After over 30 hours of travelling, we reached our Airbnb yesterday evening. Feeling absolutely shattered and a little bewildered, we were very glad to find our apartment was as luxurious as listed, and we even had the sea views as promised…

As you would expect, upon arrival, Tom’s priority was to find and buy food so we quickly Googled ‘grocery shop’ and found the promising-sounding ‘Co-operativa’ just down the road. We stepped out and turned down the street alongside our apartment. The buildings here were a mix of compound-type buildings with wide gateways leading into yards, and one- and two-storey homes. Some of these were very similar to houses you would expect to see on the outskirts of Spanish cities, but many looked almost unfinished, with metal rods sticking upright out of the top of walls, or with small wooden shacks built precariously on top. Every now and again, it also looked like a building was missing, with gaps between them and sometimes with a pile of rubble sitting beneath.

Reaching the co-operativa, we found what looked like a covered market with lots of little stalls inside. We bypassed the ferreterías (shops which sell everything you never knew you needed) and found a little greengrocers where we could stock up on some of the essentials. We spent around £4 on food which would make dinner and breakfast for both of us for two days.

Today, we decided to join a free walking tour around Lima (Inkan Milky Way). Our guide, Pepe, was very knowledgeable about Peruvian history and taught us about the three different periods of Lima history. As you would expect, he pointed out some gorgeous buildings, including the train station-library-orphanage. We’re both still slightly confused by that one, but there’s a picture below! We started at the Plaza de Armas de Lima which is enclosed by the cathedral, the presidential palace (currently occupied by a Polish president), the Archbishop’s Palace, the Municipal Palace and the Club of the Union and ended at the Basilica de San Francisco.

After our walking tour, we stopped for lunch. As it was our first meal out, we treated ourselves to Pisco Sours and an Inkan Cola before devouring a lomo saltado (absolutely delicious) and a chicharrón de cerdo (average). We then wandered the streets of Lima before hailing a taxi back to the apartment.

The driving in Lima is somewhat erratic, with regular and long honking and beeping to signal that the person in front of you is where you want to be. Lanes seem to be a suggestion rather than a rule, so although there may be four lanes to a road, it’s not uncommon to have five cars abreast. Between vehicles, vendors wander with their wares trying to sell drinks, snacks, souvenirs, towels and everything else you can imagine. In a bid to practise our Spanish, we struck up conversation with our driver. Things seemed to be going well and we had established that yes, Rooney was a football player in England, when our driver veered off the road and into a fuel station without warning. He promptly parked up and then came around to open the door with a friendly smile on his face and the instruction to get out of the car. More than a little confused and concerned, we complied, holding tightly on to our bags. Turns out there’s a rule which says that attendants can’t pump gas with passengers in the car. We didn’t ask, but are both glad that it happened with a taxi driver who we knew wasn’t particularly hostile towards very white, British tourists!

Day one: success!