Last stop..........Peru!

So here we are; Peru. Last stop. Final Frontier. The end of an era. The closing chapter.....should I go on?
It was a strange moment walking across our last border into Peru - which, inicidentially, is incredibly civilised compared to Bolivia. We stayed one night in a town called Puno, on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. Its was a surprisingly pleasant little town, not that we saw that much of it....we holed ourselves into a lovely restaurant, the owners of which naively put a tv into one of the rooms - so we ordered a constant string of food and drinks and watched Sony Entertainment Television all arvo!
From there it was on to the beautiful city of Arequipa, which is truely stunning, and it's one of the few places that the guidebook does not over rate. We stayed in The Point Hostel, which is in the suburb of Vallecito, a five or ten minute taxi ride outside the city centre. And the centre itself is gorgeous; there is a fabulous central square with huge palm trees and white washed buildings, and the streets that span out from it are very picturesque. The array of restuarants is ridiculous, and most of them would not look out of place in Dublin, very snaz altogether. But cheap! The weather is a complete relief as well; lovely and sunny during the day and it doesn't get sub zero at night. Bliss.
We got rather cosy in our hostel bar on our first night, and met three English girls who were travelling the world for five months, at grand old age of 18! Obviously we were going on like aul wans, marvelling at their wonderful ability to even find South America at such a young age.....mind you whether they ever get beyond Peru remains up for spectulation, because when we met them they had already spent two weeks in that one hostel! My right foot had a rather unfortunate run in with a confusing set of stairs on our first night, which initially put my Inca trek plans into jeopardy....but good news is it's getting better now so hopefully I'll still be able to walk the Peruvian highlands!
One of the main tourist attractions in Arequipa is the Santa Catalina Monastery, which is a little citadel within the city, home to Dominican nuns. Real little nuns, doing nunly things, like making amazing cakes for the coffee shop. And there are even 24 YOUNG nuns in training - yup, it still happens in Peru apparently. Not that we got to see any nuns, young or old - I think they are shut into some dungeon during the day while the tourists are free to roam around their quarters. Anyhoo, it's a lovely, colourful, sunlit place with little cobbled streets and red and blue painted walls. Lovely indeed. And the cakes definitely lived up to expectations - so much so that I think my mother must have joined the Dominican Order since I went away and set herself up in Arequipa. Mum?
After four nights in Arequipa we took our last ever night bus to Cusco; it was one of the luxurious buses with the big leather seats, but the journey still wasn't great, so hooorah to the end of 12 hour buses!! I am seriously impressed with this city - it's gorgeous! The Plaza des Armas is the stunning main square with its two huge cathedrals and manicured gardens. The square is lined with beautiful buildings (which are mostly filled with touristy shops and restauarants) and lots of small cobbled streets lead off it. And there are loads of other little squares around the city, linked by narrow passageways. It is sooooo sooooo touristy here, due to its proximation to Machu Picchu, but once you get over that element it really is a lovely place to spend a few days. Which is a good thing for the two girls, as they are going to have to entertain themselves while I'm off doing my trek. That is if I ever manage to book one in this haystack of tour companies....

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