As far as South American cities go, Lima has the worst reputation outside of Bogota. Liz and I planned to leave almost as soon as we arrived. We were surprised to find that it wasn't nearly so bad as it's made out to be. Although it is necessary to take a cab at night, the town center was lively and attractive, with lots of beautiful colonial buildings and quiet cafes. There was even a Chinatown!

    The bus ride to Lima ranks among the most frustrating journeys of this trip. Thanks to the driver's insane need to stop at every drink stand and truck stop on the highway, what was supposed to be a 14-hour journey mushroomed into 18. To be fair, it wasn't entirely his fault -- we were also delayed by a flat tire and no fewer than 5 drug raids, one of which turned up 10 suspiciously non-descript ownerless bags. When we finally arrived in Lima and secured a taxi, our driver plowed into an ambulance (which was fortunately empty). Neither car could have been going faster than 10 miles per hour, but the fender fell off our taxi anyway. We sat in the car for 10 minutes waiting for the driver to tie it back on. I couldn't see so much as a scratch on the ambulance, but apparently the driver felt it was damaged beacuse he followed us through the traffic, tailgating all the way. Finally our driver pulled over, gave the angry ambulance man $3, and we were on our way. Unfortunately, our hostel of choice turned out to be more expensive than expected, so we were soon in another taxi headed to another hostel. Two and a half hours later, sweaty and frustrated beyond belief, we arrived. It turned out our cabby knew absolutely nothing about downtown Lima and spent hours driving in circles around the main square, looking for our hotel. If Liz hadn't spotted it, who knows how long we might have been trapped in that taxi?

    The next day, we slept in and then met Liz's friend Rosie. Rosie's family showed us amazing hospitatility. By the time we left her massive house, we were full of chicken, spaghetti, chocolate, Kool-Aid, lemonade, and cake. Her old but spry grandmother had given us a salsa-dancing demonstration and even taught us a few steps. That night, we went to the grocery store. A real grocery store -- the first I'd seen since I left Chile weeks ago. I wanted to skip through the aisles laughing with glee, but I confined myself to buying my favorite brand of Chinese dumplings. They were the best dinner I'd had in a long time.

    Although we liked Lima more than expected, we weren't dying to stick around. That night, we were on a bus bound to Trujillo, one of the largest cities in Peru and capital of 3 pre-Incan empires.

~Meredith