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I just realised that in the past week, I've seen more movies (most in English) than in any other week so far on my trip! The reason: the Flying Dog has a big TV, 50 cable channels, and a stash of DVDs; and we've been watching at least one movie a night, and sometimes more in the daytime, the whole time we've been here.

I've been here at the Flying Dog for a full week, and despite originally being peeved about being stuck here, I actually met some really great people here, and I'm going to miss them all. However, as of tonight, everyone here is either leaving Lima, or moving to another hostel; because the whole place has been booked out by a travelling circus.

Three days ago, on Wednesday, I tried to go paragliding on the seashore in Miraflores, but was thwarted by a lack of wind. Today, I decided to return and to try my luck again. This time I came really close — the wind picked up, they strapped me in, I was running for the cliff edge — and then the bloody wind died again!

Alexis is a friend of my buddy Antonio, as well as the only Drupal developer in Peru. He's a really interesting guy: he's run his own web hosting company; he's built his own house; he's written a book about how to work from home; and he's developed web sites for a bunch of different clients. Today, I visited him at his home in Chaclacayo, and had great fun eating, drinking, chatting, and recording with him.

Today, I got taken on a big excursion, by Antonio and his friend Clevér (yep, that's his name!). The three of us went to Chaclacayo, which is virtually a town by itself, right on the Eastern edge of Lima, almost in the mountains. There, we visited Alexis Bellido — another of Antonio's Linux friends — who has a house out there, and who is also the only (known) Drupal developer in Peru!

Got myself a local Peruvian SIM card, to use for SMSing the folks back home, and for any local calls I might need to make. The brand is Claro (means "sure" or "OK" in Spanish), which seems to be the biggest one in Peru. Unlike with my Telcel card in Mexico, this one sends and receives international SMSes, no problem.

Chris became a good mate of mine, during my week at the Flying Dog in Lima. Chris is a Canadian, a very well-travelled guy (although he's new to the Latin world), and a producer of home-made wine. He's also a vegetarian. He's a great guy to have philosophical chats with as well.

After an afternoon nap, I met up with Antonio again for dinner this evening. However, this time there were 10 of us dining together! Seems that Antonio managed to get together a whole bunch of Lima Linux people, and at very short notice. We went to a restaurant called Norky's, which does great meats of all varieties, and we discussed all things geeky.

Today, I finally met my Lima-based friend Antonio Ognio, the king of all Peruvian Linux geeks. As an introduction to his home city, Antonio suggested that he take me to a nearby all-you-can-eat buffet — serving a wide variety of popular local dishes — and that he give me a small walking tour of Lima. Turned out to be a great day.

Antonio first contacted me over a month ago, with a Drupal support question — by sheer coincidence, this happened to be just when I'd arrived in Mexico. Antonio is the leader of the Linux and Open Source community here in Peru; and he knows everyone, everywhere, who's a part of this community.