Hermosa Arequipa

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Hi again,

We´ve found ourselves in an internet cafe yet again. They are cheap to use here, only 1 sol (around 30 cents) an hour. The only problem is connection speed... the photos upload slowly. But it gives us time to update the travel blog!

We are staying in a wonderful hostal called Casa de Jael here. Two women run the place and live there too. They share their kitchen and living room with the guests. The hostal is upstairs on a busy street and it´s not fancy, but very homey. The kitchen has a small gas stove, a three person table, some plastic stools, and a cabinet. The women shared their dishes with us last night, so we shared our soup and chatted with them. There is an Irish man staying in our hostal who talked to us a lot last night too. He travels all over the world and had some interesting stories.

The presidential elections here were Sunday, and Alan García won. He is the one whose rally we attended in Lima. He seems like he will make a good president, but we are a bit concerned because they say the south voted in great percentages for the other candidate, Ollanta Humala. The south of Perú (where we are now) is the poorest part of the country, and has the most indigenous peoples.

Today Mariel has a Spanish lesson, and Ben will try to find a Quechua lesson. Quechua is an indigenous language spoken around Perú, and especially in Bolivia. We are both coming along well in our respective languages, but could use more practice.

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