Miraflores

Driving through a capital city is never fun, but Lima wasn't as bad as most. There's a lot of money knocking around here and my tactic of pulling out in front of expensive cars worked a treat.

New tyres were high on our list, as we'd been waiting for cheaper Peru then we delayed until we'd got past all the dirt roads, so we went straight to tyre street. After a couple of hours we managed to get some new rubber for Elvis. We drove to Miraflores, which is one of the wealthiest districts and the sort of place we normally avoid, but there was a hostel there which provided the only non-parking lot option in the city and bizarrely it wasn't much different in price. It was a really nice place, with space for 4 rigs and it was full after we arrived.

Despite not having a flat for 30,000 miles we had one the next morning, so it was back through the traffic to get it sorted. They ended up changing the tyre for a new one, and then the valve after that. Nothing is ever easy on the road! But it was all done in good humor and no extra charges.

The following day I headed to a nearby street full or car part stores looking for replacements for our noisy ball joints that had given up the ghost after all the rough roads. I came close (but no cigar), although they did recommend another area full of part stores that would 'definitely' have it. The next day, after 3 hours and more than 40 stores I gave up and ordered them from the states. They promised 6 business days, but we know that doesn't mean much when you are relying on foreign postal services.

We spent the next week enjoying being in a modern, clean and safe city. We found the nearby 'strip' and enjoyed watching the football, rugby (although obviously this actually wasn't very enjoyable) and eating proper fish & chips (twice). Unfortunately the all-you-can-eat curry house was a bit disappointing, but I still got my money's worth (I didn't eat again for nearly 24 hours!).

The coast was gorgeous, with parks lining the cliff edges, and we made more use of the bikes than we'd ever done before. Maya got a lot of funny looks when she got tired of running alongside and we put her in the basket on the back of my bike. There was a dog park 3 minutes walk away, and she loved haring around with new friends. One day we were there and there was a huge dog fight (planes, not dogs!) in the bay, with ultra modern jets booming past only a few hundred feet away and dropping decoy flares against imaginary misses. I've never seen, or heard, anything quite like it.

Beyond just general exploring we didn't do an awful lot, but we did visit Museo del Larco, which was an incredible collection of pottery from all the pre-hispanic cultures in Peru and beyond. It was really well arranged and helped you place all the different cultures, geographies and chronology. I find it particularly interesting when you realise a lot of it is pre-Roman. The explicit pottery section was particularly eye opening! Jo also visited the Mario Testino gallery, a famous Peruvian photographer most known for his portraits of Diana, her last official photographs.

The one thing that made the biggest difference to our stay was the INCREDIBLE supermarkets. We could get a mirad of different types of fresh breads, European cheeses, pate and all sorts of good stuff. Granted it wasn't cheap, but after so long on the road you willingly pay decent coin for treats like this. On the last day we hunted down the famous beef heart skewers, that I thought were delicious but Jo needed some convincing!

We got a bit excited when we knew our parts had made it to Lima, but we didn't expect customs to take 5 days to clear them, but eventually (after 2 weeks) we got our hands on them and high-tailed it out of the city.Read more