Lima

After our flight from Cusco we arrived into Lima about midday. We boarded a mini bus and got our first glimpse of the city itself. It seemed pretty urban, built up and very foggy. We weren't too sure if this was city smog or misty cloud from the sea but either way visibility out to the coast was pretty poor. We checked into our hotel which was pretty nice and seemed quite quaint for the large city it was in. 

Bossana and Andreas were actually catching their plane home that evening so we decided to turn our leaving dinner into more of a leaving lunch instead! This was a lovely place which had great sea food. Everyone had a few cusquena's (the local beer) and some of the girls shared some jugs of sangria. Tom decided to throw caution to the wind (pardon the pun) after his episode in Bolivia, and had a paella full of lovely fresh fish and prawns. It was lovely as was Steph's chicken dish. With great food, lovely company, a sense of achievement and a hint of sadness, our last meal all together was a really lovely way to end the tour of Peru. 

The Last Supper

Henry stood up and did his leaving speech. This started and finished with.. "Just remember guys.. No body is perfect" in his usual cheeky manner, after explaining how g adventures will be asking us to review the tour. With a giggle and round of applause from the group we gave Henry an envelope with his tip from the group.

After dinner Bossana and Andreas had to leave home bound for the airport. This was sad for the whole group, but an extra shame for us as we hadn't had a chance to really talk to Andres and Bossana, but over our last meal, Tom had a really good chat with them and found they were very inserting people. They had travelled to a lot of places we were due to visit, so offered some wise words to us before they fled. We wished them a safe journey home and they left. The whole group went silent and some were holding back tears as it hit everyone that it was all coming to an end. Sensing the sadness, Henry chirped up and said "Where shall we go for the pisco sours!?"

We took a stroll through Kennedy park which for some reason is just full of CATS! It was a specific cat park which was slightly weird in the middle of a big city but they were everywhere. They all looked healthy and well looked after and they appeared to love it there. As did the many people that flocked there to play with them, including Steph who was absolutely beside herself trying to chase them for a cuddle. 

Game: Count the cats. Answer: 4...keep looking

After carrying Steph out of the park and away from the cats, we saw a big flashing sign down the street which read 'KARAOKE' Steph's second love in life. Aussie Elanna was basically already through the door with a love for performing, and when asking Ryan if he liked karaoke, he simply replied "of course I do, I'm Asian, it's in my blood". With that said and Tom in hysterics, karaoke was ON!! 

It was quite a weird set up with microphones being passed from table to table for the performances and there were definitely some South American idol rejects drowning their sorrows in there and holding on to that small hope that one day they might make it big. Despite that, with the bar tab racking up, the majority of the group showed Lima what karaoke was like where we came from - distinctly average drunk singing that was a lot of fun! The night peaked when after singing about 5 songs already Elanna and Steph teamed up to sing 'Under the Sea' from 'The Little Mermaid'. Elanna really came into her own, and she danced and pranced around the whole room from table to table giving everyone a dance, and somewhat shocking but highly amusing all the locals left in there. And it goes without saying we obviously all found it hilarious!

A few of the group decided it was time for them to leave (probably wise) as they had early morning flights to get to the next day. We said goodbye to Maryanne and Ryan but promised them we would see them in Aus when we got there. Kate also decided she would go back to pack for her 4am flight, but Elanna was determined to stay out and sing more as they still hadn't played her Karaoke request 'New York' by Frank Sinatra. We wished farewell to Kate, and promised that 1. we would see her in Aus also, and 2. we would get Elanna home so she could catch her 4am flight.

We went back inside, and the girls did a few more numbers. After a while, Elanna seemed uncharacteristically quiet. We looked over to see she had actually fallen asleep! This signaled our time to leave, and we decided to get some good healthy fried chicken to wash down the karaoke! To get there, we had to cross back through the cat park!! Great news for Steph but Elanna gained an irrational fear of the furry creatures and would scream if they came near! So Tom gave her a piggy back through the park to make sure none of them touched her legs! Crisis averted, we headed to the nearest KFC for some of the colonels finest. We went to make our order only to be told that they didn't have any fried chicken. At first we thought she was joking but apparently not!?... Only in South America! With that, we found a budget version instead who were currently stocking chicken. We had our fill and headed back for a good night sleep. We got back to the hotel and Elanna said an emotional goodbye to us, we had kept our promise to get Elanna home, but maybe not in a state to get up for her flight! 

DEPARTURE DAY

Today was a sad bit triumphant day as it was indeed the very last day of our tour across South America. With that, came the inevitable goodbye to the wonderful people and friends we had met along the way. Hoping the aussies had all got their 4am flight, we said goodbye to Elaina and Irena, as they were the next pair to go. We all checked our schedules and it turned out that Susan and Melisa both had similar evening flight times to us so we decided to share a taxi together to the airport. This also worked out nicely as it meant we could all spend the day together and end the 6 week tour together just as we started!! 

We took the opportunity to do some last minute souvenir shopping in the many markets and generally soaked in the last remaining snippets of culture we could from Peru. We all decided our fuzzy heads needed feeding, and with a quick flick of Melisa's Lima guide, we wound up at the lonely planet top pick for a Lima lunch in the form of 'la lucha'. This was an incredible sandwich shop that sold an array of freshly made sandwiches, burgers, juices and fruit smoothies. 

We all ordered, and absolutely stuffed our faces. Susan had a steak and onion sandwich which she loved, and Melisa had a massive bacon and sausage baguette.. Just kidding (she doesn't eat pork) Steph had a burger which she said was lovely, and surprise surprise Tom ordered the largest sandwich on the menu, the club sandwich. It was absolutely divine, and Tom still insists it is the best sandwich he has ever eaten. It was a monster, full of chicken, cheese, bacon, ham and egg. It also contained four huge slices of fried bread. He said that it could easily feed 2 hungry people and probably three normal people. Tom proceeded to stuff his face with all four gigantic sections and then complain for the next three hours at how sick and full up he felt. 

100% chuffed

After this we all had some time to kill so headed back and all laid around using some wifi and reflecting on what a fantastic trip it had been.

We had arranged to head to the Hard Rock Cafe that evening for some dinner, as Swiss Tom was also still with us staying a few extra days in Lima. He'd been a bit down for the last week as he couldn't shake off the illness he acquired about 3 weeks prior, so we were excited to do something we knew he'd love! We arrived at 7 with our luggage in tow, as we would head straight to the airport from there, and enjoyed a bit of western food. Andrew, Melisa and Henry also came along, to experience the tradition that Swiss Tom was so determined to do.

This Hard Rock cafe had live music which was nice, but also a little loud as we wanted to be able to talk to eachother! We all enjoyed some food, Steph having fajitas along with a few others, however Tom was still full from his gigantic sandwich he opted for a huge ice cream instead (!?) which he said he would share with Steph. Tom's ice cream arrived and was bigger than our heads, and Steph couldn't share it due to the walnuts on top. It was going to be another Man VS Food moment for Tom.

Even though he was full, he still polished it off with no worries. As we finished our food, we realised our taxi to take us to the airport would be arriving any minute. This was it! We were the ones leaving now! We said goodbye to Andrew, Melissa and Swiss Thomas, our good friend from the very beginning, and headed outside. Henry walked us to the taxi bit, and it was time to say goodbye to the funny guy who'd made Peru so fun for us.

We were so sad our journey was coming to an end, but we knew the worst was still to come. Susan and Melisa had been our best buddies from the very start, and we couldn't imagine doing South America without either of them. Travelling around in such close proximity of people makes you closer than close, as they're almost like your travelling family. We all got to the airport and checked in our bags, and went to get a drink, all of us putting of the inevitable goodbyes. Our flight to LA was first, shortly followed by Susan's. Melisa was a few hours later but she had wanted to come to the airport with us.

Our flight gate was suddenly called, and we had to head through security to get here where we would have to leave the girls. We all started to tear up as we knew we had to say goodbye. Melisa fully broke down, and handed us a letter that she wanted us to open when we got on the plane. It was one of the loveliest notes we ever got and we have kept it safe ever since.

We took one last selfie of us altogether before we went our separate ways. 

We were all happy to have met each other though, and now we were all moving on to new exciting things. Melisa was going to Cuba for 2 weeks, to finish off her trip around the world, and Susan was going home to Ireland after living in Canada for a few years.

We waved one last goodbye to them through the gate and boarded our flight to the USA.