There's no rest for the wicked so after a days sight-seeing in Lima we were straight onto another night bus. The buses have surprised us in how comfortable they are, but this nine hour journey over some really high mountains on windy, windy roads wasn't the easiest on our delicate western constitutions, so I was feeling slightly poorly by the time we reached our jungle destination. Antonieta and her husband Jeremy have a house in the scenic spot of La Merced, between the highlands and cloud-forest, and we arrived at their home just in time for my vomiting and diarrhea to kick in!! So, for me, the first twenty-four hours of our stay involved running to and from the bathroom and whimpering pathetically (I am an AWFUL patient) whilst Ben, bless him, ran 'round putting wet flannels on my forehead and the like.
Fortunately for us all I was feeling much better the next day, so we were able to do a bit of exploring. We did some hiking, found a waterfall and really appreciated all the greenery. It was a welcome break to be away from the city and lovely to stay in a family home rather than a hotel / hostel. Chatting to Antonieta and Jeremy meant we got to learn a lot more about Peruvian life and politics and our brief time in La Merced showed us that had we spent more time in the jungle and smaller towns our experience in Peru would have been a very different one. We feel like we've spent a lot of time in cities and buses and not nearly enough time enjoying the countryside. We've realised that we're definitely not cut out for desert life and have both really missed greenery and vegetation. That's not to say we haven't enjoyed ourselves, because we have, and trekking the Inca Trail in particular was a wonderful experience, but we haven't come to love Peru in the same way as we did both Cuba and Costa Rica.
Ben:
A few more photos can be found here
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