Peru

After exhausting flights via Madrid and Caracas we finally reached the capital of Peru, Lima, a 12 million megahub, the second largest desert city on earth.

Welcomed by the local mayor we enjoyed a free pisco drink (really strong stuff!!) on Plaza de Armas. We are also attracting attention as tall white "gringos".

The three of us ontop of Museo de la Nacion (which is full of precolombian art and fotos of recent history including Sendero Luminoso, etc - fantastic) plus view of smoggy Lima.

The cliffs of Miraflores by night, a truly magnificent coastline.

After an one hour busride through the favelas we ended in the desert around Lima watching the Pachacamac ruins.

Let's get it on

Today months of planning finally reach an end. At 19:30 we will leave Vienna and fly to Madrid, where we will spend the night. Our hotel is pretty close to the airport, nontheless we are planning to go to Plaza Mayor to enjoy the atmosphere, have dinner and possibly some cervezitas :-D

On Saturday the next flight will take us over the ocean to Caracas, Venezuela, where we have a connection flight to our final destination, Lima. We will arrive there close to midnight; luckily our hostel provides a pick up service, so we are optimistic that we will successfully show up at the "casa de mochilero" ('mochilero' means backpacker). This hostel is located in the modern and pulsating district of Miraflores.

So...the tension keeps on rising! Next entry probably on Sunday (note the time zone difference in Lima: GMT -5)

Con saludos cordiales, maxphilmark