Just through habit I woke at 6am and how amazing it was to turn over and just lie doing nothing. I had no idea how I was going to fill the next 3 weeks but there was plenty of time to plan. For now, I lay and reminisced about jungle life and how appreciative I was to be out not way from the animals for I loved working with them, I was just so glad to have some sort of hygiene back in my life.

I didn’t last long lying in bed, I became restless and decided to get up and face the decisions I had to make. First a trip to the floor above for a buffet breakfast – how exciting was that, a banquet of food! Rachel had warned me not to suff my face, she said that’s what killed a lot of POW’s when they were liberated from the camps! I kept this in the forefront of my brain as I heaped the food onto my plate 😉

2 slices of brown bread into the toaster, freshly squeezed orange juice from the machine, a little pat of butter, 2 slices of Edam cheese, 2 slices of turkey meat (I chose turkey over ham as I was watching the calories intake 🤣), 2 spoons of diced mango, 2 spoons of diced pineapple, 1 slice of watermelon, 2 heaped spoons of scrambled egg, 2 types of sausage, a wee pot of jam and the all important cup of tea – life was good!

Rising slowly from the breakfast table I made my way back to the hotel room where the bed looked so inviting but I had plans to make and sleeping wasn’t an option.

I had a little fridge in my room so I decided to go and find a supermarket and stock up on sandwich food for the next few days – yip, thinking of food so soon! Up, dressed and asked the reception where I could find a supermarket. Out the hotel, turn left, four blocks, turn left and it’s on the corner. Sounds simple? Not to me, with my tract record of inept navigation skills that has so often got me in trouble, I took a screen shot from google maps and kept the route on my phone.

7 mins it’s says – I allowed 10 for faffing stops and an hour later I was completely lost – how can that possibly happen! I ended up in a pharmacy asking for directions and lucky for me a kind lady over heard my exasperated conversation with a member of staff and she took me out the shop and pointed to it on the corner 2 blocks down across the main road! How I’ve made it this far in my Peruvian adventure I’ll never know. But made I did and bought the shop! Bread, sandwich food, crisps, chocolate, juice, a ready meal, a nice bottle of Chile wine and 1 bottle of Erdinger lager – one of my favourites

Getting home was not much better – I think I lack the ‘able to follow maps’ gene!

As if to tempt fate, I decided to go explore Miraflores a little, see what all the hype was about. Didn’t really care if I got lost if I am honest, there’s always the rip off taxi home option.

I knew if I headed straight down I’d come to Pacific ocean so at least if I got lost I knew I’d just turn round and head back up into town. It was a beautiful walk along the coast, I gave up trying to find points of interest and just strolled along the promenade following the coast. At one point I did contemplate hiring one of the wee three wheel scooters that were parked along the kerbs but my sub consciences was telling me that it was a step too far so I continued on foot.

I began to get tired and hungry so I headed home with no fixed ETA.

Yip, I unexpectedly saw quite a bit of Miraflores on the way home but I was in no hurry really so I just turned corner after corner and knew at one point I get to somewhere that I’d been before.

So, safely back in the sanctuary of the hotel and my feet led me straight to the jacuzzi. Hot water on, bubbles frothing, glass of wine poised on the edge, soft music playing through my wee speaker. The only thing missing was a few candles but hey 4 out of 5 ain’t bad – heaven in a tub!

Just kept topping up with hot water and wallowed till my skin turned waxy white. Eventually, after wrestling with my inner conscience, I push the button and pull the plug – hard to do but I had things to do like…..

…..head to the rooftop bar for a wee G&T after my hard day

Although it was happy hour, I couldn’t drink two – think the barman forgot to use a measure.

Assumed the same position in my big comfy bed, deliberated over watching the TV but couldn’t quite get the remote to work so I decided lights out was the best decision. I had to focus tomorrow and plan my adventure. Rachel, my personal organiser (aka daughter) had a few suggestions to discuss and I was excited to see what she had in store

Nite 😘