It's Peru, Baby.

We're back in Chiclayo after a horrendous 17 hour trip up from Lima last night (we stopped four times; twice as the electricity on the bus went out, once because some peasants outside Chimbote had piled rocks in the road in some sort of protest, and once inexplicably) - arriving a good 6 hours late! Blah. Got my documents sorted though - excellent - all we have to do now is book the wedding! And we got to see some different sides of Lima, which was quite exciting. We went to the Museo de la Nación and saw lots of v.old pottery (some rather racy!), intriguing stone carvings, and dried shrunken heads. Then, some Peruvian friends who we know from Japan came to pick us up, and wanted to show us Callao, the suburb where they live. Callao is the kind of place that is the real Lima for most of the population... it's a bit rough and ready. The friends fancied some non-prescription pharmaceuticals in the evening, and so we took a drive through the kind of area where the houses are just sheds made of wooden planks with gaps where the light shines through (at least they have electricity!), everyone is hanging out on the stinky mud street, and you can't tell if the women are all pregnant, or just fat. Just round the corner was a place we've seen on television documentaries - where transexual prositutes flash you as you drive by. Then we went to a salsa club in a rather more attractive neighbourhood, and had a beverage and hip wiggle - until 5am on a Monday night! Lima is anything but dull...