Lima, Tuesday

1227 Got up about 1045, felt bit disoriented. Left hotel about 1145, left bag. Walking into centre unless I spot a bus, will prob get bus back - problem is knowing which intersection or place to ask for, on way back I can say Angamos or Parque Kennedy. Tis OK, quite enjoying walk. In restaurant for lunch. Since obviously need safety margin re bus, will probably go to DC for half chicken and chips on returning to Miraflores this evening.

It occurs to me, not for first time, I am hardly eating any bread. Not counting choripan other day, can't remember last time - few/no cheap restaurants in Peru give it to you. Not saying this is bad or good re health (FFS, I wouldn't even dare to try making such a call) but I just kind of miss it. Could buy some in supermarket but it's not the same, I'd have to faff buying butter or margarine and generally it would be inconvenient and/or crap. Tis OK. If none crosses my path, it is at least another small home comfort to compensate for the looming return to the UK and ('hopefully') work.

1313 Food pretty good, have lingered a bit but also a bit slow to get bill. Tis OK, it's not as if any particular touristic sight is a massive draw so I'm not in an enormous rush, but still.

1317 Bill 18.50, pretty good, make it 21. Place is La Casa Verde de San Isidro, Arequipa 2795. Let's go.

1909 At Don Corleone's. Walked both ways. Knackered. Food, write more later.

2008 Food v good. Perhaps weakly getting a half litre draught beer, then will have to get back to hotel. Do dislike this pre-bus fraught period but what can you do. Should have asked for beer 10-20 mins ago, was lingering post food, but coulda woulda shoulda I suppose.

2022 Now I've left will say was at B&B Miraflores Wasi (IIRC), first three nights on Tarapaca and last night at Independencia 387.

2035 Bill 38, will make it 43. Not finished beer yet and it's only 600m to hotel but usual time jitters so wanted to avoid last minute delay over paying.

2045 OK, finished. Slash and off.

2122 At terminal. Hotel had already booked me a taxi to the airport. FFS. Need to speak to Spanish teacher about this. But I *definitely* never mentioned airport. ACTUALLY, the woman at the desk liked to practice her English on me, we spoke in English this morning. FFS. Guess I need to stop mentioning taxis in advance. It's (take a ticket and wait to appear on monitor) queue central here. The equeue doesn't seem to be moving, I have nearly 1.5h before bus goes and I am slightly worried I'm going to miss it. I can't queue up for baggage submission until I first queue up to change my voucher for a ticket; heaven forfend the travel agency should be able to print me a ticket directly.

2141 Finally got voucher changed. Let's extract daypack and queue for baggage.

2205 Finally got bag checked. Not clear but I think I was actually in an enormous 'let a few in at a time' nightclub-esque line for boarding gate 4 instead of baggage check most of time. Of course no indication which of the four gates my bus goes from.

2230 On bus.

Brief notes on today then. On a whim/I was tired and it was right there, I sort of went in the Museo Metropolitano de Lima. As I was getting my 4 soles out to pay a helpful if slightly officious chap came up and explained that the charge was for a bit of a cinema kind of thing and if there weren't enough people I'd have to wait half an hour but there was an exhibition of photos for free. Partly to get away from him and partly fearing a cinema kind of thing might be a linguistic bridge too far, I went into the photo thing (aquiring a city map on the way for free at insistence of helpful chap) but it wasn't great and I didn't stay long.

Then tried to go to postal museum (in guide book) but tho I found exact location and asked a super policey security guard it was the museum of peruvian gastronomy or something, I asked where the postal museum was and I think he said there wasn't one right now but far from clear.

Bit hacked off by this point, and only going to some museum 'because that's what tourists do' anyway to some extent.

By sheer chance the Convento de Santo Domingo was round the corner so I went in there. Though I initially didn't get told to wait for a guided tour so wandered on my own, I did eventually hook up with a tour and got to go up the tower for quite nice views over city, so that worked quite well. I ended up in a Spanish tour group, understood about 80% and had a bit of chat with guide at one point. He recommended the inquisition museum (on grounds of building architecture iirc) but guide book said it shut at 5pm and it was 450ish when left CdSD. Not a huge loss and given its hub status will probably be back in Lima at some point in future. That plus the really big fountains in some park are main things didn't see. Oh, and I had a recommendation for fancy buffet La Bistecca but apart from fears re fanciness didn't want to risk turning up without reservation over weekend (presumably mega busy) and too lazy/uninterested/something to try today or yday.

2249 Yay! One of the earpieces on my noise cancelling headphone has come off (this happens all the time; they are interchangeable by design and it's a bit loose) and appears to have ben lost. This could have happened just now - but I can't see it loose anywhere - or last time I used them, whenever that was. I even have a spare in my bag, but that's locked away in the luggage compartment. Fortunately I have my non-noise cancelling headphones in my pocket but not very happy about this all the same.

2304 Fucking hell, the mandatory 'safety' video goes on and on and on and on. I already knew this (eg bus Cusco-Ica) but FFS. It's not safety, it's mostly promotion.

2308 And the stewardess finally finished burbling on "live" after the video. I think - tho with the appalling audio quality on the PA and language issues not sure - she read out the wifi password. Obviously security is a major factor, there could be freeloaders driving immediately behind the bus in order to use the 3 bps connection, so the password has to be super complex. I didn't get it and am not going to bother asking for it, it was so slow as to be unusable except just about borderline email capable on previous bus and frankly I don't need it. I got a batch of email when back at hotel and the chances of anyone I care about sending me an urgent email overnight are slim. It's a nice-sounding feature on the brochure but the reality is it's virtually useless. Kudos for trying I guess.

0922 At hotel, super sweaty so luckily been allowed into room.