Day 30: Huancayo/Lima and family

I slept fairly badly, so I was quite glad when my alarm finally went off. I threw my last few things in my suitcase, then took my stuff downstairs and waited for Juliana. She arrived at 7am - it was hard saying bye to Hilda and Yesy, who's been like family for the last 3 and a half weeks. Then Juliana and I got in a taxi, and arrived ten minutes later at the street corner where the cars to Lima were. There was one leaving in two minutes' time, so we put my stuff in, then I said bye to Juliana - she'd been a mix of friend and aunt to me, so that was hard too. Then the car was full (two men, two women - I sat between the other woman and the door), and we set off.

This journey was slightly more eventful - as we drove through the mountains, when we reached 3800m above sea level, I got hit by altitude sickness. So... on the plus side, the view at that height was wonderful. On the minus side, we had to stop for a few minutes so my stomach could leave its mark on the roadside. One of the other passengers got me some herbs to smell, that helped a bit, and the driver cleaned me up with an alcoholic rag (I briefly wondered if the line of 'appropriate contact' was blurred here, but by this point I was past caring), then he gave me a bag to throw up in and we carried on.

Five hours and three more throw-ups after leaving Huancayo, we pulled up in Lima. Tio Alejandro was there to meet me - one of Tio Mañuco's workers drove us back to the house. It was lovely seeing the family again, and seeing Tia Silvia and Annabelle, who'd come over from London. After a wonderful shower (Hilda's 'hot water' was very temperamental, and more often than not was cold - Mamamama's shower was amazingly warm), we ate lunch - Tio Alejandro and Yessica had brought over pollo a la brasa for me. Then I stayed with Mamamama for the rest of the afternoon.

In the evening, Tia Silvia took me and Annabelle out to Lima - we took the city bus tour, that was a wonderful three hours seeing the sights of Lima by night. We stopped off for a snack in the Hotel Sheraton, I felt rather posh! Then we carried on our tour, which included walking over a bridge without breathing so that your wish would come true, driving past the Palace of Justice, and seeing the sea. I had a wonderful time. Then we went back - Abuelo was waiting for us, and invited us for panetonne. I was quite hungry so I had a little, then went straight to bed.