Day 1: Slough, England to Lima, Peru

Saturday 21st September 2019

So the day has finally arrived! My trip to South America!

In total I will be away from England for 35 days, and in that time I will be travelling to 5 different countries. These are: Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and finally Brazil.

I will be travelling with a tour company which I have used several times before – Intrepid Travel. I enjoy travelling with Intrepid because they use small group sizes, they go off the beaten track, they use public transport where possible so they support responsible travel.

I’ve learnt a lot travelling with them in the past about using public transport in different countries and I’ve since then been able to complete solo trips myself.

Anyway, back to today… I started this morning with a 3:15am alarm on my phone and was out of my hotel in Slough within the hour. My trip to Heathrow and flight to Madrid was pretty standard so not much to report on.

Arriving into Spain was where I required some problem solving stamina! Maybe it’s the sleep deprivation of an hour and a half sleep… but I got a little lost. I became pretty confused with terminals 4 and 4S… because even now, after finding my gate I cannot work out if terminal 4 and 4S are indeed different terminals… I was meant to be at S gates. Either way, I could not see any signage for either. Gates H, J and K were always signposted though!

Anyway I trusted my gut instinct and got on a train to terminal 4, went through security and passport control again. All of a sudden S gates were signposted everywhere and SO much bigger than necessary! I couldn’t help but laugh a little.

A few hours later I boarded my next flight which would take me from Madrid all the way over to Lima in Peru. This was set to be an 11.5 hour flight. I’ve never flown with Iberia airlines before but I was impressed with them. The food was good for plane food, entertainment, seats and even the blankets were all decent. The touch down was one of the smoothest I’ve had, and we were off the plane before our expected arrival time.

I spent the next 2 hours trying to actually leave the airport! This is where my vision played a role and I had to use one of the most useful tips when dealing with signage and my eyesight. If I were to show you my camera role from today most of it would be random photos of screens and signs where I’ve taken a photo to then zoom on that photo to read what it says. It’s helps me to be pretty independent. Immigration was the longest part of the 2 hours in Lima airport. A massive queue! However once it was my turn I showed my passport, my yellow fever vaccination certificate, got finger printed and had a no doubt ‘beautiful’ photograph taken of myself for their records. The chapped lips and hair pulled up in some sort of bun attempt are all part of the charm.

Finally getting let into the country and painstakingly awaiting my bag in hopes it made the change from British airways to Iberian airlines safely, I made my way out into the streets of Peru at night!

My backpack screams traveller, and being a solo female traveller the taxi drivers saw me coming. Thankfully I’d researched Lima airport and the safest way to get to where you are going. I had already bought the Lima airport shuttle bus ticket for $8 USD a week earlier. I had a map that I’d screenshot on my phone to show me where the buses left from. The scaling was definitely off, but I headed off the in the general direction dodging cars which don’t like to stop at zebra crossings!

I had to walk through the outdoor car park and a guy standing at a car claimed to be a taxi driver and tried to detour me from taking the bus. Nope – booked my ticket already. I found the little sign which had the shuttle bus and plonked myself and my bag down ready to wait right there for the next 45 minutes for the bus (they only come hourly).

I’m happy to report that I am on the bus now. From my screenshots I know that if I get off at the first stop (in one hour) it will be about 350 metres to my hotel. I personally cannot wait to get there. I’ve been travelling for 22 hours so far, and by the time I get to my hotel I imagine it will be over 23 hours.

But I’m here! I’m in South America! I made it safely and in one piece!

Shower and bed as soon as I get in are on the cards for sure!