Arrived in Peru

Got to Peru OK :) Am currently in Lima, staying in a hostel in the touristy area called Loki Hostel. It´s very friendly and full of young travelly people. Haven´t had any adventures yet, just been scoping out the area.

We managed to find a climbing centre 2 minutes away from the hostel. It´s mainly just bouldering routes with a couple of top ropes. If this gym was in England there is no way it would pass health and safety! Feared for our lives when top roping. Possible causes of death include swinging into the electrical wiring on the house opposite, or mixture of plywood and thin rusty walls failing on a fall. Plenty of mats though so np. Met a couple of scandinavian climbers there who we are planning to meet up with at a later date.

After we checked in to the hostel we went for a wander and some huge guy who calls himself "boo yah" showed us his tattoo parlour. Some really cool designs, am thinking of getting something done before leaving Peru.

Heading off to Cuzco in a couple of hours. This is a town in the mountains near Machu Picchu. Gonna do some trekking there and then maybe explore some more stuff in South Peru before heading up to Huaraz. Talking to people last night though there seems to be some road blocking going on which has stopped people travelling south. Locals have been barricading the roads!?! Maybe this is in the news but I have decided not to read any news for the entire trip.

Apart from the roadblocks we haven´t heard of any dodgy stuff. Folks who have been to Columbia, Venezuela etc seem to have only good things to say. I did wake up in the middle of the night to some English guy screaming at the top of his voice "IVE BEEN ROBBED!" for a good few minutes.

Spanish is terrible but not as bad as Reynolds´s. He´s been revising pick up lines from my phrasebook haha. More updates soon, adios :)