Blogs from Arequipa, Arequipa, Peru, South America - page 43

Well, went to Chile on Monday to cross the frontier from Peru to renew my visa for another 90 days. I have to say, this experience was less exciting than crossing the border at Bolivia, but nonetheless, I had a good time. We left Arequipa at 7am and arrived in Tacna (a more southernly city in Peru) where we managed to get a taxi directly over the border to Arica, Chile within minutes. It costs buttons to do it like this and the taxi drivers are very helpful when you get to the border control cause the officials can be bitches sometimes! Anyway, cost about $5 each to make this trip (half that for pounds). Was crazy caus Wayra is Peruvian, they asked him loads of questions at the Chilean border and then only gave him ... read more

Here are continued journey through Peru After the Bush camp , Paracas Island with the sealions and penguins. Then the sandboarding in Puerto Inca . Nazca Flight and the Nazca lines . On the road repairs - tyre change on way to Arequipa .....then the Santa Catolina monastery in Arequipa. ... read more

Well its been a very busy and exhausting time since I last wrote about the trip so I´ll do my best to fill you in on what´s been happening. We arrived in Arequipa on Saturday 17th, having travelled from Puerto Inca. Arequipa is a beautiful town built out of white volcanic rock (it is surrounded by at least three volcanoes) and considers itself to be very independent from Lima. The two principal highlights of Arequipa were Juanita, the Ice Princess (sounds vaguely like something channel five would show) and the Monasterio de Santa Catalina. Juanita was an Inca child (about 14) who was sacrificed on the summit of Ampato (6288m) 500 years ago and whose remains (including skin) and belongings were preserved in the snow. Its quite eery looking at her in the museum. The monestry ... read more

Arrived in Arequipa We arrived in the lovely White City of Arequipa, Ricardo´s home town. We checked into a great hotel and had a buffet breakfast where Rach got excited because they had a cereal that tasted like Sugar Puffs and cold leche! Ricardo gave us a quick tour of the city and then Margarita joined us to visit Santa Catalina. This convent is like a mini city in itself and previously housed 2000 nuns. We spent the afternoon wandering around the cloisters, chapels and rooms, which seemed relatively well furnished for nuns back in those days. It was really too big to appreciate as we were all feeling rather tired from the last two days and we we were wandering around at altitude again. Little did Rachel realise, the reason she was feeling so weak ... read more

Tuesday 13th November So following the overnight bus from Nazca, arriving at 7am, we hopped into a taxi and were whisked away to our hostel. Prior to arrival we faced the usual patter from the taxi driver that our hostel was no good. This a common ploy of South Amercian taxi drivers as they usually earn commission if they take you to a hotel that they work for. We were having none of it. Having done our research, we were happy with our choice and decided to see what it was like. On hindsight, it was very good with all staff being very accomodating. It was very close to all major Arequipa attractions. For fellow travellers, the hostel we stayed at was the Los Torres de Ugarte. We were starving after our long bus trip so ... read more