Today I ate a scabby dead dog (possibly)

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Last night I caught the overnight bus from Nazca to Arequipa, the bus left at 10.30 pm. I got my blanket and pillow and put my seat back hoping to get some kip. NADA. The only snorer on the bus was positioned in the seats opposite mine, and my god did he snore. Managed to sleep for a little while but was awake for the whole journey more or less! Luckily they brought round coca leaf tea in the morning and that sorted me right out! I was starving aswell so was well chuffed when they bought round sandwiches too, till i realised they had ham on them! Unfortunately id left my bag in the bus station with all my wash stuff in yesterday so had to have a cold shower for the 2nd day running so by the time i arrived in arequipa all i wanted was a hot shower. I went to a few tour agencies and booked on a trek to colca canyon which is the second biggest in the world and you go there to watch the condors. They booked my bus ticket to my next destination- another shitty overnightbus) They also recommended a hostal and put me in a taxi. I got in the room and had the longest shower in my life... it was great. The water in peru is wierd if you put hot water on you have to be patient... and i mean patient. 5 mins the shower was running before hot water came out but when it did it bloody did and it was great!

I then thought I would go and have a wander and get something to eat because iv not really eaten properly since getting here apart from my spagetti vegetarianos... now this probably goes without saying for most people but if your in a strange country, make sure you know the address of the place your staying, have a map or at least remember which direction you came from! Me i did not... just trotted out of the place walked around the city then thought... ooooohhhh shit

Couldnt remember the name of the place, didnt have a bleeding clue where it was so i walked and i walked and i walked and i walked! After a few hours of probably going round and round in circles i had an epiphany, when I got there I took a picture of the mountains from the roof terrace, so i looked at the picture and was trying to find some points that would give a clue as to my location. Great, there was a massive mast line a phone mast, so i figure if i find the mast i can more or less figure out where i need to be, what i didnt take in to accound was the fact there is not one mast in Arequipa, theres not 2 theres probably 102. So i walked and I walked, I walked through a market that was selling coca leaves and marajuana I got out of there pretty sharpìsh! Apparently its legal to smoke pot over here... madness.

Anyway after a life time of walking i was just about to get a taxi back to tour company at the bus station when I found it! I was so relieved! i set off at 9 am it was now 2pm i only wanted to get something to eat but instead was now really starving, dehydrated, sun burnt and I had blisters... just what you want when your going treking at 3am the next morning.

So I turned right out of the hostal and bugger me if the building next door wasnt a bleeding sandwich shop! So I go in practically drooling because im about to get fed... ´sandwich vegetarianos´i say ´si´the nice lady says takes my 2 soles and promptly gives me a fucking sausage sandwich!

GIVE ME A BREAKKKKKKK

So I walk in the other direction... in a straight line i might add so i dont get lost (fool proof plan) I come across a restauraunt that outside says menu vegetarianos... i went in pointed at the board andhe sits me down... finally i was going to be fed! No one in there spoke english but from what i gathered there was a choice of 2 things for starter, main and desert. The menu being in Spanish I of course had no bleeding idea what i was ordering. ´that one, that one and that one´ i said trying to sound like i knew what i was ordering. Within 2 mins I had the biggest bowl of soup on my table and a salad, i assumed soup starter and salad possibly main. I dont know what was in the soup but it was delicious . There was too much so i only had half, from what iv seen they have massive portions here. Then I started to eat the salad, he then came over with a massive plate of rice, really mushy, mushy peas and something that looked suspiciously like meat! But I´ve ordered from vegatarian menu so surely it must be tofu or something right? Well i threw caution to the wind and I gave it a go, i have no idea what it was to be fair weather it was meat or not... i came to the conclusion it was probably a scabby dead dog they just killed to feed to the gringo... who knows. Then desert was yougurt and warm watery pineapple juice. I was going to take a picture of the amount of food i was given but throught it a bit rude, trust me though there was loads!

Talking about dogs, there are dogs everywhere. No cats hardly though. The dogs do what our cats do at home they roam the streets and fend for theirselves, they´re really streetwise though (apart from the three dead ones i saw on the side of the road) but in general they are, today i saw a dog look both ways wait for the traffic to clear he then had a poo in the middle of the road then crossed back the the pavement- amazing.

After my dinner i went back out for a walk and found the nice area which the cathederal and colonial buildings, its a lovely city against the backdrop of snowcapped mountains (even if the view is obscured by phonemasts).

Going to get some sleep now as up and out at 3 am!

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