06th October - Old Town Quito & Going to Peru

Our flight to Peru is late in the evening which gives us lots of time to go the Old Town which we`ve only just glimpsed until now.

We visit a few churches, all very ornate and rather goulish - Mairi is quite freaked by one which is really dark and has many very realisitic images of Jesus on the cross and martyred saints. It`s not the nicest church I`ve ever been I must admit. The Basillica on the otherhand is fantastic. It`s the largest church and inside is unlike the other dark and scary churches, it is brighter and lighter. The best bit is you can climb up to the bell tower and clock tower. An actual climb it was. Access to both are gained only through a series of ladders. The bell tower is the scariest as the ladders are on the outside of the tower hundreds of feet above the courtyard. We climb out onto the first external view point and it starts raining. I gingerly make my way up the next leaving Mairi behind. I didn´t make it to the top, the height was scary, the fact that you`re on a ladder on the outside of the tower is scary, but the real problem is the rain making the iron foot hold very slippy so I go back down defeated and relieved.

The clock tower at the other side of the Basillica is somewhat easier - inside all the time and not so procariously balanced outside the building. The view across the rooftops of Quito to the massive mountains and valleys is fantastic. Quito is built on the sides of a few mountains and grows ever upwards, perched on the volcanos. It makes for a fantastic backdrop to photos which we can`t really take today as it`s misty - pity.

The flight to Lima was delayed but only takes a couple of hours so we get there at midnight. We had arranged to be met by the hostel. A woman was holding a sign with our names on it so I went up and said hello. She just nodded and said follow me. She then darted off and made a phone call while we stood about looking a bit lost. She came back and motioned to follow her and never really spoke again. She met up with another woman with a car and they started to get in - I asked if they were taking us to the hostal and they sort of said yes so we got into the car and sped off into the night - all very strange. Mairi and I kept looking at one anther wondering if we were being taken into white slavery (not that they would get much for either of us)!

We drove for ages - Lima is really huge - and were starting to get a bit worried, then we stopped and got out. The place had no signs to say hostel etc. so again we were a bit dubious. A guy came out and greeted us - thankfully it was the guy we had been emailing and we were safe.