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GO PERU: Manchán Maganslept rough on the beach on his last trip to the Peruvian capital. This time he got to see another side of the city, including a private collection of five-star art

FROM THE MOMENT I woke up in the five-star Miraflores Park Hotel in Lima, the Peruvian capital, I felt a sense of disorientation. The hotel was right over the strand where on my last visit I had slept rough, having run out of funds at the end of my holiday. Everything had changed so much. Coca-leaf sweets were on sale in the newsagent, as was coca tea at the airport – unimaginable on my previous visit, when Peru was still currying favour with the US and distancing itself from its most sacred and potent medicinal plant, which the west stupidly makes into cocaine. It was clear there was a new optimism, a new sense of pride among the people about their past, their illustrious Inca lineage.