burger King; Shrek 3; 10 pin bowling and then KFC to steel us for our overnight bus trip north to Trujillo. It was heaven.

I bought some Peruvian music and we headed to the Marriott (across the street) to get a posh taxi to pick up our luggage and take us to the bus.

We had booked our favourite sets with Liz (from Cuzco) and, after dodging some ladies of the night and working out how to check in to the bus (video cameras, bag searches - the works) we set off.

We had our usual seats, however they appeared to be slightly differently configured, as my legs barely had room to turn. Ho Hum. The bus did have wi-fi though - how bizarre.

Technology update

Remember I mentioned the cold? Our first night in Villa Mar wa so cold that T and I watched a DVD to keep our minds occupied. When we went to bed, the laptop was OK. When we got up, it had a problem. I presume that the cold at night froze some dodgy LCD pixels:

Oops

It is getting better though - four days later:

Bad, but better

Post #99 - the "Pooh Pot"

Warning - do not read whilst eating

Ick.

Nothing to do with A.A.Milne, the "Pooh Pot" is someting that we've had to come to terms with everywhere on our travels except in 5 star western hotels and Buenos Aires.

I'd been to Mexico once before and seen signs in a couple of public toilets asking one not to put paper in the WC, but in the bin provided. I'd half assumed, but mostly hoped that they meant the hand-drying towels. They didn't.

It is the norm here to place all paper products in a little bin that is placed beside the toilet; thus only allowing strictly organic waste to be flushed away with the water.

This means that there is a little bin in each and every toilet that is full of used toilet paper.

I'll be honest, it took quite a while to actually start to do this. For the first few days I was strictly in denial. Somehow it seemed quite appropriate in Guatemala (it is, after all, a 3rd world country) and so I gradually overcame 40 years of indoctrination and started to go native. However, it doesn't feel right.

BsAs, which probably has a sewer system (like their railway system) designed by the British, offered a brief - and welcome - return to the natural order of things. But Argentinian hostels and Chile has brought us back to earth with a bump.

I hope our ferry is a Pooh Pot free zone.