It's Peru, Baby.

My actual birthday was spent in Lima, though I'd been celebrating it so much it was hard to tell the difference! We arrived at nine in the morning on Thursday the 28th after 10 hours on a 'bus-cama' (bed bus), feeling surprisingly well-rested. We then rushed to get to the hostal, shower, and become less smelly and more presentable before going to the British Embassy in Miraflores to apply for my 'Certificate of No Impediment' (ie. I'm not planning a polygamous union). The procedure was simple, the painful bit was parting with 660 soles for a simple piece of paper. Plus we will have to go all the way back to Lima to pick it up at the end of November...
After the embassy we spent the day exploring Miraflores. It's the most exclusive and expensive area of Lima, and our attempts to find a cheap hotel were entirely in vain (the really cheap hostals were for grubby gringo backpackers and turned their noses at Tito's stylish leather jacket and my high heels!). But I was very impressed with what I saw of the area. The buildings in Miraflores have oodles of character and style, and there are lots of decidedly diverting bars and shops. I bought myself a little birthday present (ahem) to celebrate, a pair of wonderful red sandles made in Brazil. We went to D'nnos pizza for lunch (yum) and later had a horrendously expensive cappucino at one of the charming, candlelit outdoor cafes surrounding the park. It was a perfect day; we returned happily exhausted to our grubby hostal for retired teachers (!) and didn't mind half as much as we could have that the hot water was non-existant and the beds were rock-hard. 'Cuz we were together with the roof right over our heads... and 'CUZ WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!!!