London - Lima

Having finally hit the sack at 2.30am, the 5am call this morning was exactly what you might expect - painful.  A lot of people would have had an early night ahead of such a long trip, but that’s most people and this is our trip not theirs. Also we would have missed a lot of fun at Hix last night, where apart from our party of 7 there were by coincidence another 20 or 30 other friends being wined and dined by Louis Vuitton. Almost all of them had a bit of advice on what to do, what not to wear, who to call or what to drink while in Peru. I had no idea that so many could know so much about a relatively off the beaten track country. Of course no one had actually been.

Still a little inebriated David (my brother) and I were in terminal 3 by 6am. It occurred to me there that I might be seeing dead people but then again it was early and peoples grey January pallor doesn’t help.

Since the addition of Terminal 5, I rarely cross over to the lower numbers. You tend not to notice when they are full but this morning the place was quiet revealing the sheer threadbare tiredness of the place and the people in it. A new carpet would help, maybe not the people so much but then again a rug can do a lot for an old head.

There is no direct route to Lima from London. One of the options being via Madrid. A Spanish omelette later and we were there. The flight attendant told us to wait while most passengers disembarked through the front. We were to exit through the rear (well really!) where a bus would be waiting to take us to South America. This confirmed why the price of business class on Iberia was half that of BA. Thankfully she had omitted the part about another terminal and another plane.

Landed in Lima. Hot sultry and everything I imagined. The man parading my name up and down the concourse could have been there all night had Dave not deciphered what was written on his plaque…. SPEPHEN WEBFPER. So close.

Directed to the hot spot of town by our hotel; it soon became apparent that we were in the hot, fast food spot. The many fried options shared the area with hundreds of shoe shops. I guess it’s a good combo. High calorie food and the tools to walk it off.

Heidi who will be documenting our trip arrived at 11pm minus her luggage which is still enjoying Miami.