Peru Day one

Peru Blog- June 20^th,

      The first leg of the journey takes us from Toronto to Panama aboard a Copa Airlines B737. Luckily the flight is not overly full so we managed to grab an aisle and a window seat with no-one between us.

  Lunch, rather early, at 11am is a beef stew with gallo pinto ( rice and beans) – welcome to Latin America. Scotch, Rum and Red Wine are also on the menu, but we have many hours till our journey ends in Lima tonight, so tomato juice seemed a more sensible option.

  Sadly, the in flight movie is “Man on a Ledge”  Bad doesn’t even come close to describing it- the plot is thinner than Campbell’s chicken soup and the acting is as limp as the noodles within. I forgot my I-Pod in the car otherwise I could be watching some really classic drama- South Park- Season Six!!!!!!

The landing in Panama is smoother than a drive on the 401 and we spend a less than exciting 3 hours cruising the duty free shops before we board our connecting flight to Lima.

  The 3 and ½ hour flight takes us west over the Pacific and into a magnificent sunset before turning back towards land as we cross the equator, The flight then travels along the spine of the Andes veering out into the Pacific once more, just before landing in Lima.

  Clearing customs we grab our bags and head into the general airport area where it takes several minutes before we spot our driver amongst the dozens of sign holding taxi/limo drivers.

 The drive from the airport to the hotel takes a meandering route through densely packed main streets with drivers fighting for every inch. (Cutting people off seems to be a way of life) A zig-zag route west takes us from the dense city streets to a coastal highway which ­seems empty by comparison. Following this route for several km we arrive in the district of Miraflores, reaching our hotel shortly after 11, local time, a full 17 hours since our journey began.