16 hours on a bus to Arequipa

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On Friday night, I left Lima at night and headed to "the white city" of Arequipa. Originally I had planned to travel through the highlands of Peru to get to Cuzco where I would take off on the Inca Trail for Machu Piccu, but the highways and bus times redirected my travels to a southern coast town of Arequipa, which earned it´s nickname from the many buildings constructed from a rare volcanic rock that is white.

The bus ride from Lima took 16 hours... yup, that´s right, 16 hours. We decided to take 2nd class, which wasn´t bad until we realized that the air conditioning wasn´t working as we drove through the desert. I usually like it really hot, but even i was sweating up a storm. Yick! We played a weird version of bingo to help pass the time and that really helped me practice my numbers in spanish, although I know i missed a million numbers translating for Jay. Grrrr! Then I watched an argentinian movie called Valentin which was very good -- at least the 75% that I actually understood was very good. I´m sure I would have liked it even more if I had gotten the whole thing. hehe.

The only good thing about 16 hour bus rides is being able to digest the previous couple days and reflect on the things you´ve seen. It also is a good time to think about other things going on in my life... But to answer your question, no, I still don´t know what I am going to do when i get back. hehe.

After being in the moving sauna, I arrived in Arequipa and decided to leave that same night on another overnight bus to Cuzco instead of spending two days in Arequipa. Trust me, i was not excited for another long bus ride, but although Arequipa is insteresting, it wasn´t two days worth of stuff to do interesting.

The city is a perfect balance of old colonial structures and a modern population. The buildings in the Plaza de Armas are several centuries old and have that grand posture that only comes with colonial arrogance. The cathedral was beautiful but not breathtaking although still worth a visit. Overall, I really enjoyed the city and it´s atmosphere. We had coffee overlooking the plaza while a traditional Incan music group played in the background. The people were friendly, but not overly so and walking around just felt comfortable and relaxing.

After spending the day in town, we headed back to the terrapuerto to catch our overnight bus to Cuzco.

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Photos

Plaza de Armas
View of the main plaza in Arequipa from the cafe overlooking it all.

Music
Group playing traditional Incan music...

Comments

[Rob]

thanks for the update!
Fisher I am following along your trip on Google Earth. Arequipa looks fascinating from space! Glad your trip is going well, hope the next bus ride is cooler. Cheers, Rob

[Kelly]

missing you
This is the first time I looked at your travel blog and I am jealous already:) I hope you have a great time and I will be reading along with you from now on. Can't wait to see you when you get back.

[jenny]

yup, really commenting on everything
i would not survive a 16 hour busride without air conditioning. unless there were heavy drugs involved...LEGAL prescription drugs of COURSE