Lima to Paracas

I woke up early, showered, repacked my bags, then headed upstairs for breakfast. The food was decent, and the room gave a view over Lima. It´s a gray city, not the cleanest, and looks a bit run down. The group wasn´t meeting until 1:30, so I spent the morning exploring Miraflores (one of the districts in Lima). It took about 20 minutes to walk (dodging cars at every intersection) to the ocean cliffs, but I didn´t see any ways down that didn´t look too scary, so I stayed along the top. They put a shopping mall into part of the cliff - from the top it looks just like a park, but down a few steps, and there are the stores! One of the parks is called Parque del Amor (the Love Park) - it has a large sculpture called "The Kiss" and walls along the coast decorated with colourful mosaics. I found an internet cafe so I could send an email to Oma and Opa and let them know I got here OK, then found some lunch. The group met up (I´m travelling with GAP Adventures and the group includes 2 Danish twins - H and L, a German couple - C and D, and an American guy - K, and of course, a group leader - V) and headed to the bus station for a 4 hour trip south along the coast to Paracas. It was a long, boring ride with my daypack on my lap (it´s a public bus, so anything on the floor or overhead racks will probably get stolen) through mostly gray dessert. We stayed in a small B&B near the ocean and had a great fish supper at a restaurant along the shore.