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Published: August 14th 2013
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13 Aug Day 1: Lima to Arequipa
Well where do I start? It seems everyone had much of a normal night of sleep. I woke up during the and couldn't get back to sleep for some time - not that that is normal. Everyone was up and about early with breakfast at 8:00am. All except for pen that is. He was quite ill after last night so back to cargo for him. He was warned so no sympathy.
Our transport arrived just before 9:30am to take us to the airport for our flight to Arequipa (the QU is pronounced K). It was Jorge again. Nice bloke but doesn't say much. Probably just thinks "bloody" tourists. The ride back to the airport was again interesting but we were able to see the perils in the daylight. However, now that we know what all the horn honking and flashing of lights is about its not near as bad - its just the way people drive here. In fact it's quite amazing, virtually no-one uses blinkers and no-one seems to get road rage even when some-one does something really stupid. As Don said, they probably don't let it get to them
Run Green Man Run
The lights actually have a countdown for both the red and the green. As the countdown gets closer to zero the little green Man starts to run faster. If the green Man runs fast so do you. because they know they'll do some-thing dumb in the next kilometre or two.
The White City of Arequipa is reputed to be the most beautiful city in Peru - a kind of Seville at the foot of a snow-capped volcano! We were met at the airport and taken to our hotel (Posada Castillo Hotel). The hotel is amazing. Its an old style building in the Spanish style.
Arequipa is a city of nearly 850,000 people but it doesn't feel like it. It is at an altitude of more than 2,300m, has an average of 300 days of sunshine a year and relatively low humidity. The wet season is December to March which explains why it is so arid. It also has one of the highest levels of solar radiation in South America and is the highest in Peru. Climactic conditions are due mostly to Geographical conditions being ringed by mountains and is influenced by its proximity to the Atacama desert.For a city this size the airport is minimal and you don't even realise the terminal is a tin shed because the airport is between the city and the volcano and it just takes you're breath away - or is
Peru Airlines
Absolutely fantastic logo that the altitude? We were met again at the airport. I didn't catch the driver's name as I was too distracted by the cheeky bugger who must have seen our name being held on the board, came to fetch us and take our luggage and of course wanted a tip for his troubles. Anyway back to the driver, didn't speak a word of English but managed to keep us in stitches the whole ride into Arequipa.
The rest of the day was free to rest or to visit some of the fantastic sights in Arequipa such as the monastery of Santa Catalina. We didn't rest, went for a walk to Plaza Armas. The buildings are superb and the colours have to be seen to be believed. I used a lot of digital film today. What makes it more amazing is that its like a desert, although not part of the desert and the city is dominated by the volcano. We thought about going to the summit but it turns out to be a two day hike. Unfortunately we don't have that much time so tomorrow we are going on a four hour bus tour of the city and countryside
- let's hope we don't end up like Gilligan. What we did this afternoon was really only a half hour walk from where we are staying so the bus tour is the only way will have a chance to see more than a faction of whats on offer. But I can't help just being in awe of the volcano.
As for pen he has the makings of a real tart. He dumped Koala for a Lama.
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Arnie
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haha Pen... party animal