Cruz del Sur bus station, Lima

Arrived nicely in Lima. Saw a bit of the rain forest during take off, and a bit of the Andes half-way through the flight. Otherwise it was cloudy.

The Lima Airport is modern, has helpful English-speaking tourist information and free wireless. Unfortunately they haven't solved the problem of offering convenient and cheap public transport from the airport to the city: upon arrival one is greeted by leech-like taxi drivers who follow you even after you have told them 10 times that 50 soles (17 USD) is too much for a ride to the center. They agree to lower their price to 35 but we are budget travellers and prefer to pay 1.50 soles each for a dala-dala ride.

The next direct bus to Quito seems to be only in a couple of days, but actually it's difficult to conduct a thorough research because there are many bus companies, with bus stations in different parts of the city, their websites suck, and there is no central information service covering all the companies. Exactly like in Brazil ...

We picked the bus company Cruz del Sur (had the best website among the 5 companies that the tourist information recommended) and will go to Trujillo in the evening (8h trip). From there we hope to get a bus to the border, and from the border to Quito.

Trujillo has some pre-Inca mud pyramids and is also close to the beach. So we'll probably spend a couple of days there and try to reach Quito for the New Year's Eve.