We passed through Lima twice during the trip - it was our first port of call in South America, and we visited it again en-route to Chile.

It's a busy city, and is not a great favourite of tourists, who usually stay just long enough to visit the UNESCO - listed colonial centre. The cold mist - known as the garúa - that covers the whole city during the winter doesn't help it's image.

When we first arrived, we stayed in a chi-chi boutique hotel in the upmarket suburb of Miraflores. This was to break us in gently to the trip. On the way back through, we stayed in Pension Yolana. The owner, Erwin, made us feel at home and helped us a great deal with sorting out our onwards travel arrangments.

So, by the time we left, the city had started to grow on us. We met some great Limeños (facilitated in part by our improving Spanish), and were fortunate enough to go to an Afro Peruvian concert in the centre of town featuring the fantastic Pepe Vasquez . We were even invited to a peña afterwards, but couldn't go, as we had an early flight the following morning to our next destination, Chile.