Arequipa - Byker Grove without Jeff keeping order

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So, after the floating islands we caught a bus to Arequipa, Peru's second largest city. We sadly caught a local bus, it was awful, Peruvians are crazy. Everytime the bus stopped, loads of locals would run on trying to sell you allsorts from clothes to food, stinking food, and the passengers would go mental and start stamping their feet and banging the windows. The bus actually broke down in the middle of nowhere and it seemed for a minute there was gonna be a mass riot. I was still feeling ropey from the food poisoning and just wanted to get there. Eventually we did at about 9pm, and checked into a hostel. It looked nice enough, but it turned out to be one of these Party Hostels. Now, as you know, i like a drink, and as you probably gather from the blogs, a like a lot of drinks, but once you get back to the Hostel you should be able to chill out. This place was like Byker Grove gone mad. There were about 20 people staying there, all 18, all been there for 3 weeks!!!!!!!! There days consist of sleeping in the hostel, drinking in the hostel all night, sleeping in the hostel all day, and so on. What a great way to see South America.

Anyway, after a beer, still wasn't feeling great so we had an early one. We were in a 6 dorm but everyone else was in the bar. They played the loudest Techno music imaginable till 5am, and random drunk idiots kept walking into the dorm shouting about how crazy they were and how drunk they were. i politely told them to keep the noise down, or something aong those words. Never stayed in a place like it, worst hostel i've ever seen!

Promptly checked out in the morning and went to see the Ice Mummy. A preserved girl from years ago who was murdered and left for the mountain gods. It's really important, and a lot is made of it, but visiting the museum, they basically took a young girl, dragged her up a mountain in the freezing cold then murdered her for the Mountain God. Seems a bit out of order to me!!

Later we found a really nice place in the centre of town, for half the price. Matt's mate from home was flying in for 2 weeks so we thought she'd appreciate somewhere a little quieter. His mate arrived and we had some of Peru's finest champagne on our roof terrace overlooking the town and the volcano's. We ate on a roof top restaurant overlooking the square, Arequipa is a stunning place, the main square is amazing. We opted for the local speciality, whole Guinnea Pig. It came with teeth, claws, the lot. It tasted ok, but there was no meat on it, so was a bit of a nightmare. Had a few beers, but everything was quiet, so headed back.

Up bright and early as we wanted to find a good tour to visit Colca Canyon, worlds second deepest canyon (the deepest is next to it, but no one goes there). We also wanted to book a good bus to Cusco, no more messing with these local jobbies, luxury all the way. Sadly VIP class was sold out, but second class is more than good enough. We also had a good look around town, it's stunning, lots of rooftop bars offering great views, so we took advantage. Later, City were on live so found the only place showing it, sadly an Irish bar, it always is, and settled in for a masterful performance. The match also had the worlds best commentator by far. When Tevez scored he went crazy.. Gooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllll, nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah, whooaaaaaaaaaaahh Carlos Tevez. We thought this was a one off, but when Petrov scored he had a full song about him to the tune of Just one corneto. The man was a genius!

We ate at Peru's finest Woodfired pizzeria that night, not sure about that claim, it was decent, and they did have anchovies, which is always a plus. Relatively quiet night as the trip to Colca canyon was starting the next day very early.

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