Having a forgetful moment...

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Tuesday 11 March
Hmm, bus journey nowhere near as nice as the other one. We're not under-way until 1am, by which time everyone is nearly falling off their chairs (Although fortunately there is some English TV to watch whilst waiting). We're allocated seats, recline and doze off (I wouldn't go so far as to say sleep), until 630am, when all the lights go up and some 'delightful' music starts. We still have another long 3.5 hours to go, which is 'filled' with 'breakfast', music, and watching Mark chat to Cecialia (a Peruvian) using my phrase book. Finally, around 10am we arrive in Arequipa. We have to scramble over rubble to find Hostal Solar (road being dug up), but once inside first impressions are good. Made even better once allocated rooms with nice views, and HOT water (not necessarily had this so far). Had a shower, then we all faffed around for a while as it's a 'free' day, whilst waiting for Rod to tell us the next meet up time. Put my 5kg of washing into the hotel (cheap and apparently reliable) - pretty much everything I have! About 12ish, arrange to meet Linda, Anna and Shilpa to go to some museums - find everyone waiting to go lunch - already had mine, so join Kal and Anna and we head off for some of the sights on the map.

First stop, an ATM (this becomes more significant later), then into the convent, which turns out to be an 'Artesan' shopping centre, aka a million Alpaca shops, but also some interesting architecture/view from the top. Next, we find ice-cream. We all go a bit random. Kal's luck is off and he gets 2 disgusting flavours. I get one good/one bad, and Anna gets one OK. The Cathedral is highly rated in the guidebooks, so we find our way into there. Spectacular outside, beautiful inside, a beautiful organ and some rather scary icons. Next stop, the Museum to see Juanita (a 5000 year old mummy), but she's in cold storage and we have to leave everything at the desk so we decide we're not that bothered and find our way to the convent the others we bumped into had been at. 30 Soles to enter ( a lot for Peru), but we think we get good value for money as we spend a good couples of hours there - plenty to see, a complete maze, and some interesting information. Next we take a look at the outside of another church, decide don't want to see inside, go back to where found some cloth badges to barter, not good enough price. Back to hotel, via the lovely bakery. Enough time to rest before guide comes to talk to us about next couple of days. She gives us lots of information, then we head to the local restaurant where go for something light, but local... Stuffed pepper (bread/fruit galore already today), but Kal goes for the Guinea Pig - famous local specialty. Nice meal, get to try the Guinea Pig. Tastes OK (not really like chicken!) - bit like leaner version of duck maybe. Not a lot of meat on it though and Kal finds the grease it's been cooked in a bit heavy. As no ATM where we're going (Colca Canyon), go to get some more funds. Is at this point that I realise I left my card in here earlier (can only really blame it on sleep deprivation/a different system). Panic a bit, but had thankfully written down the number for the bank. After unsucessfully trying to get Anna's card to work, go back to hotel where ring and get my card cancelled. She says not to worry, all cancelled, and any transactions I didn't make will go into a fraud system, so I'll have to keep an eye on my account. A pain as this was my fee-free Nationwide card, and the only other one I have is my Barclays (definitely not foreign fee-free), which has no money in it at the moment. Anyway, everyone is a real support and go to bed to prepare for another day on the bus tomorrow.

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