We were a little trepidatious about journeying to Lima: the Lonely Planet is filled with stories about muggings and unsafe streets, and almost every entry about a museum is followed by “get here in a taxi from.....” As a precaution, we'd opted to stay in the affluent suburb of Miraflores, about 7km from the city centre. Our hostel was run by a lovely family and their dog Perdi, who took an instant shine to James: on several occasions during our 2 night stay I had to prise James away from playing fetch with a marble with the dog in the corridor. I think he's missing Blacky.

Tired after our early flight from Santiago, we decided to hang out in Miraflores for the day. We had lunch in a packed local cafe. Menu del dia = 2 courses and a drink for the princely sum of £1.60. Towards the end of the meal the elderly guy at the next table leaned over and starting talking to us in perfect English: turned out he had been married to an Englishwoman and lived in New York for years, retiring only a couple of years earlier to his native Peru. He was very proud of his neighbourhood, and told us all about his local community centre that organised weekly trips for him and his fellow retirees. It was at this point we started to relax, and thought that perhaps we might enjoy our stay here......

After a little nap, I was keen to see something of the 'local sights' so we caught a cab to the Museo de la Nación, which according to the guidebook was a 'treasure trove' of pre-Incan artefacts. We arrived just half an hour before closing time, but as it turned out this was enough: the seven storey building was almost totally empty! Restoration work is apparently underway, although from the looks of things it'll be a long time before the place is up and running again. There were a couple of temporary exhibitions open, but it was a slightly surreal experience wandering around the concrete edifice trying to find them – no one seemed to want to point out the way. Eventually on the sixth floor we found an exhibition: a photographic retrospective of the horrendous violence which Peru saw during the 1980s as a result of the Shining Path, a Maoist-communist terrorist organisation led by university professor Abimael Guzmán. I think BBC News has been sheltering me for the last 27 years as many of the images we saw were horrific.

Sobered as a result of this experience, the next day we headed into the city proper. We decided to brave the bus, which was a pretty intense experience. Lima appears to be overrun with competing bus companies offering cheap transport around the various districts. As a result, the companies all vie for the custom of passing pedestrians: as well as drivers, each bus has a conductor who hangs out of the door of the bus, shouting the destinations and encouraging anyone and everyone to climb on board. There was a lot of crazy driving, lane changing and horn beeping – felt very much like being back in China or Vietnam. But we made it!

Central Lima is vast and sprawling: it's a city of 8.5m people spread out over 2,670km. It's pretty hard to get your head around. James said it reminded him a lot of Mexico City, although to me, the central squares were again pretty European in feel. The Plaza de was very impressive, surrounded by the ornate Archbishop's Palace, the Governmental Palace and the bright yellow buildings with ornate wooden balconies which appear to be something of a Lima trademark: apparently there are some 1600 of them in the capital! Fortunately all the tourists sights are clustered pretty close together, so it was a short walk to the Church of San Francisco. This church has an incredible library with books dating back to the 16th century and gorgeous curved staircases, and a mural of the Last Supper which sees Christ and his Apostles chowing down on guinea pig, a local delicacy.

But the best bit was the catacombs: open to the public since 1850, this sprawling space under the cathedral houses the remains of 25,000 people – first buried in separate plots and later just thrown into an enormous well which has bodies 10-deep. When the church opened to the public in the 1850s some bright spark decided it would be nice to to sort and arrange the top layer of bones into an attractive pattern, so today all the femurs and skulls are presented in neat little rows. It's pretty creepy.

We had lunch at Norky's, a local fast-food eaterie which was packed with families enjoying a Sunday meal together. It was here that we discovered that Peruvians love to eat: a meal for four consists of two whole chickens, an enormous plate of chips and a bottle of the local delicacy, Inca Cola. This bright yellow, super-sweet liquid tastes a bit like limeade but is the drink of choice here: a quick survey of the room showed bottles of Inca Cola outnumbered regular Coca Cola at least 3:1. It's no wonder that Coke bought the brand in 1999. Allegedly Inca Cola is soon to be sold in Europe, although we can't really see it taking off. We tried to order just a snack, but even my 'lighter option' chicken and salad was enough to feed about 3 people....

We were on guard throughout our time in the centre of town, although other than James being offered cocaine (I blame the beard) we had no problems. Heading to Lima's Modern Art Museum was a bit of an experience though: situated in a park surrounded by a high iron fence, we had to ask permission to enter from an armed guard who took his job very seriously. Clearly we made the grade as we were allowed in, but there were many locals who were left outside. The MALI was another stunning building, and we really enjoyed the exhibit about Gordon Matta-Clarke, a slightly unhinged American who in the 70s used derelict buildings as his canvas, knocking giant holes in their ceilings and walls and recording it all on film.

Our last morning in Lima was spent at the Huaca Pucllana, a pre-Inca site founded by the Lima tribe and allegedly used as a temple to worship the gods of the moon and the sea. It is currently being 'excavated' although 'rebuilt' seems a more appropriate description: allegedly only 30% of the site has been reconstructed but it looked so perfect, we found that hard to believe. Apparently the temple site was neglected until the early 90s, at which point it was being used as venue for drug dealing, prostitution and even dirt-bike competitions. Of course more recently the government has started taking the many Peruvian ruins more seriously (because ruins = tourists = money). It was well worth a visit, and has definitely whetted our appetites for the Inca Trail!