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Jake:
Firstly, sincere apologies for the long delay between blogs. We are currently a long way from Arequipa but were moving a long way in a very short space of time! Here´s the first of a series of updates:
Having literally run like screaming little school girls away from the family in the last blog we arrived via night-bus at the whitewashed city of Arequipa. The relief from altitude was comparable to recovering from a bad cold; when you have it, its all you can think about, but when you don´t your vanished plight loses all significance. So, having forgotten all about how hard it was to breathe the day before we set about the town with renewed vigour.
Set around the enormous square in the pictures was possibly the cleanest, most effectively maintained city we had seen so far... a literal and metaphorical breath of fresh air! The entire town it would seem comes to sit and talk and fed the pidgeons in the sunshine of the square, and it was this lifted mood that set the scene for a few days of much needed rest and recouperation. There was much sleeping, reclining and in particular eating
done over the next few days, and as a result I feel quite an authority on the restaurants of the city centre now (I'll take the liberty to recommend the Zig Zag Creperie just off the main square: they serve a mean crepe) and we soon felt able to tackle a trip to the nearby beach resort of Mollendo. After a night and day in what I imagine Skegness to look like without the bin men but with twice as many weird people that come up to you spitting and biting their language with bottles of godknowswhat wanting to shake your hand and cut your bagstrap simultaniously, we were ready to return to the solstice that is Arequipa. (Small note: I (Jake) did find some cheap and amazing shoes which the porters from the Inca trail wear called Walons, which I wear with pride as I type, so not all bad!)
Rach:
Unfortunately, upon our return to Arequipa, we found that our cash card had been stolen while we were in Mollendo by some inbred swine, which meant we spent the next couple of days in Arequipa living on a tight budget and eating only burgers and chips
from Johnny Cayotes.
Eventually we decided that the best idea would be to move on while we were waiting for our money to transfer and booked a night-bus to La Paz, in Bolivia, for the next night. We passed the hours of the following day before our departure sitting in an Irish bar playing Jenga and Scrabble and more than a few games of Hazza! (a game of cards we have gotten very good, and competitive, at since being away). We were also lucky enough to stumble upon a Christian rock band while wandering around the city that evening, which got Jake all excited and he had a little sing and dance. (God rocks out - J)
So we finally left Peru and headed for Bolivia (which worried us slightly for Jake´s fragile disposition as it is at a higher altiude than most of Peru), leaving the lovely Christian colonial city behind us. Stay tuned over the next couple of days to read all about our travels in our second country, Bolivia!
Rizzo and the J man x
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JenJen
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Lofty Heights
Yay! I was becoming slightly concerned that your brain may have imploded due to your altitude aversion! This is a much more reassuring blog than 'the withered maid'!! I hear you're coming home to an award... I guess you proof read your dissertation far better than you proof read your blog! HAHA Sis xx