Day 81-82:
Lima, Peru. “We've made it!”, Karen shrieked excitedly
with perhaps just a touch of relief in her voice. Using my bandanna
to remove the layer of grime from the inside of the vehicle's window
I starred out at the most welcome of signs: Bienvenidos a Lima -
Welcome to Lima. It was fitting that our last major road journey
should be so eventful: 9 up in an aged Toyota Corolla with a budding
Peruvian Nigel Mansell at the wheel; half an inch of tyre rubber
burned at through every corner – and perish the thought that
anything dare step into the road; his first reaction was always to
hit the horn rather than the brakes!
But Karen was right.
We had made it. Not just from Lunahuaná in a battered
combi, but from one side of South American to the other. An
unbelievable, unforgettable and unrepeatable journey!
I'm not sure how
Phileas Fogg managed to make it around the world in 80 days. In the
same time, Karen and I had only managed a single continent; but what
a journey we'd made of it. 7,000 miles of gruelling overland travel
across 6 countries plus a further 4,000 miles of internal flights to
get us to the places where the roads didn't go. From paddling in the
South Atlantic and South Pacific oceans we had scaled the majestic
Andes to heights of over 18,000 feet. We had trekked through
rainforests, cloud forests and temperate forests, through barren
tundra and across vast uninhabited deserts staying in 48 different
locations. We had discovered modern cities, ancient cities and lost
cities. In the north we made it to within 10 degrees of the Equator
and in the south to within 10 degrees of the Antarctic Circle. We
had burned to a crisp in the tropics, chilled to the bone in the High
Andes and literally been blown off our feet in Southern Patagonia.
But we had made it.
But despite the
infinite list of incredible sights (I've taken well over 3,000
photographs so far. Friends and family - start working on your
excuses now in preparation for when I ask that dreaded
question, “Do you want to pop round and take a look at our holiday
snaps!”) it's the people that really made the journey: The
Brazilian tourists that seem to spread themselves across this entire
continent, the Argentinian gaucho's, the bowler-hatted Bolivian
ladies gathered in the local market square and of course the Peruvian
kids, selling just about anything they can get their hands on!
But for now, Karen
and I were not about reminiscing. We had one more city to
explore before we set off on our long journey back to Steeple Morden:
Lima, capital of the fastest growing economy in South America and
summarised by Lonely Planet as “No place of beauty. A sprawling
desert city clinging precariously to dusty cliffs, it spends much of
the year marinated in a perpetual fog that turns the sky the colour
of Styrofoam. It is loud, chaotic, and gritty; much of its
architecture is bulky and grey”. Now maybe I'm getting a bit
soft in my travelling old age but I can't help feeling these words
are a little bit harsh! OK, so you probably wouldn't put Lima on
your top 10 list of places to see before you die, but as a place to
spend a couple of quality days relaxing with easy access to some of
Peru's finest restaurants and bars, I can think of far worse places
to be.
And with the
melancholy of journey's end mixed with a couple of bottles of pretty
enjoyable Peruvian red, the conversation inevitably shifted to 'The
Next Trip'. India maybe? Nepal possibly? Tibet per chance? For
now though, our immediate destination is our favourite place on
earth: Back home to the beautiful village of Steeple Morden. Back
home with Huffkin, Chuddleigh, our friends and our family.
See you all soon!
D&K
