Midday in Lima: I’ve already been up eleven hours. Our hated alarm clock went off at three o’clock this morning (Buenos Aires time). We had to get to the airport for a seven o’clock flight to Lima. Five hours over the beautiful Andes and we land in Peru. This morning we were on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, now we are by the side of the Pacific.
Memories of our visit here five weeks ago came flooding back. We chatted excitedly in the taxi to Miraflores about all the things we had forgotten: places we’d visited with friends, the coastal fogs, the unfinished buildings, the mestizos; we wallowed in the nostalgia. I love South America. Suzie and I were talking last night over pizza and beer about how perfect the last five weeks have been. Now I’m trying to fight off the sadness that’s hovering under the surface; I’m trying to pretend I have more than nineteen hours left here.
I don’t want to leave. Most of you won’t know but I tried to change the day I fly home so I could spend an extra two weeks in Ecuador enrolled in a Spanish school. Unfortunately my flights are set in stone, so I am still going home tomorrow. I don’t feel ready to go back to Britain, and I don’t want to go back to Britain. I can only console myself with the fact that there’s plenty more of the continent I haven’t seen just waiting for a return visit. Plus in thirty-six hours or so I get to see my family for the first time in three-and-a-half months — I can’t wait to see you all! I have a lot of catching up to do with old and new friends too, so it’s not all bad.
But for now Suzie and I are off to revel in the sights, smells, sounds, and tastes of South America for the last time. I love it. If you ever get half a chance to visit South America don’t hesitate, do it. And if you need a travelling companion you need look no further!