http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Peru , Arequipa , Arequipa en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:04:53 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:04:53 BST Isnt it funny how a taxi driver is happy to rip you off but you try to do the same then hell breaks loose.After getting to the central square at 5am being told by the Lonely Planet that a coffee shop would be open I decided to get a taxi back to the station to get the fuck out of dodge.TranslatedMe Good morning sir. Tereste bus station please.Driver Good morning sir. Si no problem.Me H http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-303787.html So 2 days ago we went to scout out information about climbing el misti for ourselves and found it was very difficult and the guy in the travel shop was a really good salesman and sold us a 2 day expedition for 170 soles 35 quid. We got up at 7 yesterday to meet the guide at 8 more like 9 as with everything in peru and he gave us more warm clothes and camping gear. We got a jeep from arequip http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-302251.html Uno mas por esta nocheAfter dining on a cup of coffee at my 1000 dinner tonight I have found myself incapable of containing my blogging. Damn that stuff is strong down here. Its good because my blog needs catching up.We got on our bus from Copacabana with only 4 people. It was only 75 bs less than 10. We met a nice couple. The guy was from brazil a week or so earlier and had his bag stol http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-301682.html Arrived in lima on monday late after a horrible 36 hours non stop travelling. Miami airport was a nightmare but managed ok despite long delays at customs. Stayed one night in the hostel with ben liz and some crazy columbian political activist. Not keen on lima so we left the next day. Got a bus to ICA then taxi to Huancachina. This is an oasis in the middle of the desert where we went sandb http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-301225.html Arequipa is a lovely town in the middle of Peru at a fairly high altitude about 2500m above sea level which meant we had our first taste of travel at high altitute. At that point we just felt a little more tired than usual and had a wee headache fixed by drinking lots of water. Unless we had read up on it we would have just put the symptoms down to general travel tiredness.We had two major s http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-301134.html I luuuurve ArequipaAfter the slightly unpleasant start in my grotty hostel I now think this place is amazing. It's a beautiful city surrounded by mountains mostly built of white stone rock with lots of wrought iron on gates and windows. If you wander off the main streets you regularly find yourself in a quiet courtyard with stunning architecture fountains etc.Plus the weather is great. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-300555.html On our return to Puno from the islands tour yesterday I arranged with Miho that we would take the bus down to Arequipa together. I'm pleased we did as we arrived late at night and it's much more comfortable with 2.The bus journey was meant to take around 5 hours but in reality took 7 so we arrived here at around 11.30pm. Miho's Spanish is much better than mine so she took on the organising rol http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-300073.html The journey from Puno to Arequipa only took 5 12 hours through some cool scenery the Peruvian altiplano. You'd think that such a short amount of time would fly by but the toilet on the bus was locked and we didn't make a single toilet stop. When we finally arrived in Arequipa the whole bus piled off pretty quickArequipa feels like we have entered civilisation for the first time in a long time http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-298159.html We got picked up from Nazca at 11.15pm on the Thursday 3rd July. We had an overnight bus journey to Arequipa which took about 9 hours. I was dreading it as even with a slightly reclining seat i never get a good sleep on a coach. I have awful memories from the coach trip to France which took 24 hours I was very surprised when we got on the coach the chairs were like business class on a plane Th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-297640.html Hello again allIve been told that Im leaving this too long so here I am Ill make it a long oneOk so my news...Ill start with the 1st of July. It was the oldest girl at the orphanages birthday. She is Sonya the tia who takes care of the babies daughter so shes not actually an orphan but shes a really great kid. She turned 10. They really do birtdays big for the kids which is sweet. They d http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-297633.html hola todoscomo estas me ... bien graciasso i have finished my two weeks at chacani school what an amazing experience. quite sad to leave so many great kids and great people we were working with will deffinanatly be back one day. two nights ago there was a big earthquake 6 on the rictor scale the bigest one here for 5 years. i woke up at 4.15am with my bed jumping up and down scary stuff it http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-297539.html JakeFirstly sincere apologies for the long delay between blogs. We are currently a long way from Arequipa but were moving a long way in a very short space of time Heres the first of a series of updatesHaving literally run like screaming little school girls away from the family in the last blog we arrived via nightbus at the whitewashed city of Arequipa. The relief from altitude was comparabl http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-296718.html Well its 430 in the morning and I should probably be sleeping but I have to be up in a little over an hour to head out on my Colca Canyon trek. At this point it feels silly to even try to sleep Id probably just snooze right through my alarm anyway. Im still fighting off the tail end of a cold so I really should be getting my sleep but at the same time I leave for the trek Im also moving ou http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-296363.html Things are going pretty well where Im volunteering at the orphanage. Weve been trying to find things to do to keep the kids entertained. Idle hands are the devils handiwork might have never been a more true statement than it is at the orphanage. Everything we try to do is complete chaos but mostly fun nonetheless. The main task that Ive been given to work on with the kids is homework. The http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-296283.html Pretty much the best decision Ive made in a long time is to stay put in one place for awhile during my summer travels. I love traveling obviously or I wouldnt do it so much but sometimes being on the move just really wears me out. Which is why staying here in Arequipa for over half my trip this year was a brilliant move. So lets talk about Arequipa. So far I love it. Its the second bigg http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-296253.html Day 1 Cuy and MeThere was no hiding what it was. The little splayed feet the white incisors even remnants of the whiskers. It was staring me down over the accompanying papas fritas. Yes I was going to be eating a cuy. A guinea pig to norteamericanos. I tried not to think of my living toupe of a childhood pet Pepper. But I am in Peru so I had to try it...and you know it wasn't too b http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-294980.html Well I am back in Peru. Which in and of itself is pretty exciting. This trip is extra special though because I am taking 3 of my 6 weeks of travel to volunteer in an orphanage. I am doing it through an organization called Traveller not Tourist TNT. I will write more about them at another time Im reserving judgment anyway. The first part of my trip was so much like last year it was almost http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-294455.html hello allive had a great few days since i last blogged.working at the school is really tiring but its great fun we have been working with two american girls and a guy from belgium but the girls have now finished so we are down to 3 people.there is a great scoial calender for the volunteers and they always try and arrange us somingto do at night. last night we all went go carting which was somuc http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-292448.html HolaViens de passer 4 jours a Arequipa. Le paysage est moin beau qu a Huaraz mais on a quand meme fait des trucs bien sympa. On a fait le museo Santury ou on a vu Juanita la mommie de glace d une fille de 13 ans qui a ete sacrifie par les Incas. Le monastere de Santa Catalina vraiment magnifique Monasterio de la recoleta et le museo de arte de Santa Teresa.Le plus beau et le le plus impressio http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-292144.html Wow its been a long time my apologiseWell what has happened in the past 10 days Thats a good question...time kinda flys here Well on saturday the 21st we took the kids to the park to try and give the tias some spaca after Marisellas death. Not all of the kids came because a lot of them have been really sick and in hospital because of the flu. But it was a good day we picked them up at about 11 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-292125.html hello we are back in my favourite city Arequipa and it looks like we are set to stay for a while.our beloved stefan left us a couple of days ago and so me and pete left cusco for arequipa with the intention of traveling onto chile. however being so tired we decided to stop a day or 2 in arequipa and meet up with our friend dennis who we met last time. we went to the supermarket the next morning a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-291256.html Will write more when i have more time. Went to Arequipa and Colca Canyon. Enjoy. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-291204.html Okay...so where did I leave off Oh with being robbed. Yeah annoying. But everything is working out fine. I got my new debit card today so I now have access to money again which is good. Now I just have to worry about replacing the other replaceable stuff that was in my wallet. They managed to get away with about 150USD my debit card my license my work ID my international calling c http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-291039.html hola everybody this is our final week in peru and were in arequipa mostly just hanging out. we did go on a 2 day trip to colca canyon which claims to be the deepest in the world. this trip once again involved very very early mornings but was worth it none the less. we tried bbqd alpaca visited chivay a town whose name translates literaly to the town of love... eyebrow twitches were libera http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-290467.html Day Five Overnight bus to Arequipa Another big city. Thankfully the first one I have actually liked in South America to date. Like Cuenca it has gorgeous architecture sewn up. Unlike Cuenca the buildings actually feels South American rather than European being largely composed of pink volcanic rock and featuring Inca stylings. On my first evening I met a new friend who charged himself with show http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-290353.html Apres les efforts de la randonnee au pays des Incas nous sommes alles a Arequipa. Apparemment la ville doit son nom a un des cefs Incas qui decida de srreter pour etablir un campement et dit a ses gens ari quipa ici nous restons ou quelquechose comme ca.A Arequipa on est alles visiter le musee qui renferme un corps congele dune adolescente offerte en sacrifice aux dieux Incas il y a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-290081.html Well Ted and I are flying to Lima at about 3 pm today for our last leg of this journey. We spent yesterday shopping for souveniers and hanging out at the mall. We went to a movie the one with Cameron Diaz Ashton Kutcher. I liked it Ted thought it was a chick flick. Listening to a little Air Supply at the internet cafe. And I thought that I was the only Air Supply fan left in this world http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-290018.html We arrived in Arequipa feeling a bit jaded having finished the Inca trail followed by a couple of days travelling. It seemed like a good idea therefore to upgrade and treat ourselves to some nicer accommodation. So we checked into 'La Casa de mi Abuela' and we weren't disappointed. It's a fantastic place with huge gardens with hammocks and loungers to chill out in a lovely pool surrounded by s http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-290001.html written by Hollywell where to start we havent been very good at this whole 'keeping the blog updated thing' so i'll recap breifly to let you know where we've been...after Potos we headed to Sucre where we spent a lazy week 'learning Spanish' and making friends. in the 6 days we were there i think we visited one museum of warfare the Israeli guy we went with Kafir got very scared when o http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-289414.html Finally a trouble free comfortable bus and we arrived in Arequipa on time at 6.30am. With the tight schedule that we had given ourselves you can be forgiven to think we were on a 2 week holiday. So with 3 days and 2 nights we had to squash in a 2 days tour of Colca Canyon before we were due to catch another overnight bus to Lima.First stop was to visit a number of tour agencies to find out prices http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-289401.html